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Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Shake Hands with the Devil The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Author: Romeo Dallaire
When Lt-Gen. Romeo Dallaire was called to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in '93, he thought he was heading off on a straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned & suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days. — In Shak...  more », he takes readers with him on a return voyage into hell, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings. Woven thru the story of this disastrous mission is his own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, hope & reconciliation.

This book is a personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth & secure in his assumptions to one conscious of his own weaknesses & failures & critical of the institutions he'd relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to him & his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into dirty wars.
ISBN-13: 9780786715107
ISBN-10: 0786715103
Publication Date: 11/30/2004
Pages: 584
Rating:
  • Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
 11

4.6 stars, based on 11 ratings
Publisher: Carroll Graf
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 2
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Last paragraph in the book Shake Hands with the Devil

As soldiers we have been used to moving mountains to protect our own sovereignty or risks to our way of life. In the future we must be prepared to move beyond national self-interest to spend our resources and spill our own blood for humanity. We have lived through centuries of enlightenment, reason, revolution, industrialization and globalization. No matter how idealistic the aim sounds, this new century must become the Century of Humanity, when we as human beings rise above race, creed, colour, religion and national self-interest and put eh good of humanity above the good of our own tribe. For the sake of the children and of our future. Peux ce que veux. Allons-y. ("Where there's a will, there's a way. Let's go").

An account of the ethnic cleansing in Africa in 1994. In the book, it describes how to risk one soldiers life, 85,000 Rwanadans must die. Not much has changed now in 2006 in relation to risks involved in Africa. It's a sorry comment on our world and those in it.


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