Kevin Rushing

Romeo Dallaire

Romeo Dallaire was born in Denekamp, The Netherlands to Sergeant Romeo Louise Dallaire and Catherine Vermeassen. He spent his childhood in Montreal. He enrolled in the Canadian Army in 1964, as a cadet at Le College militaire royal de Saint Jean.1 In 1969 he graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. He also attended the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College, the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the British Higher Command and Staff Course.2 On July 3, 1989 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. He then commanded the 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.3 Following Rwanda, Dallaire was made an officer of the Legion of Merit of the United States, which is the highest military decoration for foreigners to the United States.

In 1993 Dallaire was commissioned to the position of Force Commander of UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda).5 Rwanda had just endured several years of bloody war and the UNAMIR’s job was to ensure the transfer of peace to the new Rwandan government. It was Dallaire’s to try and maintain peace between the two ehtnic groups, the Tutsis and the Hutus. As soon as he arrived in Rwanda, Dallaire planted a giant UN flag into the ground, because he wanted it to be a symbol of unity of all the signers of the agreement over Rwanda and to let the Rwandans know that the international community was here to stay and do a good job with their country.6 The flag ceremony was turned into a big festival for both parties of Rwandans and it was “a great moment” says Dallaire. Following the evening of the the flag ceremony, five families on five different sites of Rwanda were killed. The RPF was blamed for the crimes, but Dallaire rationalized and said that it was very unlikely that the RPF could have done this, and this led to an investigation. The investigation, however, never ended and even though Dallaire was leading the investigation, he did not have the legal support, so there was no resolution. The extremists said that this was a sign of weakness not only for Dallaire, but also for the UN. They also accused Dallaire of siding with the RPF, because he had said that there was no way they could have committed the crime.

Dallaire says that he now knows that the genocide was planned out and it was being planned when he first arrived in Rwanda this is an explanation to why it took the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) so long to stop the genocide.9 He knew that it was not going to be a classic Chapter VI, where both sides of the are totally committed to the peace agreement and want to stop fighting completely, because there were a growing amount of militia groups and youth movement becoming more abundant in Rwanda.10 The tone of goodwill that started when they first arrived was turning into an unstable enviroment, which only meant what lay ahead could not be much better. By New Years Eve, Dallaire was spending most of his time “fighting for batteries and flashlights, just the most simple of requirements”.11 There seemed to be no hope for either a political or military breakthrough. He heard rumors of killing groups and murders, but they were not able to confirm anything. Being on a Chapter VI, it was his responsibility to keep peace between the two groups and respond to what each side was telling them on their patrolling, but the problem was he had no intelliegence capability, so he could not conduct any covert operations, and the only thing he had to rely on was his ability to monitor and the good will of each side”.12 Even if there were militia groups and extremists committing genocide, there was no way that he could get involved unless he had hard concrete evidence, and that was something he did not have. Finally, on January 11th an informant from an extremist group came to Dallaire and his men and told them of how all these groups were not only present, but they were ruining the peace between the two ethnic groups.13 They had plans to act out the some very evil deeds that included “attacking not only Tutsis, but also the whole attitude or philosophy of reconciliation between the two different ethnic groups that had been going on for a while”.14 Dallaire and his men began to have meetings with this informant and they were able to gain enough information that they could finally take action on the Hutu extremists. Dallaire quotes “If I could destabilize any of the hidden covert planning and operations that was trying to destroy the peace agreement, if I could get at the extremists and prove to them that I was onto them, and that not only was I onto them, I was taking action to curtail their operations, then I would regain the initiative.”15 Dallaire took immediate action and sent a fax to General Maurice Baril informing him of what news and information he had gained from the informant. When he sent the fax he signed it with his old high school motto “peux ce veux” which translates to “you can do what you want”, because he was so convinced and determined to get the operation going, because it meant that they were finally going to find out who the third party, who was a threat and a group of extremists, was and move toward keeping peace between the two ethnic groups.16 Then, the fax came back informing Dallaire to cease and back off, because it was completely out of his mandate to do so. If Dallaire did not back off the UN would be forced to review the mission of peace and the country’s agreement to the peace treaty. When asked how he responded to the fax in the morning, Dallaire says, “Well, being a French Canadian, I was quite expressive. I was swearing to beat the band. I was mad, nearly beyond self-control. I couldn't believe what I got. In fact, the first emotion was like, this is treason. My superiors have turned against me. They have not grasped what was going on.”17 Dallaire tried to undergo operations against these extremists, but he was required to inform the Rwanda Security Council, and in doing this he was afraid that the extremist group leaders would find out about his plans.18 In early February, Dallaire met with RPF commander, Paul Kagame. They both discussed that something had to be done soon, and Kagame expressed to General Dallaire that someone had to win and it was either the government or the RPF, and Dallaire saw this as a threat to use force.19 In late March, a French Aircraft loaded with ammunition and weapons for the FAR (Rwandan Armed Forces) landed Kigali a couple of weeks before the beginning of the genocide, and Dallaire seized it under his UN mandate. The Chief of Staff for the Rwandan army, however, told him that the UN did not have the right to take the weapons, because they had been ordered before the peace and cease fire agreement. Dallaire had no power to take the weapons, and on the night of April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down over Kigali.20 Following the plane crash, Hutu extremists, with the help of the Rwandan government began to execute vast amounts of Tutsis and many electerd officials of the new government and the Rwandan genocide began. Dallaire sent ten Belgian soldiers to go and protect the prime minister, Agathe Unwilingiyimana, but the soldiers wer intercepted by Hutu extremists and taken hostage.21 Shortly after this, the prime minister and his wifer were murdered,and the Belgian soldiers were also found brutally murdered. Belgium was very angry with Dallaire for putting their soldiers in danger and withdrew all troops from Rwanda. Dallaire, seeing the situation deteriorating rapidly, pleaded for logistical support and reinforcements of 2,000 soldiers for UNAMIR.22 The UN security council, however, refused to send in more troops and it voted to the cut the UNAMIR down to only 260 men.23 Following the UN’s actions, Dallaire consolidated his contingent of Ghanasian, Tunisian, and Bangladeshi soldiers in urban areas and focused on providing areas a “safe control”, and for this he is credited with directly saving the lives of 20,000 Tutsis.24 In the midst of all the killings and genocide, General Dallaire still found time to hold “prayers” in the morning and the evening with all his men. These “prayers” were a way to review the day and figure out what everyone needed to accomplish for the next day. He tried to communicate to the media how horrible the genocide was, but did not really see much so it was hard to explain.25 He found it interesting “that ABC, CBS and NBC in the United States put more air time to Tanya Harding trying to kneecap her competition than they did to the genocide, all going on at the same time”.26 He was very angry at the United States, because it did very little to help the cause in Rwanda, and said that Bill Clinton lies when he says that he didn’t know the situation was that extreme.

After Rwanda, Dallaire was seen in the public eye as a hero and a very proud general, however, this was very far from how General Dallaire really felt. Romeo began to blame himself for everything that happened in Rwanda. He was haunted with the question from RPF commander Paul Kagame, “Why didn’t you do more?”.27 He sank deep into depression and despair and ultimately became suicidal. He was also haunted by the thought of the ten Belgian soldiers that he sent to protect the prime minister, because he had been publically blamed and humiliated by the Belgium government for his actions. Dallaire wanted to save those soldiers and rescue them from their imprisonment, but he did not have the appropriate resources to get them out and it would have compromised the entire peace mission in Rwanda.28 This caused Belgium to pull out of Rwanda, and they were an important power for Dallaire to succeed. When Belgium pulled out Rwanda they convinced many other nations to pull out of the war, but Dallaire was determined to stay in Rwanda no matter what. He talked to Ghanaian General Henry Anyidoho after the UN had cut the number of troops and asked him what he thought about it and he responded “We've not failed and we're not going to leave. We should stay.”29 That was all the inspiration that Dallaire needed and he was ready to stay. He said in a interview “Henry, we're staying, we're not going to run, we're not going to abandon the mission, and we will not be held in history as being accountable for the abandonment of the Rwandan people." It was just morally corrupt to do that.”30 It is because of this moral conscience and decision that he was able to save the lives of over 20,000 Tutsis and help to bring peace back to Rwanda.