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Dallaire recalls Rwandan death threat

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  • Dallaire recalls Rwandan death threat

    Dallaire recalls Rwandan death threat
    Canadian general tells of 'coup' that followed president's death


    SUKHDEV CHHATBAR
    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    ARUSHA, Tanzania — Retired Canadian Lt.-Gen Romeo Dallaire, the peacekeeping commander in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, told a UN tribunal today that he was threatened with death by the former Rwandan ministry of defence chief of staff who is now on trial for crimes against humanity.

    Dallaire began testifying today against four senior Rwandan military officers, including then-chief of staff Col. Theoneste Bagosora. The Hutu officers have been charged with organizing the 100 days of massacres in 1994 that left more than 500,000 people dead, most of them Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

    "I was threatened with a pistol (by Bagosora) and was told that next time he will kill me," said Dallaire, 57.

    Dallaire, dressed in a dark blue suit, recognized Bagosora in the courtroom when asked by the prosecution to point him out. Dallaire was in command of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda between October 1993 and August 1994. He retired in April 2000 because of post-traumatic stress and has complained of nightmares from his experiences in Rwanda.

    Dallaire said he had met Bagosora and other senior Rwandan officials, seeking to stop the massacres, which began shortly after the Rwandan president's plane was shot down over the capital on April 6, 1994. With the minister of defence absent, Bagosora took control of the country, Dallaire said.

    The prosecution alleges that Bagosora orchestrated the genocide after assuming control of the army and the political affairs of Rwanda.

    Bagosora clearly looked in charge the night the plane was shot down, Dallaire said, and Bagosora rejected the authority of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimina. Dallaire said he was surprised at Uwilingiyimina's absence from the crisis meeting and said the meeting was "something like planning a coup."

    Rwandan troops raped Uwilingiyimina and killed her, as well as 10 Belgium peacekeepers the next day. The presidential guard started the killing in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, and even had a list of people to be killed and their addresses, Dallaire added.

    Bagosora also chaired military meetings April 7 and 8, which led Dallaire to believe that Bagosora was behind the killings, he said.

    Dallaire said he knew that genocide had been planned from a ``variety of sources" and had notified his superiors at UN headquarters in New York three months before the killing began. Instead of giving him the additional troops he requested, UN officials ordered the withdrawal of all but 270 of the peacekeepers.

    Dallaire said he did not have enough troops to contain the violence and that even though the peacekeepers set up five sites to protect people, there were persistent incursions by the extremists.

    Dallaire was scheduled to continue his testimony tomorrow.

    Bagosora, Brig. Gen. Gratien Kabiligi, Col. Anatole Nsengiyumva and Maj. Aloys Ntabakuze have pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for their roles in the massacres, which only stopped when Tutsi-led rebels drove the Hutu extremists out of power in July 1994.

    This is the second time Dallaire has testified before the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 1998, he testified at the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor who was convicted of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment.

    The tribunal was set up in November 1994 and has so far convicted 16 people and acquitted one.

  • #2
    Re: Dallaire recalls Rwandan death threat

    In 1998, he testified at the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor who was convicted of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment.
    YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!!!!!!!!!!

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    • #3
      Man UN sucks. They can't even hang a guy who have killed thousands of people.

      Kill the UN. The only things worth saving are the WHO and UNESCO.

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