Shake hands with the Devil

This week CBC is airing a shortened version of the documentary "Shake hands with the Devil. This Canadian documentary won the Sundance film Festival's World Cinema Documentary Audience Award this year. It airs Monday at 9pm on CBC-TV and Wednesday at 10pm on CBC Newsworld.

Dallaire documentary takes Sundance prize

Shake Hands With The Devil follows retired Canadian Forces general Romeo Dallaire's emotional return to Rwanda, where in 1994, he had served as head of the United Nations peacekeeping forces and witnessed the slaughter of almost a million Tutsis.

[snip]

Redford, who doesn't usually single out festival entries, came to an early screening of Shake Hands With The Devil, introduced the film and even stayed for a question-and-answer period afterward.

According to Raymont, the veteran actor told the audience that this type of film is "why Sundance was created in the first place. ... It's an independent film. It's about an important human rights justice issue."

In a related article INDEPTH: ROMEO DALLAIRE we learn a little more about this Canadian hero and what he faced in Rwanda..

[snip]

He describes the machete-wielding government-sponsored forces who went on a killing spree in 1994 and murdered 800,000 people in 100 days. It's a damning indictment of world leaders and UN bureaucrats who failed to stop the genocide. Even to write the story was painful.

[snip]

So, who does he blame?

"I blame the American leadership, which includes the Pentagon, in projecting itself as the world policeman one day and a recluse the next," Dallaire says.

[snip]

As the death toll mounted, General Dallaire submitted a detailed plan for a Rapid Reaction Force. He needed 5,000 soldiers to dismantle the killing machine of the genocidaire and to stop the Hutu power movement. The UN Security Council rejected the plan. The United States even refused to acknowledge the genocide to avoid any legal obligations to help.

[snip]

"I failed, yes. The mission failed. They died by the thousands, hundreds of thousands. That's why it's [the book] subtitled the Failure of Humanity.

It was overridden by the hatred and the racism and the fear and all the incredible horrific ways that human beings can destroy other human beings."

Emphasis mine.

I have not seen this documentary yet but it sounds fascinating after having read several articles regarding it, such as the 2 links I posted above. There are so many just causes in the world that need the attention of a last remaining compassionate superpower. Darfur comes to mind.

I have to ask "Why is the US in Iraq again?"

Oh right... Terra... Oil...Freedom.

Whats a little genocide got to do with it anyway.