2006 Human Security Summit

October 11, 2006

The Coalition Advocating Human Security, a program of UCI’s Center for Unconventional Security Affairs

- Introduction of General Dallaire -

by Richard Matthew, PhD, CUSA Director

In 1994 I began teaching at Georgetown University, where I was hired to replace Dr. Abiodun Williams, a native of Sierra Leone, who had decided to leave the academic world to join the UN Peacekeeping effort in Bosnia.

Dr. Williams and Dr. Marilyn McMorrow had just founded a program on power and justice at Georgetown, and I was asked to replace Abi as the co-Director of this new initiative.

Our focus for much of that first year was on human rights and genocide.

As they learned about what had just happened in Rwanda, and also in Bosnia, our students were shocked.

How, they asked, could the world make such strong commitments to human rights and dignity, as it did after World War II, and yet fail to act in the face of genocide?

For some students, the message was clear—the world is a violent and unfair place, but impossible to change, and so you were well-advised to build some walls and look after yourself.

But other students would show up at my office, saying I want to go to Africa, I want to help people, I want to do the right thing--but am I wasting my time, am I crazy, can I make a difference?

My students then and now faced the same dilemma all of us face-why should we care, why should we make the extra effort to lead moral lives, why should we fight for the dignity of poor, desperate people living thousands of miles away, when our political institutions and leaders do not, when there is no pressing economic reason to do so, and when our prospects for success seem so small?

I would say to my students that the most important people in history have been those who have stood up for what is right, and that while they never solved all the problems they witnessed, they made possible the freedom and dignity that we enjoy.

We are part of something larger than ourselves, we are the direct beneficiaries of many past acts of courage and moral fortitude, and the plights of people today and in the future depend in part on how courageous and good we are prepared to be.

And as informed and capable individuals, we have opportunities that governments do not have, and we should take advantage of these.

At Georgetown, as here at UCI, we brought in people who, in the face of dispiriting odds, had acted with courage and dignity to help others.

In a lot of ways these people are not so different from the rest of us—they get tired, they have doubts, they make mistakes, they despair.

But it is truly inspiring to hear their stories, and I think it is reassuring because it reminds us that we all have the capacity to care and to act and to make a difference, just as we probably all have the capacity to do evil or to do nothing.

Over the years I have been able to travel as a researcher through areas of great misery and injustice in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. I have visited refugee camps, and talked to landmine victims and child soldiers.

I know the world’s problems are big and complicated ones, but my experiences have convinced me that what we do matters, very directly, very viscerally, to people in need. Many times I have been told, the fact that you are here helps us and gives us hope. And meeting people in abject conditions I am reminded that we do have something in common—we are human together.

In the grand scheme of things, my actions, and those of my students, have been a very small gesture to the betterment of humankind.

I suppose that nothing any of us can do can ever be enough, although I believe that what we can do is of real and immeasurable importance.

Which brings me to tonight’s speaker.

I do not know how familiar you are with General Romeo Dallaire’s story.

In 1993 he traveled to Rwanda as UN Force Commander for what was expected to be an easy mission overseeing the implementation of the Arusha Peace Accord.

But very quickly the accord began to unravel and the mission changed character.

General Dallaire realized that he was on the threshold of a genocide.

He knew that international law allowed for preventive action, and he knew that while his small contingent of under-resourced peacekeepers could not turn the tide, all he needed to back down the instigators and seize control of the situation was perhaps two thousand well-trained and provisioned troops.

General Dallaire was not naïve; he knew his peacekeeping force was embedded in a vast, multinational bureaucracy that was not designed for quick and decisive action.

But the need was so clear, the opportunity so immediate—one can only imagine his despair and frustration, and marvel at his leadership and ingenuity as he followed one channel after another only to be turned down by the leaders of the world.

In spite of this, during the four months of the genocide General Dallaire was able to use his dwindling forces to save thousands of lives.

And since that time, at great cost to his own well-being, he has traveled the world bearing witness to what happened, sharing his experiences, and lending his support to countless humanitarian efforts.

I am humbled to be on the same stage as General Dallaire.

For me he is the very paradigm of the quiet, self-effacing courage and dignity that constantly redeem and uplift humankind, he is the global face of something truly profound, but something that each one of us can hope to find in ourselves.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you General and Senator Romeo Dallaire.

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