Talk:Roméo Dallaire

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Untitled
Why is his role in the death of the ten Belgian paratroopers not mentioned in this article? In Belgium he is considered a coward bearing a huge responsibility of the Rwanda Genocide. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Old man peanut (talk • contribs) 12:58, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

The Life after Rwanda Section contained a vandalized portion of text in the 2nd paragraph, and needs to be fixed with the pre-existing information. (I just removed the Blah, Blah, lol... that was written over it) - Deathsythe 11/20/06 6:30 EST

The dust jacket from "Shake Hands with the Devil" describes him as having post-traumatic stress disorder, not clinical depression.

Tragic Telegram
This article should mention the trafic telegram the Dallaire sent the UN headquarters warning of the imminent genocide, and requesting permission to raid arms depots. Axeman89 21:01, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Romeo Dallaire will make a speech concerning genocide prevention at the Croatian Cultural Centre (Vancouver, BC, Canada) on June 13th at 7:30 PM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.180.126.153 (talk) 19:24, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Hotel Rwanda
I wouldn't think LGen.Dallaire would like that Hotel Rwanda's Major was based on him to be included in the entry. Read for yourself, from MacLean's:

Q&A with Romeo Dallaire

'Mr. Nolte never talked to me. I feel slighted.'

BRIAN D. JOHNSON

More than a decade after witnessing genocide as the commander of a neglected UN force in Rwanda, Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire now has to endure the indignity of seeing himself loosely portrayed -- very loosely -- by a shambling Nick Nolte in Hotel Rwanda. Like other veterans of African disasters, he's also distressed by the discrepancy between the tsunami relief and aid for crises in Rwanda and Darfur. This week, Dallaire visits the Sundance Film Festival as the subject of Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, a documentary based on his bestselling book (it airs on CBC Jan. 31). mu5ti/&#9999; 18:28, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, it's still important for the article that Hollywood made this 'adaptation'. So it should be included. --Saforrest 00:47, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)


 * The "based on" probably alludes to the fact that both were astonished at the horrible events, were limited by their governments in what they could do about it, yet both tried to do as much good as they possible could. Aside from that, there really aren't many similarities. Wouter Lievens 09:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Military Rank Abbreviations
After much digging, I've found the official rank abbreviations for Canadian Army. 




 * Perhaps this belongs on Canadian Armed Forces??? Cburnett 23:15, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Was meant for my edits on the main article page. Thanks. mu5ti/&#9999; 03:35, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

OC
What do the letters "OC" stand for after his name? This should be linked properly. Paradiso 05:18, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * He's probably a member of the Order of Canada. --Spinboy 05:23, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * The article mentions that he was an Officer of the Order of Canada, so are we sure this is what OC stands for? Paradiso 05:27, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's on the page for the Order of Canada. --Spinboy 05:32, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Image
Please note that the current picture is taken from The Canada Council for the Arts webpage, and is NOT under Crown copyright as the uploader suggests: "All artworks, photographs and other images used on this site are the property of the artist and/or photographer who have contributed them. ". Please see for details. mu5ti/talk 16:27, July 17, 2005 (UTC)


 * Dealt with, I took a free-use photograph this afternoon - issue resolved. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 04:14, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
 * With all due respect to Sherurcij efforts, there are better pictures of Gen. Dallaire all over the Internet. The problem with the current picture is that it hardly serves as a portrait picture, but rather shows only a profile of him. I propose that this image be used instead. SimsimTee (talk) 21:12, 13 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, I tracked it down to this from this page. Note the copyright notice on the latter page: "Images are made available for promotional purposes provided that author photo credit is given where indicated." Could this make publishing the picture here permissible? We can even put it in the Commons repository. SimsimTee (talk) 21:53, 13 April 2008 (UTC)


 * That's indeed a great image, you would need to eMail Jean-Marc Carisse and check that he is willing to license the image under the terms of CC-BY (which it sounds like he might be willing to do, if what you say is correct), and then we can use it. If we don't have that permission, we can't. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 22:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, I emailed Mr. Carisse and just got a reply from him licensing a lower-resolution version of the image (396px × 540px, 60KB). One problem that I don't know how Wikipedia reacts to is that the licensed image contains an added footer with the Mr. Carisse's credit of the photo. I've never seen such footers attached to any image in Wikipedia so I'm assuming that is not allowed, right? Maybe Mr. Carisse is not aware that the Image namespace features are more than enough to hold every possible copyright and/or credit information he might want to attach to his work.


 * How would I go about all this? Should I write to him back? Or we could edit the image later on and remove the footer, provided doing this is within the GFDL guidelines? Also how I can I confirm Mr. Carisse permission to use his photo? Should I forward the email to Wikimedia foundation? SimsimTee (talk) 16:03, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I think that would be best, eMail back and ask permission to crop out the copyright notice explaining that it's manually added to the image's page on Wikipedia and all corresponding projects through WikiCommons. Cheers. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 23:43, 17 April 2008 (UTC)


 * If I may put my two cents worth, the actual image as of May 9th, 2008 is IMHO rather interesting, as it shows Mr. Dalaire under a more natural, casual view (no disrespect), compared to the proposed photo. I find that last one gives more of a rigid, "posing" image. So what I mean is the actual photo makes him look more natural, alive, rather than a static picture. Like I said, my 2¢ worth.Mandragorae (talk) 06:17, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

A
What does the "A" in "Roméo A. Dallaire" stand for? LeoDV 15:45, 22 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Somebody added "Alain"; do we have a reference for that? A Google search for 'Roméo Alain Dallaire' turned up only the Wikipedia page. --Saforrest 18:16, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

With great admiration
It is with great admiration and respect that I write this note. The humanity of General Dallaire and his troops humbles me. God Bless.

4.36.254.76


 * In a similar note, I'm quite ashamed that our government and troops chickened out. We had and and still have a moral obligation to protect the people of our formal colonies and have up till today failed to do so. Wouter Lievens 09:30, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Gen. Dallaire's mother's name
Just a detail: general Dallaire's mother is consistently referred to, in his book as well as in this Wikipedia article, as Ms Catherine Vermeassen. There is no such name in Dutch. It should be corrected to 'Vermaesen', a surname referring to the (beautiful) river Maas. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.32.204.145 (talk • contribs).
 * Hmm, it looks like you're right. Though every English source consistently gives "Vermeassen", there is this and also this, which gives her name as "Catherina Vermaesen" (the fully Dutch form). --Saforrest 03:45, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Should his book not be considered the authoritative source for the spelling though? My family name has an "alternative spelling", so I know very well how easy it is to jump to the conclusion that "oh, this must be misspelled" - a near constant source of minor grief. Observer31 23:57, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Dutch misspelling sounds wrong, its not a word. We absolutely should trust Dallaire's autobiography on this one, anything else is original research, SqueakBox 00:11, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Introduction
Wow. That's the most unwieldy list of abbreviations I've seen on any bio, royals included. Is there some precedent for listing all of a person's degrees, military ranks, and other miscellaneous honors in the first paragraph like that? I'd love to knock a few of them off (the bachelor's degree comes to mind), but if someone has a reason I shouldn't, speak now. djrobgordon 02:49, 17 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Just make sure you mention the honours later in the article, or they're already mentioned - but I agree, too unwieldy right now. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 03:58, 22 January 2007 (UTC)


 * True. What is the benefit of mentioning BS.c among the ranks and honors he received? Shall someone please remove it as it's redundant, IMO.--SimsimTee (talk) 16:55, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

HIS MIDDLE NAME IS NOT Alain!
If you read his book you would know! DUH!!!!!!!! [Recent changes patroler]Dell970 23:10, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Antonius, it has been corrected with a proper source. Sherurcij (speaker for the dead) 17:15, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Nearly lost sanity

 * -nearly lost sanity - what does this mean? A citation is probably needed, otherwise it looks like a speculation to me! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.65.46.146 (talk) 08:25, 26 January 2007 (UTC).


 * Strongly agreed, there was a recent large edit which I feel largely compromised the scholarly tone of the article and inserted a single Wikipedian's editorialising. If he would like to pursue an RfC then I by all means invite it, but otherwise can't help but feel that he is unfortunately lessening the quality of the work presented here (none of which was written by me, I just contributed a photograph).


 * a) You changed the thumbnail photo to a full-screen image throwing off the page layout.
 * b)You inserted the claim "Gen. Romeo Dallaire defied U.N. orders to withdraw from Rwanda" which is (I believe) patently untrue.
 * c) You editorialised, saying "Without the authority, manpower, or equipment to stop the slaughter, he saved the lives he could"
 * d) You provided a sloppy summary of a nervous breakdown by saying "but nearly lost his sanity." which has no medical or legal meaning and is more a term used by fiction authors than by encyclopaedias.
 * e) You removed the ((fact)) tag that somebody had stuck on the claim that Clinton refused to send troops due to the Battle of Mogadishu, without providing a citation yourself, you simply removed the tag.
 * f) You removed the exact date of April 22nd from his discharge and instead just wrote "In 2000"
 * g) You included the completely spurious, WP:NOR and presumptive phrase "Dallaire's reluctance to give himself credit for what he managed to accomplish certainly contributed to his breakdown."
 * h) You included a quote from a random passerby who said ""He was curled up in a ball," photographer Stephane Beaudoin, alerted by a police report, later told the Ottawa Citizen. "I never took a photo. I felt sad for him." which adds nothing to an encyclopaedic understanding of Dallaire, it is a random person's opinion.
 * i) You included a link (in improper format) to a website (your own?) from which most of your additions were plagarized/copied.
 * I am sorry to be blunt, but this edit added nothing to the article, and is being reverted. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 08:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)


 * you people. I wrote all of it. Duh! plus I had soruces! and Dallarie tried to kill him self, nearly lost sanity has lots to do with the fact that he saw alot of bad stuff in Rwanda. And how the photo grpaher never took the pic, thats tell more about Dallaires life and how He lived. AKA it gives the reader a better understanding about the Guy. Plus I not a friggin smart dude, so I cant use better words. AND FOR THE WEBSITE- I DONT OWN IT- BUT IT IS OWNED BY ONE OF THE BIGGEST MAGIZINE COMPANYS IN THE US. [Recent changes patroler]Dell970 14:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * And Dalaires webpage is messed up So you can not use it as a source of information! [Recent changes patroler]Dell970 14:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I can remember that I read somewhere that the UN troops under Dalaire's command made some attempts to stop the killing. If I remember correctly the Tunesian units have distinguished themselves in this hopeless task. His Belgian troops(former colonial power there) had to face some troubles, I think the were attacked by the population. There was an anecdote that he unloaded his gun before going to meet the opposing sides in order to avoid that he runs amok. And there are some notes about him having a depression after the campaign. However, that was mostly from Der Spiegel. So some of the claims there are probably sourceable, but you have to DO that. Wandalstouring 01:16, 11 February 2007 (UTC)


 * The fact about unloading his gun sounds interesting, if true - I should google around for a source on that, thanks. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 02:11, 11 February 2007 (UTC)


 * It is shown in the movie adaption of his autobiography. He takes the clip out of his handgun and positions both on a small table as he walks in to a room to negotiate with the Interahamwe leadership. However as I haven't read the book (yet) I cannot verify if this was just added for drama or not. --81.228.155.24 (talk) 19:37, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

You inserted the claim "Gen. Romeo Dallaire defied U.N. orders to withdraw from Rwanda" which is (I believe) patently untrue.

i'm sorry, but it was true. Dallaire was ordered 3 times to plan the withdrawal of UNAMIR peacekeepers, first by Booh-Booh, head of UNAMIR, second by special political adviser to the UN Secretary-General, and third by Boutros-Ghali, the UN Secretary-General, himself. Dallaire refused to comply each time. you can read this up in Linda Melvern's book, A People Betrayed. Wongch2 12:57, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Life After Rwanda
Needs to be tidied up, it is simply a chronology right now that reads like a bulletted list.Josh Hooch 17:00, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Belgian Sources
Links for sources 8, 9 and 10 are present, but not included in the body of the text. They should probably either be deleted or incorporated properly into the body. It seems Mr. Dallaire is quite unpopular in Belgium, I'm not an expert, but perhaps that should be clarified? --192.197.178.2 13:44, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Have added a controversy section where I invited fellow Wikipedians to expand upon the rather well documented debate as to his decision making in Rwanda.Jemesouviens32 (talk) 07:36, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

He is probably very unpopular because he is a criminal:

"Canadian General Dallaire was aware that the soldiers were in camp Kigali. He passes the camp and sees soldiers lying on the ground when he has to go to a meeting in a building that is only 30m away from the place where the soldiers are beaten to death. A captain from Togo and 5 soldiers from Ghana tell him what is going on there. He takes no actions. Later that evening he goes to hospital where the bodies of the paras are thrown on a pile."

84.175.166.210 (talk) 11:49, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

A Sunday in Kigali
I saw sections about his portrayal in Hotel Rwanda and Shake Hand with the Devil; I expected something about A Sunday in Kigali. I know I heard or read something about it: he appears briefly in the movie, and I think the real Mr. Dallaire commented his portrayal in this film. I will try to look it up, and also rewatch the movie soon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mandragorae (talk • contribs) 06:28, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Child Soldiers
This article is lacking a section outlining Dallaire's current pursuits surrounding the eradication of the use of child soldiers. His most recent book, They fight like soldiers, they die like children, is only briefly mentioned. Dallaire states in this book that eliminating children as instruments of war is the "ultimate focus of the rest of my life." This is worthy of a section in an article outlining his life, is it not? In addition, only a brief mention of his work with the Child Soldiers Initiative appears here. I hope to have the time to address this myself, but some assistance would be appreciated ... CJMinf1001 (talk) 01:30, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

criticism section
I wonder why the criticism section was removed by 184.146.110.252 on 15 Nov 2011. Mr Dallaire's responsibility in the murder of the ten Belgian paratroopers (see http://www.senate.be/english/rwanda.html#4.11) is completely ignored by this article.--91.181.208.176 (talk) 12:45, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

I second the above question. Why no mention of the 10 slaughtered Belgian troops whom he abandoned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.173.67.90 (talk) 21:49, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

I also support a criticism section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.114.251.212 (talk) 08:13, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

Life after Rwanda
I think that Life after Rwanda needs to be merged with Appointment to Canadian Senate section. We have many doubled information there. I'm not editing, since I'm not native English. PuchaczTrado (talk) 06:47, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Blacklisted Links Found on Roméo Dallaire
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His early childhood is barely sourced and the only time that it is, it is to a blog post about passports and citizenship problems. Therefore there is a lack of appropriate referencing. When the article talks about the end of the genocide, there is an a apparent bias with parenthesis around another statement. During the section on life after Rwanda, the author throws a random fact about him working with veterans mental health even though there is no citations that back it up. –– Lopez a4 (talk) 15:19, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Song
I'm moving this section to talk for the time being. I'm not entirely sure its encyclopedic. It's seems an awful lot like WP:TRIVIA, but its certainly not sourced to anything at this point. Maybe if we can get some citations there is a way this can be rewritten to be appropriate. Timothy Joseph Wood 19:16, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Song
Dallaire is the inspiration for the song "Lt. Gen. Romeo D'Allaire" by defined by what we steal on the 2004 "New Face of Freedom" in which the genocide in Rwanda was described. It was also the inspiration for the song Kigali by Canadian singer-songwriter, Jon Brooks. The song appears on his album Ours and the Shepherds, which is about Canadian war stories and the problems faced by returning soldiers. His first verse is taken directly from Dallaire's book.

Also, "Romeo Dallaire" is the title of a folk song written by Canadian folk songwriter Andy McGaw. McGaw's song points squarely at the indifference and failure of the United Nations response to the Rwanda genocide.

Chorus of McGaw's song:
 * Thank you for callin' the United Nations
 * We can't take your call right now cause we're all on vacation
 * If you need support hug your teddy bear
 * If you're in big trouble boys better say your prayers

Dallaire is the subject of the song Run Romeo Run on the 2006 album The Great Western by Welshman James Dean Bradfield. He was the inspiration for the song "Dallaire" by the Canadian folk singer Cara Luft, from her album "Darlingford".

Why were book titles removed?
A comprehensive list of books with Forewords written by Romeo Dallaire was removed. Why?JDHumphreys (talk) 16:19, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Genocide section
This section is be poorly written (grammatical and punctuation errors) and seems to contain bias.

restore criticism over his role in Rwanda
A former sourced part detailing the official criticism of the Belgian parliamentary investigation into the death of the ten Belgian soldiers and their protected charge on the first day of the Rwandan geneocide, in which Dallaire's actions that day were considered to be negligent by the commission, was deleted. I have restored that criticism: as coming from an official government commission, lead by a later Belgian PM, this was both sourced and noteworthy. Otherwise without those critical parts the article as it was edited looks like a whitewashing of Dallaire's responsabilities. -- fdewaele, 30 August 2019, 11:25 CET
 * I once again restored the well-sourced parts about the Belgian senate's official inquiry into Dallaire's (in)actions in Rwanda, and it's report and conclusions. Furthermore the article has recently enormously been culled to the detriment of the quality of the article: many sourced parts were simply removed (including this one). -- fdewaele, 1 June 2023, 10:19 CET

Contributions section added
As a reader of Dallaire, I was interested to see his additional published works; found the back history of additions and removals of forwards and contributions, seemed in partly related to the COI from JDHumphreys. The section on books had a dead external reference and no archive exists and the wikipedia page on the RBC Taylor award does not list Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD  as one of the nominations, although original cited article on CBC was titled "Roméo Dallaire on the longlist for 2017 RBC Taylor Prize".

Anyway, the old list that was removed in 2017 had 19, and more exist now. I have added a new subsection for Contributions, with a small selection of 8 titles based on a qualitative filter of most-reviewed, and sorted by date.Tomacpace (talk) 18:56, 17 March 2021 (UTC)