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Ex-UN commander calls for intervention
The Daily News Online Edition
March 02, 2005

http://www.daily-news.co.za

Johannesburg - A commander of a United Nations (UN) peace-keeping force during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has warned there is urgent need for regional and international intervention to prevent Zimbabwe's political crisis from further deteriorating.

Lt-Gen Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian who commanded the UN force during one of the worst genocides in human history, said lack of regional and international action on Zimbabwe was a perfect example of a lack of political will to prevent crises from developing. Lt -Gen Dallaire drew parallels between the strife in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, where there is international inaction, and Zimbabwe which the SADC region and South Africa, in particular, have largely remained silent on. He issued the warning during his address at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria on Friday. Lt-Gen Dallaire lectures widely around the world on peacekeeping, providing an insight into his bitter experiences in Rwanda where about one million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed between April and May 1994. He has also written a book on the genocide entitled Shake Hands with the Devil.

"South Africa should not feel held back by its apartheid past from playing a far greater leadership role in the region," he said. "Lack of regional and international action on Darfur and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of a lack of political will to prevent crises developing." During the build up to the Rwandan genocide, Lt-Gen Dallaire repeatedly warned the UN Security Council and the United States government that there was an urgent need to intervene to help the tiny central African country from sliding into chaos. His fears were ignored. Instead, the UN Security Council and the United States reduced the number of the UN peace keeping mission in Rwanda that time preferring to boost its presence in Kosovo. This proved disastrous as Lt-Gen Dallaire's peace keeping mission could not help but just watch as Hutu extremists in Rwanda went on a killing spree of Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. Both the UN and the United States have publicly apologised for failing to react to Lt-Gen Dallaire's repeated warnings. Although the political situation in Zimbabwe could not be as tense as it was in Rwanda during the build-up to the massacres, observers fear the political situation could deteriorate if there is no immediate regional or international intervention.

President Mugabe's Zanu PF government is blamed for using violence and intimidation to cow supporters of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Journalists from the independent media and foreign correspondents have also been targeted by President Mugabe's government in its quest to silence any form of criticism to its maladministration and poor human rights record.

Reports of violence and intimidation targeted at supporters of the MDC and journalists from the independent press and foreign correspondents are said to be on the increase ahead of the crucial March 31 election. Analysts have warned of disastrous consequences if the elections are held in an environment deemed to be heavily tilted in favour of the ruling party. During his brief stay in South Africa, Lt-Gen Dallaire met South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and senior defence force members.

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