A few days ago I had the privilege of seeing Lt. Gen Roméo Dallaire present the Charles R. Bronfman Lecture in Canadian Studies at the University of Ottawa. The event was webcast live and can be seen here: http://events.onlinebroadcasting.com/uottawa/102004.
The turnout was incredible: the room in which he spoke was full to overflowing and we actually watched his speech on CCTV at the University Centre which was also standing room only. I've (inadequately) summarized some of the points of his talk here.
In his opinion, continuing unrest in Africa will inevitably lead to dire consequences for western countries. In addition to self-interest, the west's professed concern for human rights (as well as the part many western powers have played in fucking up Africa) obligates them to contribute generously to African development and peacekeeping operations.
Unfortunately the classic rules of war and peacekeeping no longer apply in a world where African "armies" are composed of teenage boys and girls who've been coerced into combat on pain of death. This type of war, and not operations like Kosovo or the first Gulf War, will be the norm and a new vision is required to fight them. As an example of how not to fight such a war, he cited Khartoum's ability to continue their genocidal actions in Darfur as a tiny force of African Union soldiers "observes" ineffectually.
What will replace the classic rules? Dallaire's answer was basically: I'm thinking about it and so should you. He emphasized that Canada was especially suited to the task. As representatives of a middle power without colonial baggage (as far as Africa was concerned, Dallaire did mention our poor treatment of First Peoples) and a tradition of peacekeeping, Canadian soldiers have the ability to "go into the alleyways" and talk to people one-on-one without arousing the suspicions that soldiers from the US or European colonial powers might arouse.
One of the follow up questions pointed up one of the glaring problems with this - Canada's neglect ("verging on abuse") of the military. On a related note he did mention that the death of two Canadian soldiers in Kabul was not a consequence of the jeeps being inadequate. He also emphatically pointed out that the current war in Iraq was wrong and any war led by a "single-nation led coalition" lacked credibility - the UN was the only institution capable of exerting such authority and must be strengthened.
I can't say I agreed with everything he said, but it was thought provoking and inspiring. In the end, it was a message of hope and a call to arms: despite past failures of humanity there is a possibility that eventually western countries will do right by Africa and Canada ought to be in the vanguard of that movement.
Posted by alokem at October 23, 2004 10:28 PM