SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

The terrifying true story of the genocide in Rwanda, told by the man responsible for keeping the peace.

I recently read this story and its fair to say it consumed me for months. I've never read a book quite like it and don't think any other book will come close.

Before reading this book, I knew precious little about the UN. I assumed it was an upright organisation that followed the goodwill and values it was built on. This book really made question those views, but I'll touch on that later.

I had seen the films 'Hotel Rwanda' and the much better (in my opinion) 'Shooting Dogs' so knew the gruesomeness and level of hate involved in the genocide. Those films give little sense of perspective, though, and do not explain why the Belgian soldiers pull out just before the massacre. The ongoing civil war is not discussed so I did not realise the two sides (ethnic tribes, Hutus and Tutsis) were at war while the killings took place. They also do not reveal the scale of the genocide which 'Shake Hands With The Devil' does. Just one fact I learnt from the book is that it was the fastest genocide in history with 800,000 to a million Rwandans slaughtered in just 100 days. That was 10% of the population, the equivalent of 25 million Americans or 6 million British.

The UN mission to Rwanda begins very small and the French-Canadian General has to do all his own research into the Great Lakes Region and the current situation. His budget is minuscule (Rwanda is just not important to the big players in the Security Council - the US, UK, and most of Europe - a fact which results in a lack of funds, troops and political power which ultimately leaves the UN mission weak, and unable to stop the bloodshed. As the situation grows and war and genocide seem inevitable Dalliare's superiors back at the UN fail to provide him with the funds (they have to scrounge for the basics like paper and pens and eat out of date UN rations everyday for months) and the proper mandate (meaning permission or law) to shoot or disarm the murderers. Without permission he is unable to stop the violence. He is told not to escalate the violence so the Rules of Engagement are never to shoot. This leaves his own troops in terrible danger and they are routinely taken hostage by the drunk and blood thirsty militias. I couldn't believe the lack of support from the UN. He's supposed to be the top man in Rwanda and gets no help from his superiors. They are usually too busy to help him when he needs guidance from someone who understands the situation. But no one at the UN headquarters (especially those on the Security Council) cares.

It's awful reading of his helplessness, being the sole person who is supposed to help those dying but being powerless to stop the killing happening all around him.
 

Just by recalling his thoughts Dalliare makes you feel for individuals and when they die you are also shocked and feel his devastation. He makes you feel his grief and guilt . Even though he does his utmost, spending himself physically and mentally and leaving Rwanda with post traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, he still holds himself responsible for the 800,000 and more that die. At one point he describes Barber's Adagio for Strings as the only music which could fully express the loss and pain of 800,000 Rwandans dying.

The facts themselves are shocking but when you read of the sights and sounds Gen. Romeo Dalliare had to experience it can make for difficult reading. One unpleasant example occurs later in the book:

They are trying to get refugees from both sides (Hutus and Tutsis) back to their own lines. This involves ferrying them in convoys of trucks. By now he's numb to seeing piles of bodies littering the roadsides. At one point Dalliare gets out of his vehicle after seeing the body of small boy moving by the side of the road. He thinks he's still alive and picks him up. After closer inspection he realises the boy is crawling with maggots which are eating out his insides. Dalliare freezes. He's disgusted at the sensation of maggots crawling in his hands but can't throw the body away like its trash. He carefully places the corpse on the ground and tries to hold back the vomit. This example is so tragic. All he wanted to do was help the boy but finds himself puking by the roadside.

The conditions within Rwanda became so bad that feral dogs became used to eating humans. It sounds horrific, not unlike a scene from a zombie film:

“I can’t tell you how disgusting daily life could be; the corpse-eating dogs that we shot on sight now had no qualms about attacking the living."

Because the book is so detailed, there's no way I could fully explain every aspect without writing a huge essay. So I leave you to do more research into the genocide and the book. Reading it has left me passionate about human rights and the need for moral intervention and justice. (Think Zimbabwe for example. Why did the US and UK invade Iraq and Afghanistan when Robert Mugabe is freely allowed to trash his own people and economy? This question leaves me assuming the real reasons the US is in Iraq are down to power, oil and revenge. Is there a more blatant need for an intervention than the situation in Zimbabwe?)

Over time Dallaire's belief in the UN became jaded as he realised governments didn't care:

"What I have come to realize as the root of it all, however, is the fundamental indifference of the world community to the plight of seven to eight million black Africans in a tiny country that had no strategic or resource value to any world power. An overpopulated little country that turned in on itself and destroyed its own people, as the world watched and yet could not manage to find the political will to intervene.

Engraved still in my brain is the judgement of a small group of bureaucrats who came to “assess” the situation in the first weeks of the genocide: “We will recommend to our governments not to intervene as the risks are high and all that is here are humans.”

I recommend this book to anyone who becomes angry at seeing Africa abandoned (and when "help" arrives it is usually in the form of exploitation and paternalism- those from the West know best). Or anyone who is even a little interested in the Rwandan genocide and would like to know more, this book will draw you in and deeply affect you.

I leave you with this quote:

"Still, at its heart the Rwandan story is the story of the failure of humanity to heed a call for help from an endangered people. The international community, of which the UN is only a symbol, failed to move beyond self-interest for the sake of Rwanda." (emphasis added)