Shake Hands with the Devil

In his Conclusion, Dallaire reflects upon the story of the three-year-old orphan he found. He wonders, “What has happened to him, and the tens of thousands of other orphans of the genocide? Did he survive?” (510). Dallaire also reflects on how he met child soldiers and “bush wives” in Sierra Leone who were being reintegrated into society, but it was clear that if they did not find a “promising future in a country that could sustain peace” (511), they would return to a world of violence. The girls and women were badly hurt. Many were infected with HIV/AIDS, had medical problems caused by rape and early childbirth, and could not have normal relationships with their children. For Dallaire, these cases of trauma speak to the urgency of preventing other humanitarian crises, as “[t]hese disordered, violent and throwaway young lives […] are the best argument to vigorously act to prevent future Rwandas” (512).

Dallaire admits that scapegoating was rampant, with people blaming the UN as an “irrelevant, corrupt, decadent institution that has outlived in usefulness or even its ability to conduct conflict resolution” (512) or the governments in the Security Council, especially France and the United States. Others blamed the media, NGOs, peacekeepers, and Dallaire himself.