Canadian (retired) Gen. Romeo Dallaire and former head of the UN mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) has called upon the international community not to ignore the ongoing situation in Central African Republic.
He told media that the world — and Canada, in particular — is dangerously overlooking how dire CAR’s situation is and he calls on Ottawa to revive Canada’s peacekeeping role and join a proposed UN mission of 12,000.
He condemned the lack of forceful action to date as a bias against Africa’s conflicts.
Dallaire noted, “Let’s not divorce what’s happening in the Central African Republic with what happened 20 years ago in Rwanda,” Dallaire said in a recent interview.
“More and more, we have been able to present the argument that recruitment of child soldiers is a social breakdown that leads to atrocities, because that’s why they get them. They drug them and so on and there’s no limit to what the kids will end up doing. That escalates to genocide.”
Twenty years ago, as the head of the UN mission in Rwanda during the genocide that killed over a million ethnic Tutsi’s in just 100 days, Dallaire’s calls for intervention went unheeded until too late.
“We’ve actually established a damn pecking order and the sub-Saharan black African — yes we’re interested but it just doesn’t count enough to spill our blood, to get embroiled in something complex that will need longer-term stability and influence.”
When calls of a looming genocide first came here in December, a contingent of 2,000 French troops did arrive quickly, followed by 6,000 African Union peacekeepers, who together now patrol the streets.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for a UN mission is still being debated by the Security Council.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan has been pressing Ottawa to respond to CAR situation. Her efforts resulted in a four-hour “take note” debate last month.
“We say ‘never again,’ but it’s 20 years from Rwanda and it’s ever again,” Duncan said in an interview Friday. “Canada could be playing a substantial role right now in supporting peace and reconciliation.”
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