Shake Hands with the Devil

Dallaire and his staff struggled with a lack of supplies, even fax paper, leading to arguments with Hallqvist. A date was set for the inauguration ceremony of the BBTG, but Habyarimana’s government stalled, fearing that the new government would have its own members imprisoned. Dallaire wished the RPF would make some concessions to soothe such fears, but they “had shown little interest in negotiating” (138). In the end, moderates were excluded from many positions in the new BBTG, with posts instead going to members of the extremist Hutu Power factions. The RPF’s representatives left in protest, creating a political stalemate.

Dallaire and his staff began receiving reports from an informant they nicknamed “Jean-Pierre,” who claimed to be training soldiers for an extremist Hutu militia, the Interahamwe. The militia’s recruits made lists of Tutsis living in their native villages and towns. Despite Jean-Pierre’s professed hatred of the RPF, “he was horrified that he had been drawn into a plan to create a series of highly efficient death squads that [ . . . ] could kill a thousand Tutsis in Kigali within twenty minutes of receiving the order” (142).