Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey Of Romeo Dallaire

Teachers in history educate the Western world's youth about the atrocities of World War II. These lessons are visually illustrated, and occasionally depicted, through films that teachers bring to the lesson, which presents the horrid concentration camps and the genocide of the Jews in these camps such as Auswitch, Buchenwald, and Treblinka. One documentary that depicts the cruelty of the genocide of World War II is Night and Fog (1955) by Alain Resnais. Through the decades teaching about the atrocities in the concentration camps continues to echo through the minds of the youth, as the word rings "Let this never happen again."

Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire wishes that the wisdom learned from World War II was applied when he took the command of United Nations mission in Rwanda in 1993. The situation in Rwanda steadily worsened when Dallaire arrived to Rwanda, as radio programs continued to hoist prejudice and hatred toward the Tutsi and the French were arming the country's troops consisting of Hutus. The majority religion in Rwanda, Catholicism, disregarded the hatred and let it continue as the instability in the country turned it into a butcher shop after the killing of the president, which was blamed upon the Tutsi.

During Dallaire's command, he tried numerous times to convince the United Nations to act before it was too late. However, the leading world was more concerned about the war in former Yugoslavia while the public drew their interest through the many news stations to O.J. Simpson's infamous small gloves. Abandoned at his post with an insufficient number of soldiers to handle a murderous rampage that took place in Rwanda, Dallaire could only do one thing, watch and try to save as many as he could.

One scene introduces the audience to a place where ten Belgian soldiers were murdered. Dallaire who was there did not act on the slaughter killings of these soldiers, as he considered it too dangerous for the mission and it could put all of his present men at risk. Yet, the Belgian senator of Rwanda had the stomach to complain that Dallaire did not act to save the ten soldiers that were killed at the outpost. This supports the notion that the Belgians did not consider the 800,000 Rwandan's that were brutally murdered by machetes and guns, as the Belgians withdrew their troops from the country. Besides did the Canadians not aid the Belgians in their fight for freedom during World War II?

The story is thoughtfully told through Dallaire's personal struggle to cope with the post-traumatic stress that he suffers from due to the time in Rwanda, as he returns to the country of his haunting nightmares. He vividly remembers the smell of rotting corpses, the view of mutilated women and children, and the cries of people being butchered in the night. These events continued for over 100 days when he was in command of the United Nations' outpost in Rwanda while the United Nations' Cabinet did nothing to prevent the brutal killings. Instead the Western World repeated history, as they turned their backs to the people of Rwanda just as they did to the Jews in the Evian Conference of 1938 by closing their borders to German-Jewish refugees.

Sadly, this documentary provides an image of the atrocities in Rwanda, which still seem to be swept under the rug in the Western World. Sure, it is recognized today, but the Western World does not want to talk about its blood stained hands, as it is too difficult, maybe because of guilt. Nonetheless, it is a story that should be told and that unfortunately took place in a remote part of the world compared to the Western World. Dallaire raises his voice and speaks out, the way he experienced it, while others tried to take potshots at him. Ultimately, Shake Hands with the Devil offers a tragic story that should be a tool to help educate the world of the atrocities, and maybe this time the Western World can get it right when they say, "Let this never happen again."

After seeing this film, I rushed out to purchase Gen. Dallaire's book with the same title. While reading it, I saw this documentary twice more on the Documentary channel and was struck by how much the film changes with each viewing and after learning more and more of the background to the film.

This film, in retrospect, seems like an appendix to the book. It covers a fair bit about the war in Rwanda but more in summary style and as a tour of affected areas than a straight-up documentary outlining the history of the conflict. The film spends a great deal of time focusing on Dallaire's role in post-war trials, hearings, and reconciliation and on the impact of the war on Dallaire personally and its survivors in Rwanda. All of those matters were largely glossed over in the conclusion to the book, making this film a very important addition to its readers.

Both this film and the book are incredibly emotional, considering the position of their creator. The frank and open discussion of the wounds of war and, more specifically, post traumatic stress disorder, are eye opening and extremely relevant today.

Although I haven't purchased this DVD and did see nearly the entire program. With the pending film of Imaculee Illabigiza's experience likely to made or come out with documentary compliments. I remember about the rivers in Rwanda being so full of bodies and running red and wondering why not a single Western even tried to do anything. This film, complete with many interviews of Romeo Dallaire and other including Paul Kagame (now President of Rwanda) goes into more depth about what happened in those early days as well as final ones of the genocide. I recommend this film and hope that its viewed and understood why it must be seen by all who are mature enough to watch it. There are a few graphic still photos but nothing outrageous. What is more disturbing is the lack of action and even 10 years later the evidence that the Western nations still do not care about Africa. (See Darfur.)

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