General Dallaire's Influence On Rwanda

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General Dallaire was a Canadian Lt. General who was placed in Command of UNAMIR and was tasked with the mission to over see the implementation of the Arusha Accords which were agreements to end the Rwandan civil war and to over see the establishment of a new transitional government. “Rwanda was in the midst of negotiating a peace agreement to end a vicious two and a half year civil war between a rebel force, the RPF and the government...While the parties negotiated the terms of peace agreement in Arusha, Tanzania, the UN had been asked by the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni to send in a small force to monitor the border to ensure that weapons and soldiers were not crossing from Uganda into Rwanda to reinforce the RPF” (pg.43). Fighting …show more content…

When Belgium colonized Rwanda in 1916 they split up the people into two classifications, the Hutu and the Tutsi. While there is little actual difference between them the Tutsi were believed to have a higher social status, better job and political voice. The Hutu was the lower class, labor, farming and low social standing. The Hutu eventually took over Rwanda by force in the early 1960s. “When the Belgians chased the Germans out of the territory in 1916 they discovered that two groups of people shared the land. The Tutsi, who were tall and quite light skinned...shorter,darker Hutu... The Belgians viewed the minority Tutsi as closer in kind to the Europeans and elevated them to positions of power over the majority Hutu” (pg. 47). The reason that the Belgians are so important is that these two social constructs are a creation of Belgium and have some responsibility to the current state of Rwanda. If they had a hand in creating it then they can have a hand in ending it. The Interahamwe was a militia that was backed by the the Hutu government and acted with authority of the government. The part they played in the genocide was huge in that these were the primary individuals that carried out the violence and mass executions of the Tutsi people. The Genocide was allowed to happen because of specific rules in UNAMIR 's Chapter VI mandate which dictates what the UN can do during situations of conflict and war encouraging …show more content…

While Dallaire ultimately failed his mission in Rwanda it is not without displaying great feats of leadership. Dallaire from the beginning admitted that he knew nothing of Rwanda but made it his mission to educate himself as much as he could before being sent there. He knew what he wanted in an assistant but when he was unable to get what he needed he researched the candidates heavily to pick the best Officer he could that had the skill sets necessary to be successful. Planning, Intel, research and logistical considerations are all important aspects that a good leader will analyze. Dallaire was good with communication and leadership, forming communications with the Tutsi and Hutu leaders and well as Agathe. He took all aspects of the conflict into consideration and did his own investigations to