Roméo Dallaire

Roméo Dallaire while leading the United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Rwanda 1994.

Roméo Dallaire

Roméo Dallaire was the leader of the United Nation (UN) peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, launched in 1993 and known as the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Dallaire, a Dutch-born French-Canadian, spent most of his career in the Canadian military until achieving the rank of Lieutenant-General. He commanded several national and international missions. Founded in 1993, UNAMIR was assigned the demanding task to observe and support Rwanda through the implementation of the Arusha Accords, a peace agreement following a brutal civil war. Despite Dallaire’s efforts, tensions worsened and reached a breaking point following the death of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana in a mysterious plane crash. Extremist elements of Rwanda’s state military, the Hutu-majority Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), blamed the Tutsi-backed RPF for the death of the President, which it used to justify the systemic murder Tutsi civilians. Dallaire and his underequipped forces moved to safeguard Hutu moderate politicians who had kept peace negotiations on the table. However, the underequipped UNAMIR forces whose mission only allowed for the use of force in self-defense, failed to protect key figures, including a moderate politician who would likely have become the next president. Dallaire emphatically lobbied the international community for assistance, insisting that civilian lives were in danger and that a force of just five thousand well-armed UNAMIR troops could stop the genocide. UNAMIR received no such reinforcement. In his book, Dallaire painstakingly details the efforts to save as many civilians as possible, which involved negotiating directly with the génocidaires, inspiring the name of the book, “Shake Hands with the Devil.” Dallaire’s story reveals why the UN had to reconsider its protocols for genocide intervention after 1994: to honor its commitment to preserving human life.

Quick Links

Romeo Dallaire Official Website

Romeo Dallaire: The general who tried in vain to warn the UN about the upcoming genocide in Rwanda

Bibliography

Bellamy, Alex, and Tim Dunne. “R2P in Theory and Practice.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Responsibility to Protect, edited by Alex Bellamy and Tim Dunne, 1-19. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Dallaire, Roméo. Shake Hands with the Devil. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2005.

Güngör, Uğur. “Peace Operations During the Cold War.” United Nations Peace Operations and the Motivations That Lie at the Root of Turkey’s Involvement. Center for Strategic Research (SAM), 2015.

Kuperman, Alan J. “Rwanda in Retrospect.” Foreign Affairs 79, no. 1 (2000): 94–118.

Sarty, Roger. “The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.” International Journal 59, no. 2 (2004): 445–49.

United Nations. “Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.” New York: 2010.

United Nations. “UNAMIR.” New York. Accessed November 25, 2023. 

United Nations Security Council Res 872. October 1993.

Photo Source

Enzolamine. “Roméo Dallaire.” WikiCommons.