Book description from Amazon.ca:
"It was one of the fastest, most efficient, most evident genocides of modern history. And it could have been avoided. But the United States and France were content to sit back and watch as Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Rwandans in ethnic pogroms in 1994. Roméo Dallaire, then a brigadier general in the Canadian Forces, was the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and witnessed first-hand the "unfolding apocalypse," as he calls it in his stunning book Shake Hands with the Devil. The gruesome experience and his futile attempts to convince the international community to intervene left him with emotional scars that still haven't healed. He tried to commit suicide, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, got a medical release from the military, and has had extensive therapy.

The slaughter could have been quite easily prevented, Dallaire writes in his memoir, if the United Nations and western countries had sent in a small number of soldiers and resources at a crucial point when Hutu extremists were still plotting the killings and training death squads. But at critical moments, U.S. and French officials dismissed Dallaire's pleadings for action, even though they had solid intelligence about what was happening on the ground. A U.S. military staffer explained to Dallaire that it would take the deaths of 85,000 Rwandans to justify risking the life of one American soldier. Meanwhile, France had long-standing links with elite Rwandan army units closely tied to the Hutu death squads and refused to acknowledge Dallaire's warnings until it was too late.

As painful as it was for Dallaire to write this book, the final result is gripping, expertly crafted, and soul bearing. It gives a taut, riveting hour-by-hour account of the international and human drama he witnessed and the "unimaginable evil [that] had turned Rwanda's gentle green valleys and mist-capped hills into a stinking nightmare of rotting corpses." Dallaire traveled back through his blood-soaked memories, he says, in order to retrieve his soul, and has since thrown himself into giving talks about his experiences. He recounts that after one talk a Canadian military padre asked him how he could still believe in God. "I know there is a God," he replied, "because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil." "

~~~~~~~
I do not hesitate to say that in a world sorely lacking in heroes, I proudly name General Dallaire as one of mine. At a time when the debate rages on in the ivory towers of the UN over whether there is/has been a genocide in Darfur, Sudan, this book reminds us that after WWII, the world proclaimed "Never again", but maybe they really meant 'never again in the white world'? The leaders that allowed the Rwandan genocide to happen, and the leaders who allow the Darfur genocide to continue ought to hang their heads in shame. Peux ce que veux. Allons-y.

Trade Paperback.

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Member list:

aithne - Ontario, Canada - shipping pref. not stated.
Nelle - Ontario, Canada - Int'l okay.
bluenoser - Nova Scotia, Canada - Int'l okay, surface.
gypsysmom - Manitoba, Canada - N. America shipping.
Sherria - Connecticut, USA - Int'l okay.
R-W - England, UK - Int'l okay.<-- here now - 15 Nov/05.

**07 Sept update: Sherria tells me that the repeated forays into the various postal services have not been kind to this book, and it is literally coming apart at the seams. :-( I hate to make the last person in line an undertaker of sorts, but if this book needs burying, don't be shy! :-)**

I assume everyone's familiar with the "rules" of a bookring, so I won't waste space typing it all here, except to say, I hope you enjoy the book, and don't forget to make a journal entry! And thanks for participating!

This is an amazing book. While it is a fascinating read, it is at the same time horribly chilling. I found this book very difficult to get through. Between the human capacity for violence and the ability of others to just ignore it because helping was no great gain to them personally.

I just received this in the mail from aithne. Thanks!
Although it will no doubt be depressing, I look forward to finding out what actually happened over there!

A well-written and very moving account of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 from the perspective of the Canadian UN Force Commander who tried so desperately to avoid it's occurrence. He does not mince words in describing the utter failure of the international community to support the efforts of his very small and inadequately equipped force. He is haunted by the images of mutilation, rape and murder of 800,000 Rwandan people by extremist forces within the country. Intervention at or near the beginning would have saved many of these lives. It would have cost approximately US$30 million. A US staffer at the UN told him over the phone that it would take the deaths of 85,000 Rwandans to justify risking the life of 1 American soldier. Apparently, some people are more "equal" than others! Unfortunately for Rwanda,the country has no strategic value to any of the world powers. (eg:oil)
Because this area was not stabilized, it has been estimated that 4 million human beings have died in the Congo and Great Lakes region of Africa. Despite the "Never Again" reaction to the holocaust, the world leaders are once more standing by bickering about what action to take. A major overhaul of the UN is needed to allow it to respond to humanitarian crises, in a timely manner, to resolve conflicts. It has become so tangled in bureaucracy and stifled by the self-interests of world leaders, that it is becoming irrelevant.
Romeo Dallaire is a man to be truly admired for his brave efforts to prevent this tragedy. He suffered a tremendous emotional toll
but has risen above his own despair to record the events as they occurred. World leaders need to realize that the only way to prevent acts of terrorism is to protect human rights on a global basis. Desperate acts are committed by people who feel they have no hope and nothing to lose.

I will be mailing this off to Bluenoser tomorrow. Sorry to be so long reading this but it's not a book you "zip through"!

This just arrived in the mail about an hour ago.
I know it's going to be a sobering read, never-the-less I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you macdonv, for giving me the chance to read this very important book. I echo Nelle's review. I already admired General Dallaire, having heard about him on the news and being interviewed at length on CBC Radio. Having read the details of the Rwanda Civil War in this book I now place him at the top of my list of Great Canadians.
This book should be required reading for world-wide politicians, military leaders, NGO's and high school students.
His enormous memory of names, meetings, places, dates and detail in this book made me realise how terribly traumatic this whole experience must have been for him and his staff. Near the end he writes that psychologists figure 90% of the surviving children of Rwanda saw at least one member of their families horribly murdered in front of them. I wonder what this says for the future of the country as those children grow up.
Please world - never again!
This is a long detailed book, but I couldn't put it down, I even had trouble sleeping one night as disturbing images stayed in the front of my mind.
I'm sending it on to gypsysmom today.

Just received in the mail from bluenoser. I've heard so much about this book and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Arrived yesterday (followed by 3 more rings today and a bookbox...it's raining books!) I'll get to this ASAP.

This was a slow read, for a variety of reasons. I couldn't spend hours immersed in the horror of the situation (and I don't know how the Rwandans and the UN forces managed), and it was "heavy" reading. It was well worth the time and effort though. I remember when the news was full of stories of the crisis in Rwanda, but I had no idea how long it went on without international notice. I was appalled at the indifference of the Firsst World powers, simply because there was nothing in it for them.

I agree that General Dallaire is truly a hero, as are the other men and women who suffered through the genocide, trying desperately to make things better for the people of Rwanda. That the world is once again standing by, doing nothing to help the situation in Darfur is horrifying. How can we allow it to happen AGAIN?

Thanks so much for sharing this book macdonv. I'll patch it up as best I can and send it on to the final participant ASAP. It's still perfectly readable, just in a few pieces that I'm sure I can manage to tape or glue together.

Arrived here in Rotherham this morning, will make this my next book in my TBR pile, cheers macdonv for including me in this ring

I echo the words of all the previous readers and say that Dallaire is a true hero. It seems that only he and his small band of people wanted what was best for Rwanda and her people. Like most other people I did not know what was going off in this country until images started appearing on our TV screens, but the UN knew, the permanent members of the security council knew, the major troop contributing nations to the UN knew, yet the UN proved ineffective, USA, France, the UK didn't want to know, it served no purpose for them to send troops to Rwanda, and then the powers that be tell us that Iraq wasn't about the oil, well what was it about? What about Rwanda?, what about the Congo?, what about Zimbabwe? the millions of innocent people that have lost their lives, men, women and children.
I guess we could go on forever but we can't change the past, but we can learn and lets hope this situation never arises again.

I'm glad I read this book, it opened my eyes as to what really happened in 1994, the scenes that Dallaire witnessed and shares with us I would rather forget, I take my hat off to him he was a truly courageous guy, if only the world listened to him at the time.