Lt. General Roméo Dallaire is a Canadian officer who was assigned as the force commander in the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR), a UN peacekeeping mission to facilitate negotiations after the Rwandan Civil War. He wrote about his experiences witnessing the breakdown of the peace process and the Rwandan Genocide in Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Published in 2003, the book won the 2004 Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction and the 2003 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Shake Hands With The Devil inspired two films: a 2007 fictional film with the same title and a 2004 documentary film based on the book, Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.

This guide uses the 2005 Carroll & Graf paperback edition of the book.

Content Warning: The source material for this guide contains graphic descriptions of violence, sexual assault, and human remains.

Summary

Roméo Dallaire begins Shake Hands With The Devil by recounting his own childhood in Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec. There, he experienced the tensions between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians. Inspired by his mother, a Dutch woman who experienced the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands, and his father, who was an officer in the Canadian army during World War II, Dallaire decided to join the military as a member of the artillery corps. Despite struggling with discrimination as a French-Canadian, Dallaire rose through the ranks of the military and became force commander for UNAMIR, a peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. Originally, Dallaire was not even sure where Rwanda was (42).

Rwanda experienced a civil war between the Rwandan Government Forces (RGF), led by the dictator President Juvénal Habyarimana, and a rebel faction, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Both sides in the civil war were largely (but not exclusively) supported by two ethnic groups who historically lived in the region. The Hutus, who comprised the majority of Rwanda’s population, dominated the leadership of the RGF. The Tutsis, a minority who comprised the ruling class of Rwanda both before and during European colonization of Rwanda in the 19th century, were associated with the RPF.

The civil war ended in RPF victory. UNAMIR was formed to help facilitate the negotiations that would result in a new, democratic, and multi-ethnic government for Rwanda. However, tensions were still high. One radio station, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), broadcast non-stop propaganda against the Tutsis and the RPF. Meanwhile, Dallaire was increasingly disillusioned by the state of the peacekeeping mission. He clashed with the UN bureaucracy—particularly the head of UNAMIR, the diplomat Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh—and struggled under the lack of manpower, funding, and resources. Above all, Dallaire was upset by the reluctance of most of the world’s governments, especially the United States, to support UNAMIR due to a lack of “strategic interest” in Rwanda.

Efforts to form a new government stalled because of the conflict between moderates, who wanted a multi-ethnic democracy, and the extremists like the Hutu Power faction, who sought to completely purge the Tutsis. UNAMIR was contacted by an informant called “Jean-Pierre” who warned that an extremist militia was gathering information about Tutsis living in Rwanda and training young men and boys in warfare. However, in the wake of tragic deaths involving UN peacekeepers in Somalia, the UN forbade Dallaire from acting on this information, ordering him to only use force in self-defense. Then, a moderate Hutu politician, Félician Gatabazi, was assassinated. Next, in a mysterious incident that was never solved, President Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down.

Mob violence broke out in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Soldiers and militia members began tracking down and killing politicians, Tutsis, and moderate Hutus. The victims included Agathe Uwilingiyimana, nicknamed “Madame Agathe,” who was the Prime Minister of Rwanda and a powerful advocate for peace and the moderates. Much to Dallaire’s horror, 10 Belgian soldiers under his command were also killed, in a successful ploy to convince the Belgium government to withdraw from UNAMIR.

The civil war between the RPF and the RGF resumed, with UNAMIR often caught in the crossfire. Atrocities took place in Kigali and around Rwanda, killing hundreds of thousands and forcing even more to become refugees. Efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Rwanda were hampered by diplomatic bickering, the ongoing conflict, and UNAMIR’s lack of international support. The violence only began to end when the RPF negotiated a ceasefire with the RGF and established a new government.

Dallaire was left embittered by how the United States took credit for UNAMIR’s work and how famous and influential people from around the world came to Rwanda only after the hard work was already done. When he concerned his staff by firing wildly at a pack of dogs endangering his pet goats, Dallaire decided to return to Canada before his term as commander was supposed to end. In his Conclusion, Dallaire argues that to prevent more tragedies like the Rwandan Genocide, humanitarian needs must be prioritized over geopolitical advantages.