Senator Romeo Dallaire pleased with Gov. General's comments

Well done Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, who made a statement while in Kigali, Rwanda, offering an apology for the world who took so long to respond to the Rwandan Genocide; Of course this has started bickering about responsibility, whose was it, all over again, the same cowardice that did, and will continue to, prevent countries from doing what needs to be done to help their fellow man, no matter what their skin colour, religion, and whether their homeland sits on top of oil, diamonds, or just plain old dirt.  Why are we so hesitant to claim our fair share of responsibility for this human disaster?  I would guess it's the same reason why so many countries fail to acknowledge wrongdoing....it' all about ...Money! The love of money being the root of all evil, is the main reason why acknowledgement is avoided...if you accept responsibility you are on the hook for a lawsuit and we don't like being separated from our money! See the following article...I like our Govenor General more and more!...Oh and to my "irritated" commentor...this is Canadian...how's that for a quick response?!
Traumatized ex-general Dallaire welcomes GG's Rwanda genocide apology
Source: The Canadian Press


Posted: 04/22/10 5:22PM  AOL News

Filed Under: Canada

OTTAWA - "Senator Romeo Dallaire is welcoming Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean's apology for the world's failure to respond to the Rwandan genocide - a tragedy the retired general tried and failed to prevent.

Dallaire said Jean's comments in Kigali on Wednesday were a great gesture. He said suggestions that her words were not a formal apology, but simply a restatement of Canada's recognition that the international community failed the Rwandan people, are a quibble over semantics.

The Governor General's officials described her message as an apology and said it had been cleared with the government. But the Prime Minister's Office later insisted that Jean wasn't delivering a formal apology.

"That's irrelevant to me," Dallaire said Thursday. "And I say that as the former force commander on the ground with bodies up to my neck, screaming for support."

Dallaire led the ill-fated United Nations mission that was helpless to stop the rampage that slaughtered up to 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994. He was tormented by post-traumatic stress syndrome for years after his return from the central African country.

Dallaire said Jean's comments are very welcome, not just for him, but for the handful of other Canadians who served there and the transport crews who risked their lives to fly in supplies.

"My head of state, who was there, who's the commander-in-chief of our Forces and has articulated those statements there, I think that's a great source of personal relief to the 11 officers who were with me - 12, in fact, one of them committed suicide - and myself and to all the Hercules staff who flew in under fire to keep us going."

He called it "a very positive recognition to them and to their families."

Jean, who is on an African visit, toured a genocide museum in Kigali on Wednesday. The exhibits include one which pays tribute to Dallaire's vain efforts to stop the catastrophe.

She noted that Parliament has passed resolutions of regret.

"In 2008, Canada, with a government motion reiterated that this genocide was made possible by the indifference and inaction of the international community," she told Rwandans.

"The world's failure to respond adequately to the genocide is a failure in which Canada, as part of the international community, readily acknowledges its fair share of responsibility."

Dallaire was given command of a UN force in Rwanda in 1993, made up of soldiers from Belgium, Ghana, Pakistan, Tunisia and Bangladesh and a small staff of Canadians. They were to supervise a recently signed peace agreement between the Hutu government and Tutsi rebels.

Early in 1994, he saw signs that weapons were being stockpiled and violence planned, but he was refused permission for a pre-emptive strike. He and his men were essentially abandoned as the country sank into internecine bloodshed.

Dallaire remains bitter about the countries he feels let him down in Rwanda. The Belgians pulled out their paratroopers after 10 were ambushed and massacred. The United States - leery after its ill-fated intervention in Somalia the year before - wasn't ready to go back to another collapsing African state.

"When we were screaming for people to come and to stop this genocide, over months, governments deliberately decided not to provide resources to the UN to stop it," he said.

Dallaire said he believes the world backed off because Rwanda lacked strategic resources or position.

"It had no strategic value as a geography and as such, the only thing that was there were human beings. As one country told me to my face: 'The only thing that's here is human beings and there is too many of them anyway'."

One of his former colleagues, however, said Canada couldn't have done much to stop what was going on.

Lew MacKenzie, a retired general who gained fame for his peacekeeping work in the former Yugoslavia, told CTV that the Governor General's comments shouldn't be seen as an admission that Canada failed

"It sounded like she was suggesting that Canada could have done more and reacted more quickly and that's just not the case," he said. "Canada has nothing to apologize (for) as an individual nation."

At the time, the Canadian Forces was struggling with budget cuts and reeling from the repercussions from the ill-starred Somalia mission of 1993. The military would have been hard-pressed to scrape up more than a token force for Rwanda and would have had even greater difficulties keeping such a force supported and supplied. "
Shake Hands with the Devil