Was General Romeo Dallaire Partly To Blame History Essay

Differences in a community can create many problems that can lead to things like wars and genocides. Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa, with a population of 7000,000. The Rwandan genocide consisted of two ethnic groups of the same race called the Hutus and the Tutsis. On April 6th, 1994 a plane carrying Rwandan and Burundian president was shot over Kigali. (Kigali is the capital of Rwanda.) It was believed by the Hutus’ that the Tutsis were not really a part of Rwanda; they were just a group of people who belonged to another tribe that wanted to invade and take over Rwanda, that this is when the Rwandan Genocide significantly heightened. The genocide began on April 6th and lasted for one hundred days; there was a total of eight hundred thousand killed, many were Tutsis. Not long after the UNIMAR received word on the genocide, the United Nations Assistance Mission began to arrive in Rwanda. They were led by Canadian lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire; Romeo Dallaire and his troops (consisted of both Belgium and Canadian troops) arrived in Rwanda with very limited supplies and ammunitions. General Romeo Dallaire was born and raised in Holland on June 25th, 1946; but he served for the Canadian forces. Romeo Dallaire and his troops were Rwanda’s only hope for achieving their goal of raising awareness to try and stop the blood bath slaughtering in Rwanda. Although Romeo Dallaire and his men did all they could to try and stop the genocide; Romeo’s voice was ignored one too many times. Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire was significant in his dedication to raise awareness in trying to stop the Rwandan Genocide. General Romeo Dallaire made many requests for more troops to be sent to Rwanda but he was rejected and not listened too many times. General Romeo Dallaire tired to present the problem to other major countries like the US but they responded too late; and it was not their main priority. After the horrifying blood bath in Rwanda, General Romeo Dallaire arrived home and persuaded the Canadian government to become interested in a UN legion.

Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire made many calls for help but his kind words were chosen to be ignored. General Romeo Dallaire requested for more troops to be sent to Rwanda, but by the time the UN security council finalized their decision to send two thousand six hundred out of the five thousand men requested it was too late to stop the Rwandan Genocide or at least help stop it; eight hundred thousand people had already been killed. On May 17th, 1994 the UN Security Council would finally voted to despatch two thousand six hundred troops to Rwanda, “Both authorizing a higher troop figure is not the same as actually finding the troops’ contributors'” (Jones,, pg 232). Although the UN sent 2600 troops to Dallaire from Bangladesh and Ghana to keep peace with the two ethnic groups; they had arrived too late, this could have been avoided if they had listened to Dallaire’s call for help the first time. General Romeo Dallaire felt animosity towards the UN’s late effort to sending in more troops to Rwanda,” for military units which could be deployed almost instantly as soon as the UN Security council has mandated an operation…If I had such force available to me while I was the force commander for UNIMAR sometime in mid-April 1994. UNIMAR could have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people- a quote from General Romeo Dallaire (Heidenrich, PG.226). Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire felt as if the UN and other countries like the United States and Canada could have made an effort to reduce the increasing death rate in Rwanda, and were more than capable of just completing a simple task like sending in more men to Rwanda… a country in desperate need of STOPPING the tragic rivalry between the Hutus’ and Tutsis.

General Romeo Dallaire has done all he could to try and raise awareness including trying to present the problem to major countries like the United State. The United States response to the request for help from Romeo Dallaire was that it was not their problem and the UN would take care of it, this resulted in the United States ignoring the request for more men. After the genocide, U.S president realized that he and his country could have done more to try and stop the Rwandan Genocide, “We in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have, and should have, to try and limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994, and we’re still not organized to deal with it” – US President Bill Clinton, 1998 (Heidenrich, PG 1).This demonstrates that President Bill Clinton realized that they as a country were more than capable to do something as simple as listening to a request for more men. This proves that President Bill Clinton felt anger towards him and his country’s actions because he knows that he and his country could have done more. Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire eventually became very fed up with the “response” he was receiving from Canada and America. “The international community didn’t give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance” (Thinkexist.com, 1999-2009). General Romeo Dallaire undoubtedly felt great anger for independent countries because he knew that saving Rwandans and Rwanda was not their main priority because they felt it was not their responsibility, it was Rwanda’s own responsibility. In addition to this stimulating quotation from General Romeo Dallaire himself, it is obvious to today’s society that Rwanda at the time was in no stable condition to help itself. Both America and Canada could have lent a helping hand to this needy country, unfortunately at the time no one but Romeo Dallaire and his men realized what condition Rwanda was in. Unquestionably America was very well aware of their actions, they knew that Rwanda was suffering but it was not their problem. General Romeo Dallaire was determined to address to America that their actions were unsubstantial. General Romeo Dallaire knew from the start that America would be one of the countries to unquestionably refuse to help Rwanda for its own selfish reasons, simply because they did not “support” the events that had happened in Rwanda.

Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire was determined to raise awareness about Rwanda and genocides in general even when he arrived home in 1994; as a retired General Lieutenant. After the blood bath in Rwanda General Romeo Dallaire arrived home and persuaded the Canadian Government to become interested in a UN Legion. In 1994 Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire soon persuaded the entire Canadian government to become interested in a UN Legion. Towards the end there were 75% NGO (Non- Government Organizations); that included 7 major humanitarian groups (Heidenrich, PG 226). This proved that although Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire might have failed in his mission to save all of Rwanda, he came home and still tried to raise awareness and succeeded at his goal of persuading governmental and non- governmental groups to join his UN Legion to stop genocides.

Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire dedicated most of his time to raise awareness and stop genocides. To sum up, it is obvious that Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire did all he could to try and stop the genocide. Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire made many request for more men and munitions, but he did not receive the respond that he was hoping for; he was chosen to be ignored by major countries like America and eventually Canada. Lieutenant Romeo Dallaire tried to address the issue to many major countries including the Unites States buy the time they decided to listen to Romeo Dallaire’s request they had responded too late; it was obvious to Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire and his men that responded to their request was not America’s main priority. While General Romeo Dallaire was in Rwanda he was ignored many times, but when he arrived home he was still devoted to try and stop genocides’. After Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire’s return home from the horrifying blood bath in Rwanda, he still managed to persuade many non-governmental and governmental organizations to become interested in the UN legion.