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Kaffeine Buzz
reviews independent and foreign films,
in addition to reporting the latest buzz behind
Colorado's film festivals.
Shake Hands With the Devil:
The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (Peter Raymont)
Documentaries are an invaluable contribution
to society. They tell the story of real people
and their personal experiences in ways that Hollywood
fiction never can and in a way the news media
never will. They connect to the soul and bring
you into the lives of strangers.
The story of Roméo Dallaire
is that invaluable contribution because of the
magnitude of what he and others in the country
of Rwanda experienced. How hundreds of thousands
of people can be slaughtered, and the narcissism
of politicians and government officials can turn
a blind eye, going on with other tasks that better
serve their own power hungry purpose.
It took seven years, a daily regimen of pills
and years of therapy for General Roméo
Dallaire, the U.N. commander in charge of the
peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, to write his book
about the genocide that took place in 1994.
Specializing in the “hidden worlds”
of politics, director Peter Raymont
has produced and directed over 100 films in his
33-year career, covering the lands of India, Nicaragua,
Ethiopia, Europe and North America, and in this
film he uses that experience to capture Dallaire’s
journey back to Rwanda for the 10th anniversary
of the genocide in April of 2004.
Even after seeing “Hotel Rwanda”
and the HBO movie that followed, “Sometimes
in April,” there is so much to learn from
Dallaire’s story. This is a man who was
given nothing to “keep the peace”
while being put an in impossible situation of
running the U.N. post in Rwanda with only a few
hundred soldiers to defend hundreds of thousands
of citizen from death.
A close up of his face shows the cathartic feeling
he has as he rides down the familiar streets where
10 years earlier, bodies were strewn and machetes
were flying. And as the movie unfolds, more truths
are made known.
It all started with a truce between the Hutu
government and the Tutsi rebels when Dallaire
first touched down in the Rwandan capital of Kigali
in November of 1993. He was led to believe it
would be an easy, short lived mission. Little
did he know of the apocalypse that would arise
the following April after a plane transporting
the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot
down, and how the U.N. who sent him there in the
first place, would tie his hands at keeping his
mission, voting to reduce his 2500 troops down
to only 250.
The killing spree was led by the Interahamwe
Hutu malitia against moderate Hutus and Tutsis,
and within three days there were over 2500 troops
that landed from various countries. But their
time was short, since they were there merely to
save their own and leave, basically stating that
it was not their problem. And after some of Dallaire’s
men were killed, which included 10 soldiers from
Belgium; that country bailed as well. It was the
irony of that move that caused Dallaire to form
a deep hatred of that country’s government;
ironic because it was the Belgians who had separated
the Rwandan citizen's two classes further by requiring
stamped ID cards that officially stated their
class.
The Catholic Church, which was the most prominent
religion and had a lot of power at that time,
did nothing to condemn the killings. In fact,
the cleansing strategy led parishioners to killing
members of their own church because of their Tutsi
status.
During the course of his command and since the
U.N. was basically ignoring his continued request
for more forces, Dallaire tried to get his message
out through the media, speaking with reporters
from the CBC and the BBC whenever they wanted
to listen. But overall, the media was more concerned
with O.J. Simpson and other trivial, Hollywood
gossip stories to care. So the rest of the world
was basically ignorant to what was going on and
remained so up until a year or so ago.
As the days and months went by, Dallaire’s
inability to stop the massacre almost caused him
to lose his mind. The guilt from all the lives
lost wore on him, and even after returning home,
thoughts of suicide seemed to be his only way
to escape the thoughts of what he saw and experienced.
But he did manage to pull himself up and writing
his book was a major part of his recovery.
During Dallaire’s trip 10 years later you
can see more healing taking place as he takes
his wife through the buildings and streets, holding
her hand and talking with the people, as he speaks
to the citizens who survived during his ceremonial
speech, and as he makes plans to return to the
otherwise beautiful country of Rwanda to live
the rest of his days.
On a higher level, his story and that of the
Rwandan people tells a chilling tale about our
global society, how altruism and morality does
not exist in the minds of the superpowers. It
makes it blatantly clear that decisions are made
based on racism and greed. If Iraq did not contain
billions of dollars in oil, we would not be the
least bit concerned with introducing democracy
to their country. Rwanda in turn had no resources
to obtain. And at the time when the world was
concerned with the other genocide in Bosnia, as
they should have been, the superpowers turned
their backs on the Rwandan people. It seems the
reasons why are as clear as black and white.
In the movie you can see that the Belgian government
is still in denial and takes no responsibility
for what happened. During a conference between
Rwandan officials, Dallaire, the Belgian Senator
Alain Destexle and others, the senator had the
audacity to point blame at Dallaire for the deaths
of the 10 Belgian U.N. soldiers while completely
ignoring the 800,000 who also died.
In his book, “Shake Hands with the Devil,”
the former general makes recommendations on how
to better handle future U.N. conflict resolutions.
One can only hope that this time, they listen.
And maybe the media will give a damn, but I doubt
it.
www.romeodallaire.com/foundation.htm
www.newsreel.org
www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/
www.earthaction.org/en/archive/96-05-rwanda/alert.html
http://africapolicy.org.master.com/texis/master/search/?s=SS&q=rwanda
www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/early/rwanda1
-Kim Owens, July 8, 2005
July 23, 2005 - CNN - Clinton expresses regret
in Rwanda
'I express regret for my personal failure'
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/23/clinton.rwanda.reut/index.html
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