Shake Hands with the Devil

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Sociopolitical Documentary published by Others in 2004 - English narration

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Based on his Governor General Award winning book (entitled SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE FAILURE OF HUMANITY IN RWANDA), Shake Hands With The Devil:The Journey of Romeo Dallaire is the searing, emotional journey of Canadian Lt-General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1994. When Dallaire received the call to serve as force commander of the UN mission to Rwanda, he thought he was heading off to Africa to help two warring parties achieve a peace both sides wanted. Instead, he and members of his small international force were caught up in a vortex of civil war and genocide. The decision by the United Nations to maintain only a minimal military presence in Rwanda in 1994 proved fatal for the native Tutsi people. In 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the Rwanda genocide, as the international community turned its back & General Dallaire was left without the any means to stop it. The experience led to Dallaire's own life tragedies as he dealt with the psychological fallout of witnessing a genocide he was powerless to stop. Dallaire left Rwanda a broken man, disillusioned, suicidal, and determined to tell his story.

An award-winning international sensation, filmed during General Dallaire's first return to Rwanda in April, 2004, Shake Hands With The Devil is a landmark contribution to the literature of war: a remarkable tale of a soldier's courage and an unforgettable portrait of modern war. It is also a stinging indictment of the petty bureaucrats who refused to give Dallaire the men and the operational freedom he needed to stop the killing. "I know there is a God," Dallaire writes, "because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God."