Shake Hands with the Devil

At the time of UNAMIR, Kofi Annan was the under-secretary-general in charge of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). Later, he became the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006.

Roméo Dallaire praises Annan, describing him as “genuinely, even religiously, dedicated to the founding principles of the UN and tireless in his efforts to save the organization from itself in these exceptionally troubled times” (50). However, he also criticizes Annan for not allowing UNAMIR to act more forcefully to prevent the genocide in Rwanda.

When Roméo Dallaire first encounters Bagosora, he is working for the Rwandan minister of defense. “He said he supported Arusha, but more often than not, he was confrontational, especially with the RPF delegation” (72). Later, as the genocide was unfolding, Dallaire remarked on Bagosora, “I didn’t trust him for a minute” (223).

After the plane crash that killed President Habyarimana, Bagosora took control of the government, first as the head of the Crisis Committee and then as one of the founders and leaders of the RGF-dominated interim government. He is considered one of the chief architects of the Rwandan Genocide. Dallaire would later testify against him at a human rights court (456). In the end, he was found guilty of genocide and murder and put in a prison in Mali in West Africa, where he died in 2021.

Bizimina was an extremist Hutu political who was a member of the MRND party and served as the Minister of Defense. He represented President Habyarimana’s government at the UN in New York and later joined the interim government. He tended to stonewall UNAMIR’s mission. For example, he did nothing to help in the investigation of the assassination of Félicien Gatabizi (214). Dallaire says he “had always struck me as a man who was carrying around a pocketful of secrets” (168).

Charged with genocide and other crimes, Bizimana became a fugitive. After his likely remains were discovered in 2020, it is believed he died in the Republic of Congo while in hiding.

A diplomat and former government minister, Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh was appointed the head of UNAMIR. He and Roméo Dallaire often clashed. For example, Dallaire disagreed with Booh-Booh’s decision to accept an invitation from President Habyarimana to spend Easter with him, arguing that it would compromise the neutrality of UNAMIR (213). Booh-Booh also strictly reinforced the decision not to allow Dallaire to investigate the claims of the informant “Jean-Pierre.”

Eventually, after alienating the RPF who accused him of working with the RGF-controlled interim government, Booh-Booh resigned from the mission. Later in life, he wrote a book in French responding to Dallaire’s descriptions of him and his actions, titled Le Patron de Dallaire Parle: révélations sur les dérives d'un général de l'ONU au Rwanda (“Dallaire’s Boss Speaks: Revelations About the Excessive Actions of a UN General in Rwanda”).

A Hutu extremist, Juvénal Habyarimana came to power as the dictator of Rwanda in 1973. During his regime, he enacted anti-Tutsi discriminatory laws, provoking the opposition of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Habyarimana and his military supporters, the Rwandan Government Forces (RGF), lost the war against the RPF by 1993.

He and his government agreed to the Arusha Peace Agreement, which stripped Habyarimana of most of his political power and set up negotiations for a new, democratically-elected government. Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over the airport at Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. Who assassinated him and why are still unknown.

“Jean-Pierre” was the alias the UNAMIR gave to a Hutu informant, who claimed to be working as a trainer for the Interahamwe militia under Mathieu Ngirumpatse, the president of the MRND party. Jean-Pierre warned UNAMIR that he was assigned to train recruits to the Interahamwe, who were registering the names and addresses of Tutsis and moderate Hutus and were preparing to attack. Although Jean-Pierre claimed to have hated the Tutsis and the RPF, he was horrified at the scope of the Interahamwe’s plans (142).

With his information, Roméo Dallaire tried to get permission to search for hidden weapons caches. However, his superiors at the UN refused to extend his mission beyond using force only in self-defense. Eventually, UNAMIR lost contact with Jean-Pierre. Dallaire never learned who Jean-Pierre was or what ultimately happened to him.

Kagame was the military leader of the RPF, “the man who had turned a ragtag group of guerrilla fighters into a force capable of holding its own against French soldiers in the field, not once but twice” (63). Kagame was a Rwandan Tutsi whose family, like many other Tutsis, fled to Uganda during the Rwandan Revolution.

Under his leadership, the RPF defeated the RGF in 1993 and again in 1994, during UNAMIR’s presence in Rwanda. He was elected President of Rwanda in 2000 and has been reelected multiple times since. However, foreign observers have accused Kagame’s government of holding sham elections and undermining democracy.