Canada In Rwanda

The Rwanda genocide has been known as one of humanity’s biggest failure in terms of scale of casualties and course of action taken by developed nations. An estimate of about 800,000 – 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus’ were killed by Hutu extremists. This resulted in the exodus of 2,000,000 Tutsis’ from Rwanda to countries surrounding the nation, this event was known as the Great Lake refugee crisis. What was Canada’s role in combating the Rwanda genocide? Canada took the role as the leader of the attempted prevention of the genocide that took place in Rwanda. The nation was the driving force in the United Nations. Although these efforts could not prevent the devastation of the conflict, it signified Canada’s relentless efforts in Rwanda
The fighting and outcry of Rwanda began to grab the attention of world leaders. Peacekeeping missions were a priority to stop the genocide. In October 1994, the United Nations formed the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda. The main objective of this mission was to end the civil war in Rwanda. Canada was asked to take leadership of UNAMIR and 2500 military personnel. Canada was to cooperate with nations including Belgium and the United Kingdom on this assistance mission. Canadian general Romeo Dallaire was put in charge of the mission. The setup seemed to be heading in the right direction. However, Complications occurred for Canada, while UNAMIR was deployed in Rwanda, Proper protocol was for UNAMIR to remain hands off while dealing with genocide. This meant no armed conflict was to be used while in Rwanda. Too further complicate the mission, Romeo Dallare said “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 back to his capital.” This meant UNAMIR was not a typical military force, each military personnel were from different countries around the world, so miscommunication occurred because of the different cultures,
Canada was known as the political middle ground during the 1994 genocide. They voiced their many concerns on the state of the UN on how its diplomacy was slow in response. The Prime Minster at the time, Jean Chretien, said he was “extremely concerned, frustrated with the foot dragging and slow-motion diplomacy at