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| The book launch for They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children takes place Tuesday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. in Ondaatje Hall, Marion McCain Building. |
And then you realize, as you unlock your gaze from the boyâs, that heâs wearing a pink teddy bear backpack â the kind of backpack that kids in Halifax use to carry their granola bars and juice packs for daycare or play dates.
âIt is the most stark contrast that youâll ever see: the tough kid with the weapon in his hands with the pink teddy bear on his back,â says Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire (retired). âItâs the two extremes, the paradox of children forced into being warriors.â
Renowned for speaking out about the Rwanda genocideâand the failure of the international community to stop the carnageâLt. Gen. Dallaire wrote about what happened when the killing spree was unleashed in 1994 and 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days. He has referred to the writing of Shake Hands with the Devil as therapy, even though the devils nearly wrestled him down. He continues to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
If Shake Hands with the Devil was therapy, Lt. Gen. Dallaire regards the writing of They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children as his duty. After retiring from the armed forces, with whom he served 37 years, he says he was in need of a new vocation. In 2004-2005, he spent the academic year as a fellow at Harvard Universityâs Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and directed research into the problem of child soldiers. With child soldiers, he found his calling.
âWhen you havenât experienced it yourself, you can say, âOh jeez, thatâs a problem,ââ Lt. Gen. Dallaire says, speaking by phone in the back of a cab on his way to the airport. The book launch for They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children takes place at ±«Óătv, home of the Child Soldiers Initiative which he founded.
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| Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire. |
âBut when youâve met these kids and when youâve locked eyes across the barrel of a gun and theyâre drugged up and confused and sometimes hysterical, you canât forget. It is impossible to be neutral and unengaged.â
In the book, Lt. Gen. Dallaire chronicles how children are routinely abducted from their families and are subjected to forcible confinement, torture, threats, rape, brainwashing, slavery starvation and drug addiction. It is estimated that 250,000 boys and girls are being used as soldiers in conflicts worldwide.
With the launch of his book, Lt. Gov. Dallaire is also initiating a new initiative called Zero Force. The idea is to make young peopleâhigh school students and undergraduatesâaware of the global tragedy of child soldiers and get them to bring pressure to eradicate their use.
âThese are their peers,â he says. âSo we want them to be aware of whatâs happening, to get them engaged and wield their influence. I believe these young people are a dynamic force who are underutilized in this country.â
Home in Halifax
Started at Harvard University and maintained âin a sort of virtual formatâ through the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Ottawa, the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI) now finds its home at ±«Óătv University. The director of CSI is Shelly Whitman, also the deputy director of ±«Óătvâs Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. âHaving (CSI) at ±«Óătv gives it its intellectual rigor and access to research,â says Lt. Gen. Dallaire. âWhen I first talked about it to Shelly, and she raised it with Professor (David) Black, well, we were welcomed with extraordinary warmth ... there was such great accommodation for us that we hadnât found at other places.â |
Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire (retired) will be at ±«Óătv University for the launch of his new book, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children. The event takes place Tuesday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. in Ondaatje Hall, Marion McCain Building.