Quotes by Romeo Dallaire

About Romeo Dallaire:

Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire is a Canadian humanitarian, author and retired senator and general. Dallaire served as Force Commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994, and attempted to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Dallaire is the founder of The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) and Co-Director of the Will to Intervene Project that released a policy recommendation report "Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership and Action to Prevent Mass Atrocities."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I know there is a God 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.

Romeo Dallaire

Many signs point to the fact that the youth of the Third World will no longer tolerate living in circumstances that give them no hope for the future. From the young boys I met in the demobilization camps in Sierra Leone to the suicide bombers of Pale...

Romeo Dallaire

Money follows interest, and interest is largely driven by media attention, which is more easily captured by the drama of conflict than by peace.

Romeo Dallaire

If we don't harness their potential for good, their societies will continue to reap their capacity for evil.

Romeo Dallaire

Where you are born should not dictate your potential as a human being.

Romeo Dallaire

The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well.

Romeo Dallaire

I think that one of the benefits of optimism and idealism is that they lead you into things you would never have tried if you'd let yourself imagine how hard it was going to turn out to be.

Romeo Dallaire

Kofi Annan was the U.N. Under-Secretary General for peacekeeping operations. He had the responsibilities in regards to the mounting and operation of peacekeeping missions around the world.

Romeo Dallaire

The first breath of air of Africa - it felt like you were in another continent - you were, you were - and it was different.

Romeo Dallaire

I felt it absolutely essential that we plant the U.N. flag in Rwanda and plant it in a place of significance to show all the political entities, all the signees of the agreement and the Rwandans... that the international community were here and we're...

Romeo Dallaire

Now, in this U.N. stuff, the commander, although he has troops, they don't really belong to him. They're loaned by the country to the U.N. to be used, but each of these countries provide a contingent commander, a senior guy who communicates directly ...

Romeo Dallaire

Those who are mastering more and more the communications revolution, those who realize that there are no borders in the world, are the ones who are going to leap ahead.

Romeo Dallaire

I think the only value of 'Hotel Rwanda' is the fact that it keeps the Rwandan genocide alive, but as far as content, it's Hollywood.

Romeo Dallaire

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.

Romeo Dallaire

PTSD has a terminal side to it that calls for more urgency.

Romeo Dallaire

Are all humans human? Or are some more human than others?

Romeo Dallaire

The night I flew out from Rwanda, I landed in Nairobi, and I was on my way back home, and my left side started to paralyze and remained paralyzed with pain, and the stress and so on began to appear physically.

Romeo Dallaire

Death became a desired option. I hoped I would hit a mine or run into an ambush and just end it all. I think some part of me wanted to join the legions of the dead, whom I had failed.

Romeo Dallaire

I promised never to let the Rwandan Genocide die because I knew the Rwandans didn't have much power internationally and certainly didn't have the resources. I felt it was my duty having witnessed it, and having stayed to witness it, that I had to tal...

Romeo Dallaire

There was no way to laugh anymore, to love, to care, and there was a sense of guilt in having survived when others had been killed. I turned into a worse workaholic than I had already been by trying to work myself into the ground.

Romeo Dallaire

Author Bio

  • NameRomeo Dallaire
  • DescriptionCanadian politician
  • BornJune 25, 1946
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionPolitician; Autobiographer; Writer
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Legion Of Merit; Officer Of The Order Of Canada; Freedom Award; Grand Officer Of The National Order Of Quebec