Can One Person Make a Difference? - A Review of the Documentary "Shake Hands with the Devil"By George M. Connelly, Jr.
Can One Person Make a Difference?
A Review of the Documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, directed by Peter Raymont.
By: George M. Connelly, Jr.
On the vast and growing realm of international relations and in the inter-dependent and more and more globalized political landscape in which we live, one begs to ask the question, can one person really make a difference? On February 2nd, 2006, Peter Raymont visited Washington College and showed his documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire. This awe inspiring film provoked this very question. Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian General, was the original United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) Commander. He and his mission were doomed to failure from the beginning. Third party factions in Rwanda’s already tumultuous political landscape, a lack of United Nations and Western/Developed Nation Support, and a former colonizer acting as the main peace keeping contingent (the Belgians), lead to a rapid decline in affairs in the region and the eruption of violence that claimed 800,000 men, women, and children’s lives in roughly 90 days. Romeo Dallaire tried his best to prevent violence and save as many as he could. He faxed the United Nations Office of Peace Keeping Missions, then headed by Kofi Annan (now UN Secretary General), asking daily for orders and aid in taking out arms caches before the genocide, and then when fighting broke out, writing to plead for aid in the form of Food, Medicine, Water etc… to keep the Tutsi’s alive. The Tutsis on the ground were literally being held hostage by Hutu Power and Interhamwe fighters, within United Nations safe zones and there was nothing that peace keepers could do besides hold the compounds together as best they could, and watch the violence on the outside. Dallaire tried everything to save as many as he could, and he was successful in saving many, put still blames himself for the violence that erupted and basically that his mission was a failure and was unable to prevent the violence.
Critics from the Belgian Government criticize him for allowing 10 Belgian peacekeepers to be killed, and others simply ask why didn’t he disobey orders and proceed with his own mission? As a man of honor and a general, he felt obligated not to disobey his orders and really what choice did he have? After losing the 10 peace keepers, Belgian personnel were pulled out of the country, and they were the main source of Dallaire’s man power. Following that, westerners by the hundreds were evacuated from the country as fast as possible by their home governments and nothing was even done to stop the violence. The French were even supporting Hutu Power and the Genocide by sending weapons, and later by taking on “refugees” who are really genocidaires after the conflict ended.
Romeo Dallaire is now taking his message on the road through his book, public speaking engagements, interviews, and documentaries like this one. He apologizes for the mistakes of the western powers, but also asks the questions that need to be asked, and probes beyond all the rhetoric, constantly saying, why? Why this did happen and why was it allowed to happen? Romeo Dallaire, by many in Rwanda is considered a hero for doing what he did. He saved thousands but he still doesn’t feel it was enough. This story of true self sacrifice and willingness to do whatever it takes to save a life reminds me of a quote from the upcoming X-Men movie, X-3:
Since the dawn of existence, there have always been moments when the course of history shifted. Such a turning point is upon us now, where the conflict between the better and worse angels of our very nature, whose outcome could change our world so greatly that there will be no going back. I do not know if victory is possible, I only know that great sacrifice will be required and because the fate of many will depend on a few, we must make the last stand!
That conflict could be defined as a question of basic sovereignty; the very basic principal that keeps many nations from interceding in cases of Genocide, versus humanitarian intervention is the larger issue here and could be described as the turning point in history. Are we to sit idly by during cases of genocide and not intercede on the grounds of sovereignty, while hundreds, thousands, or even millions die?
The United Nations has a Genocide Convention that was approved and ratified after the Second World War and the Nazi atrocities were discovered. After world War II, the world boldly said Never Again, only to allow genocide to pervade the world view again in Cambodia, again in Iraq, and even again in Europe in the Balkans, and then finally again in Rwanda and as we speak in the Darfur Region of the Sudan, just to name a few…
In 1988, after years of grappling with the issue, the United States Senate Ratified the Genocide Convention, to late for the cases in Cambodia and in some cases, the early Genocides in Iraq against the Kurds, but not too late for the Balkans and for Rwanda. The Balkans however in form of US Policy and other developed nations policies were seen as more important, more resource rich, and above all, more in the strategic and national interest of those nations. When Slobodan Milosevic slaughtered thousands on the basis of ethnicity and religion, and used rape as a war crime, ordering officers and generals to rape “any woman who was not a Serb, wither they are deserving of a Serb man or not in looks and beauty,” the world reluctantly stood up and stopped him, but not before the damage was done, mass graves were dug once again in Europe, and work camps began filling with political unwantables according to the Serbs.
Meanwhile, In Africa, no one cared. In Rwanda, no one cared. This is the situation that Romeo Dallaire was put in. He is one of the better Angels, one of the few fighting for the many, in hopes of saving as many as he can. One of the few that made a stand and continues to make a stand, hopefully keeping this one instance from leaving the hearts and mind of all the people he is able to reach and come in contact with, and hopefully making the world live up to its promise of Never Again, made after World War II.
© George M. Connelly, Jr. |