A responsibility to help

Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (Ret.).(Bruce Bottomley Photo)

In countries not so far away, children the same age as our younger brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews are being used as weapons to fight in the world’s bloodiest battles. Young girls strap dynamite to their bodies and enter public areas with the intention of detonating themselves.  Young boys are given alcohol and drugs to erase any apprehension they may have when they’re holding an AK-47 and the plan is to kill other human beings. 
Canada has made a commitment to stop this horrific use of children, yet few people are aware of the situation.

Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (Ret.), spoke to 1,000 people in the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Friday, March 5.  Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s seminar focused on child soldiers and Canada as a leading middle power. 

The topic of child soldiers is something Lt.-Gen. Dallaire is clearly passionate about. Prior to the seminar, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire warned Dr. Shelly Whitman, Deputy Director for the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, that she may have to go up on stage and pry the microphone from his hands or he could talk all day. He spoke with no notes and only used a power point for a visual aid for the audience. He was an engaging, warm speaker, often making jokes about foreign policy issues while at the same time being serious and sharing his experience witnessing genocide and the need to end the use of child soldiers. 

As one of the nine most powerful countries in the world, Canada has signed protocol on child rights during armed conflict. Yet there is a minimal effort being put in by Canada when it comes to using children as weapons.

“I don’t think that the problem has been raised to the profile that it deserves. We don’t want nuclear war right? However, we’re quite prepared to watch 30 wars go on where the weapon is a child with an AK-47.  Well that’s something that doesn’t make any sense and that’s what we got to get the focus on,” said Lt.-Gen. Dallaire who spoke to Dalnews prior to the seminar.

Lt.-Gen. Dallaire further explained that young adults have the power to increase knowledge and raise the profile of the use child soldiers. He suggests university students write a simple letter to their MP asking what they’re doing to prevent the use of child soldiers and reminding them of the commitment Canada has made on human rights. Another way for university students to get involved is to lobby nongovernmental organizations at a grassroots level and spread information.

Lt.-Gen. Dallaire commanded the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and was witness to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.  There, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire experienced first-hand the use of child soldiers and also later in Sierra Leone. 

During his time in Rwanda, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire entered a checkpoint where a young boy shoved an AK-47 in his nostril. The only thing that kept the young boy from pulling the trigger, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire believes, was the chocolate bar in his hand. 

While in Rwanda, Lt.-Gen Dallaire was pressured by the UN to withdraw his troops from Rwanda. After witnessing the destruction and the dehumanization of thousands of innocent lives, he refused to abandon the Rwandan people and stayed protecting and saving thousands of lives. Since then, he has done much work in the fields of conflict resolution, post-traumatic stress disorder and the eradication of the use of child soldiers. He is currently a Senator for Québec.

For more information, see: Child Soldiers Initiative | Romeo Dallaire