Former Rwanda Commander Joins New U.N. Committee

[auntAgonist]

The United Nations has given the green light to a new advisory committee focused on the prevention of genocide worldwide. Seven distinguished professionals from different fields, yet all having dealt with genocide in one way or another, will assume the task of providing guidance and support to the work of Juan Méndez, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. One of the appointed committee members is Romeo Dallaire.

Dallaire, currently a Canadian Senator, will forever be linked to his heroic stance against genocide. In 1993 and early 1994, as the Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), he had a strong suspicion that something terrible was about to happen in the country. Among other ominous signs, Dallaire had taken note of a marked increase in the importation and trade in machetes and other arms.

From a Hutu informant known as Jean-Pierre, Dallaire learned that thousands of Hutu militias were preparing themselves for a national ethnic cleansing campaign against the Tutsi population. The informer advised the UNAMIR Commander about the existence a growing Hutu list of Tutsi residents in the capital city, Kigali. This list was to facilitate the cleansing campaign.

http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2341.cfm

cont'd
Dallaire, who refused to withdraw after UNAMIR was decimated in the wake of the cold-blooded murder of ten Belgian peacekeepers, remained in Rwanda for months. He left the country in August, 1994, as an shattered man, haunted by what had happened, what he had seen and experienced, and most of all what he was not allowed to do — take action against those who perpetrated the genocide.

[Bassic]

1. And the UN put the fucking blame for the whole thing on his shoulders

Can you imagine something like that? Must be horrible.