Shake Hands with the Devil

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault.

“Dallaire's book is important. Other accounts have described the horror of those days, but we have never heard at length before from the man who had the privilege—a privilege that quickly became a curse—of being entrusted with Rwanda's future.”

Samantha Power emphasizes here the value that Dallaire’s testimony has. Its value lies in the fact that it not only comes from an eyewitness, but from a person who actually played a pivotal role in trying to shape the response to the genocide from Western nations.

“I used to wonder how it was that Dallaire, the man who did the most during the genocide, could feel the worst. But this is not a paradox. The man who would try to do the most would inevitably be the man least capable of making excuses for himself, his men, his country, or his planet. The only way risky action is ever taken on behalf of mere principle is when feeling—a hugely discredited quality in military and political life—overpowers reasoned self-interest.”

Power echoes what will become an important point for Dallaire. In order to prevent future atrocities, nation-states must be willing to set aside their self-interest—even to the point that they risk their own soldiers’ well-being and lives—to intervene in conflicts in foreign nations.

“Dallaire is not naïve. He knows that states pursue their interests and rarely exert themselves on behalf of strangers […] But Dallaire demands tangible action. Using the word [genocide], he says, ‘is nothing more than political semantics.’ They are using the term ‘nearly flippantly,’ he says, while doing ‘absolutely nothing on the ground in regards to conducting an operation to stop genocide.’”

What constitutes a genocide is more than just an academic issue. Often, it is a political problem involving debates over history and the accountability of nations for past crimes. However, Dallaire (and Power as well) argues that the question of what constitutes a genocide is almost a distraction from real action, which affected the world’s response to the Rwandan Genocide.