Funny time to talk about peace when war seems to be spreading like a blob of radioactive fluid these days. But since General Roméo Dallaire tends not to go with the flow, this is the moment he chose to speak about the change of course that is necessary for the guns to fall silent.
And his postulate is surprising. “Men fundamentally created all institutions. Churches, governance systems. Men have dominated the world for centuries. And if we look at this journey, it becomes clear that they are incapable of solving the complex and ambiguous problems in which we now operate. Men need you, women, as equals and for you to be completely integrated in the solution of the biggest issues in the world,” says the retired soldier.
“The patriarchal system that has been in place for millennia does not work and men must realize this,” he adds at the end of our conversation on the spectacular terrace of the Place d’Armes hotel. in Old Montreal.
This meeting, which is linked to the French release of Roméo Dallaire’s fourth book, Peace, a warrior’s journeyshould have taken place much earlier. An infection contracted in Cambodia during a peace mission in 1992 resurfaced 30 years later, forcing him to take a three-month break, an eternity in his eyes.
With his partner, Marie-Claude Michaud, he rebuilt his health in Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, near La Pocatière, in Bas-du-Fleuve. Love, he says, helped him as much as medication with the infection that afflicted him again, but also to overcome deeper issues related to the trauma he experienced in Rwanda 30 years ago. years when he was at the head of the reduced UN mission, almost helplessly witnessing the genocide which cost the lives of 800,000 people.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Romeo Dallaire
A few years ago, doctors told me that if I continued on the path I was on, I had two years to live.
Romeo Dallaire
“I worked until I committed suicide. I have made one intentional and one unintentional suicide attempt. Between the two ears, there always remains a vulnerability that my love with Marie-Claude helped me to master,” he says, looking at his partner who was at his side during our meeting.
I expected to meet Roméo Dallaire the fighter, the litigator and the outspoken man, but here I meet Roméo Dallaire the feminist and the lover.
At 78 years old, the former senator has now regained his splendor and it is with disconcerting frankness that he speaks of his winding journey as much as of the state of the world. And this world worries him.
“After the end of the Cold War, we thought for 30 years that we were living in a period of peace and that we could concentrate on helping developing countries to build a capacity for autonomy and a sense of responsibilities in their governance. Europe has demobilized [militairement]. Canada was able to purchase 120 brand new tanks because the Netherlands felt like they had too many! But during this time, the Americans, Chinese and Russians continued to rearm and modernize their security apparatus. This was all an international hypocrisy of enormous proportions! “, he says, convinced that this discrepancy largely explains Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He is also astounded to see that the international community is not using the tools and major principles that it adopted during the truce period which followed the fall of the former USSR and which is now buried. The most clear proof, according to him, is the destruction of Gaza over the past year by the Israeli army following the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Romeo Dallaire
It’s genocide! But whether we call it that or not, it has no influence on the political decisions of countries. There is not a country that feels obliged to react so that the scenario of genocide does not see the light of day. And when they see this scenario happening, they don’t even intervene to try to stop it in any concrete way.
Romeo Dallaire
“One of the concrete methods that we created after the Rwandan genocide was the concept of responsibility to protect. This tool says that sovereignty is not complete and that we can intervene to protect civilians. Not only are we not using it, but we continue to fuel both sides of the war and the use of force. Who cares about the impact on civilians! », asserts the former peacekeeper.
Without a real solution in the Middle East, which takes into account in particular the grievances of the Palestinians, still without a State, there will be no peace, only truces of varying length, believes Roméo Dallaire. “The security imposed by power, by force, will always be nothing more than a truce,” he repeats.
And 30 years after the genocide of the Tutsis which left immense scars on him, what does he think of the small African country and its authoritarian president who has just been re-elected with a Stalinist score of 99.18% voices? Democracy, which was to be put in place two years after the end of the killings, is still a dead letter there.
“What I see is a country trying to resolve its problems,” says Roméo Dallaire. His organization, which tries to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers across Africa, Latin America and Asia, still has an office there. “I have people in Mozambique, South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. If we look at all these scenarios in the countries where we are involved and we see the human destruction taking place there, the violations that exist against people and the recruitment of children and we compare that with the Rwanda, a country where everyone has a job and is fed, where the medical system is free, where we have rebuilt an education system which allows everyone to participate, Hutus as well as Tutsis… I believe that it is a country that can teach lessons to a “christie” from a large group of countries! Yes, there is a strong hand [à la tête du pays]but we are far from the days when people killed each other. »
Far, far also from the days when General Dallaire tried – without success – to wake up the powerful of the world to stop the massacre of men, women and children left to their own devices in the land of a thousand hills.
Questionnaire without filter
Coffee and me: I prefer tea with milk. Never coffee!
A historical event that I would have liked to attend: I wish I was a Templar!
A memorable read: I appreciate all the poetry. My latest book is also based on The divine comedy, of Dante.
The ideal morning: An ideal morning is waking up with my beloved wife Marie-Claude, feeding the chickens in the garden and sitting in front of our 200-year-old fireplace with a cup of tea and classical music. A peaceful reality that I allow myself to live now, after 30 years of agony.
Who is Roméo Dallaire?
- Born to a Canadian military father and a Dutch nurse mother in the aftermath of the Second World War, Roméo Dallaire grew up in the east end of Montreal. He joined the Canadian armed forces in 1964, at the height of the Cold War.
- In 1994, during the genocide in Rwanda, he commanded the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda. Faced with the scale of the massacres, he called for help, but encountered inaction from the international community.
- He has written four books in which he looks back on his experience and the lessons to be learned from it. I shook hands with the devil was the subject of a film adaptation. He has just published Peace, a warrior’s journey, published by Libre Expression.
- Senator from 2005 to 2014, Mr. Dallaire also established the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security. A chair of teaching leadership bearing his name was recently created at Laval University.
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