By: Lynn Desjardins, CBC News - Canada
The Canadian government has pledged $3.1million for a project to help end the recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan. The money will be used by the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.
Efforts made through the security sector
The organization was founded by Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Romeo Dallaire in 2007. His first experience with this issue occurred when he was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. The initiative’s goal is “to progressively eradicate the use and recruitment of child soldiers through a security sector approach.”
The initiative seeks to equip security forces with training and tools to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers worldwide.
Canada renews leadership commitment
In making the funding announcement, the government noted today is the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers and said it “reaffirms its commitment to stand as a leader and work with the United Nations and others in the international community to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers.”
A news release noted the government has “taken strong actions to demonstrate this commitment” by developing a Child Soldier Doctrine to ensure Canadian armed forces are prepared to face and prevent the use of child soldiers, and it signed the Safe Schools Declaration which aims to protect schools, teachers and students during armed conflict.
Showing posts with label Romeo Dallaire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romeo Dallaire. Show all posts
Monday, February 12, 2018
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Canadian Military to Become First to Issue Guidelines on Child Soldiers
The Canadian Press
The Canadian military is poised to become the first in the world to issue guidelines for dealing with child soldiers, which could be put to the test immediately in Africa.
The guidelines are intended to ensure Canadian troops are properly trained and emotionally prepared for situations involving child soldiers — including where they may have to shoot to kill.
“If a child has a gun pointed at you and they have the intent, they have the capability, and they have the means by which to conduct harm on you or your partners, you have to use force as necessary to neutralize that,” said Cmdr. Rory McLay, who is overseeing development of the guidelines.
“That is a tough reality, but we cannot afford to have our folks harmed because they hesitated.”
The guidelines are also intended to make sure Canadian soldiers deal appropriately with a child soldier who isn’t a threat.
“If you’re talking about detainees, for example, once it’s suspected or proven that the individual is a minor then they are immediately removed from the adult population,” said McLay. “The real push there is separation and rehabilitation. That’s what you want to do with child soldiers...to try to get these kids into a rehabilitated state and back to their families.”
The guidelines were ordered by defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance last March after a meeting with retired senator Romeo Dallaire, who has championed the fight against using children in conflict.
While a variety of rules and policies on how to deal with child soldiers already exist, McLay said the new guidelines will be the first to gather everything into one place for Canadian military personnel.
Vance is expected to sign off on them in the coming days, after which they will be distributed to commanders across the Canadian Armed Forces to be included in training and other mission preparation.
“Training is one of the best ways to mentally prepare them to deal with the sights and sounds that they’re going to encounter,” McLay said.
“So if you can specifically guide the training to deal with a specific issue, you are better preparing your team to react appropriately and to be able to deal with their own actions during and down the road.”
Such direction is timely given the Liberal government is expected to greenlight the deployment of hundreds of Canadian soldiers to Mali in the coming weeks.
The UN and human rights groups say armed groups in Mali have intentionally recruited and are using child soldiers in a number of capacities.
The presence of child soldiers on the battlefield is a potential minefield for militaries like Canada, as the French learned the hard way last month when they came under fire for killing a 10-year-old boy.
While the French military says the boy was acting as a lookout for one armed group suspected of planting improvised-explosive devices, the killing has marred its counter-terrorism mission in Mali.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which Canadian troops are fighting in Iraq, has also made extensive use of child soldiers.
While the British are developing similar guidelines, Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, said they aren’t as far along as the Canadian military.
Preparing Canadian soldiers for dealing with child soldiers in the field is critical for a number of reasons, Whitman said, which includes ensuring they are properly treated.
But it is also important to consider the impact of child soldiers on the battlefield when planning missions from a legal perspective and in terms of making sure Canadian soldiers don’t hesitate when threatened.
“A lot of soldiers would tell you they didn’t have any preparation for how to handle children in these contexts until they saw it in the battlefield,” she said.
“And that’s where the emotional part of your brain kicks in instead of the cognitive part of your brain. Which means you’ll make decisions based on emotion and not on what’s the best professional decision on that matter.”
The Canadian military is poised to become the first in the world to issue guidelines for dealing with child soldiers, which could be put to the test immediately in Africa.
The guidelines are intended to ensure Canadian troops are properly trained and emotionally prepared for situations involving child soldiers — including where they may have to shoot to kill.
“If a child has a gun pointed at you and they have the intent, they have the capability, and they have the means by which to conduct harm on you or your partners, you have to use force as necessary to neutralize that,” said Cmdr. Rory McLay, who is overseeing development of the guidelines.
“That is a tough reality, but we cannot afford to have our folks harmed because they hesitated.”
The guidelines are also intended to make sure Canadian soldiers deal appropriately with a child soldier who isn’t a threat.
“If you’re talking about detainees, for example, once it’s suspected or proven that the individual is a minor then they are immediately removed from the adult population,” said McLay. “The real push there is separation and rehabilitation. That’s what you want to do with child soldiers...to try to get these kids into a rehabilitated state and back to their families.”
The guidelines were ordered by defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance last March after a meeting with retired senator Romeo Dallaire, who has championed the fight against using children in conflict.
While a variety of rules and policies on how to deal with child soldiers already exist, McLay said the new guidelines will be the first to gather everything into one place for Canadian military personnel.
Vance is expected to sign off on them in the coming days, after which they will be distributed to commanders across the Canadian Armed Forces to be included in training and other mission preparation.
“Training is one of the best ways to mentally prepare them to deal with the sights and sounds that they’re going to encounter,” McLay said.
“So if you can specifically guide the training to deal with a specific issue, you are better preparing your team to react appropriately and to be able to deal with their own actions during and down the road.”
Such direction is timely given the Liberal government is expected to greenlight the deployment of hundreds of Canadian soldiers to Mali in the coming weeks.
The UN and human rights groups say armed groups in Mali have intentionally recruited and are using child soldiers in a number of capacities.
The presence of child soldiers on the battlefield is a potential minefield for militaries like Canada, as the French learned the hard way last month when they came under fire for killing a 10-year-old boy.
While the French military says the boy was acting as a lookout for one armed group suspected of planting improvised-explosive devices, the killing has marred its counter-terrorism mission in Mali.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which Canadian troops are fighting in Iraq, has also made extensive use of child soldiers.
While the British are developing similar guidelines, Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, said they aren’t as far along as the Canadian military.
Preparing Canadian soldiers for dealing with child soldiers in the field is critical for a number of reasons, Whitman said, which includes ensuring they are properly treated.
But it is also important to consider the impact of child soldiers on the battlefield when planning missions from a legal perspective and in terms of making sure Canadian soldiers don’t hesitate when threatened.
“A lot of soldiers would tell you they didn’t have any preparation for how to handle children in these contexts until they saw it in the battlefield,” she said.
“And that’s where the emotional part of your brain kicks in instead of the cognitive part of your brain. Which means you’ll make decisions based on emotion and not on what’s the best professional decision on that matter.”
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The war doesn’t end when soldiers return home
By: Lt. Gen (Ret.) Romeo Dallair, Special Contributor to the Globe and Mail
When I learned the news last week about the Canadian veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who unsuccessfully sought help and then, overcome by his operational injury, apparently killed his family and himself – I was beyond distraught. The catastrophic case of Lionel Desmond could not serve as a more powerful warning to the senior policy-makers in our country. But will it be enough?
I have spent decades fighting for injured veterans, including myself, as we continue to destroy ourselves and too many others in our wake. The wars that soldiers fight do not end when we return home; they stay alive within us, and without urgent treatment our injury – PTSD – will destroy us. Just like an injury to the body will become gangrenous, fester, and infect, so too does this injury to our brains and moral centre. But unlike most other injuries, PTSD deeply affects the entire family as well; in this case, fatally.
The scale of the damage and the depth of the destruction that deployment in today’s complex conflicts can wreak is almost incomprehensible. Lionel Desmond’s actions were reprehensible; but, so too was the lack of care he and his family received when he returned from his mission. This was a soldier lost in a system that is grievously inadequate to handle the load and complexity of these injuries or to provide the urgent support required for vets and their families. With a chain of command out of the picture, and an underfunded veterans department strangled by regulations, our system is wholly unprepared for this postwar demand. As a result, injured vets, both in and out of service, continue to be shunted aside, falling into the support cracks, flailing for help.
This is an urgent message that must be heeded: The casualties of past wars continue to mount even as we are preparing for the next conflict. Military-weapons upgrades, the introduction of new tactics, and preparations of troops to face the next threat are all getting a heavy dose of essential funding and priority. However, penny-pinching resource allocations and prohibitive restrictions around support to casualties of the last fight clearly have devastating effects. Care for our current injured members sets the start line for the total commitment of our soldiers and their families for the next round in the defence of peace and human rights.
Nova Scotia – where Lionel Desmond lived and where I am now based with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative – is home to a disproportionate number of veterans. To utilize the strengths and skills of injured vets, while giving them a second chance to serve, the Dallaire Initiative has instituted a training program – through which Canadian military veterans assist in the dissemination of a new doctrine to reduce battle casualties and help eradicate the use of child soldiers globally.
The Canadian government would do well to follow suit: to seek out injured veterans and provide them whatever tools they require to rejoin society after their missions, for all our sakes.
As I wrote in my last book:
“I find myself empty now, at a loss for words. Over the past two years, I mustered what I had left to share the details of my own struggles with PTSD. I turn to those pages now.
It was not easy for me to share my vulnerabilities so candidly, but the dark side of living with PTSD has to come out. If it does not, the world will continue to hear of us only when we commit suicide. … Courageous soldiers serving in today’s difficult and ethically ambiguous missions can and should be treated for PTSD at its first signs; the Forces should anticipate the need for treatment in order to head the damage off, not just wait until a soldier is desperate enough to seek help. And we – meaning all of us – need to shoulder our share of the burden and recognize the contribution made by our soldiers when they undertake such missions on behalf of humanity. We need to insist that they are supported when they come home.
The brain is as vital to life as any organ in the human body. To treat an injury to the brain as less urgent, less in need of care and compassion than other, more obvious types of injury is misguided and ignorant. Our efforts to treat our veterans with PTSD must be comparable to our efforts to repair damaged hearts, provide timely kidney transplants, avoid amputations or restore eyesight. … Only when we truly understand the injury and take action to mitigate its impact will we be able to say that we recognize the real costs of peacekeeping, peacemaking and war.”
---
Lieutenant-General (ret) Roméo Dallaire is the founder of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative at Dalhousie University, and author of Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD.
When I learned the news last week about the Canadian veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who unsuccessfully sought help and then, overcome by his operational injury, apparently killed his family and himself – I was beyond distraught. The catastrophic case of Lionel Desmond could not serve as a more powerful warning to the senior policy-makers in our country. But will it be enough?
I have spent decades fighting for injured veterans, including myself, as we continue to destroy ourselves and too many others in our wake. The wars that soldiers fight do not end when we return home; they stay alive within us, and without urgent treatment our injury – PTSD – will destroy us. Just like an injury to the body will become gangrenous, fester, and infect, so too does this injury to our brains and moral centre. But unlike most other injuries, PTSD deeply affects the entire family as well; in this case, fatally.
The scale of the damage and the depth of the destruction that deployment in today’s complex conflicts can wreak is almost incomprehensible. Lionel Desmond’s actions were reprehensible; but, so too was the lack of care he and his family received when he returned from his mission. This was a soldier lost in a system that is grievously inadequate to handle the load and complexity of these injuries or to provide the urgent support required for vets and their families. With a chain of command out of the picture, and an underfunded veterans department strangled by regulations, our system is wholly unprepared for this postwar demand. As a result, injured vets, both in and out of service, continue to be shunted aside, falling into the support cracks, flailing for help.
This is an urgent message that must be heeded: The casualties of past wars continue to mount even as we are preparing for the next conflict. Military-weapons upgrades, the introduction of new tactics, and preparations of troops to face the next threat are all getting a heavy dose of essential funding and priority. However, penny-pinching resource allocations and prohibitive restrictions around support to casualties of the last fight clearly have devastating effects. Care for our current injured members sets the start line for the total commitment of our soldiers and their families for the next round in the defence of peace and human rights.
Nova Scotia – where Lionel Desmond lived and where I am now based with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative – is home to a disproportionate number of veterans. To utilize the strengths and skills of injured vets, while giving them a second chance to serve, the Dallaire Initiative has instituted a training program – through which Canadian military veterans assist in the dissemination of a new doctrine to reduce battle casualties and help eradicate the use of child soldiers globally.
The Canadian government would do well to follow suit: to seek out injured veterans and provide them whatever tools they require to rejoin society after their missions, for all our sakes.
As I wrote in my last book:
“I find myself empty now, at a loss for words. Over the past two years, I mustered what I had left to share the details of my own struggles with PTSD. I turn to those pages now.
It was not easy for me to share my vulnerabilities so candidly, but the dark side of living with PTSD has to come out. If it does not, the world will continue to hear of us only when we commit suicide. … Courageous soldiers serving in today’s difficult and ethically ambiguous missions can and should be treated for PTSD at its first signs; the Forces should anticipate the need for treatment in order to head the damage off, not just wait until a soldier is desperate enough to seek help. And we – meaning all of us – need to shoulder our share of the burden and recognize the contribution made by our soldiers when they undertake such missions on behalf of humanity. We need to insist that they are supported when they come home.
The brain is as vital to life as any organ in the human body. To treat an injury to the brain as less urgent, less in need of care and compassion than other, more obvious types of injury is misguided and ignorant. Our efforts to treat our veterans with PTSD must be comparable to our efforts to repair damaged hearts, provide timely kidney transplants, avoid amputations or restore eyesight. … Only when we truly understand the injury and take action to mitigate its impact will we be able to say that we recognize the real costs of peacekeeping, peacemaking and war.”
---
Lieutenant-General (ret) Roméo Dallaire is the founder of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative at Dalhousie University, and author of Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Soldier's Mental Health A Serious Concern for African Mission
By: Matthew Fisher, The National Post
A soldier who served with Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide is deeply worried the Trudeau government is about to embark on another UN peacekeeping quagmire in Africa that could have grave consequences for the mental health of troops sent there.
“We have historically made the same mistakes again and again,” says Stéphane Grenier, who founded Mental Health Innovations Consulting after retiring from the Canadian Forces four years ago as a lieutenant-colonel. His retirement followed deployments to Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Haiti.
“History will repeat itself because people will not be properly prepared to go overseas,” Grenier predicted.
Compounding the problem in past doomed missions was that the UN did not provide strong support for troops in the field, he added.
Related
Most troops face trauma but few suffer from PTSD, study of active soldiers finds
John Ivison: Canadian military quick to leave behind soldiers suffering from PTSD
“Is there any indication the UN is better equipped today to govern military forces trying to implement what are impossible mandates?” he asked. “I don’t think so. Until that is fixed, history will repeat itself.”
Grenier became a passionate advocate for mental health after witnessing shocking barbarism when more than one million Rwandans were slaughtered in the genocide in that country in 1994.
What Canada was most lacking, he said, was training for soldiers, diplomats and other government workers to deal with what he called the moral conflicts that arise on such missions.
“Because our soldiers are Canadian, and mostly raised in Canada, they live their lives according to a moral compass that is calibrated to Canadian values, to a sense of what Canadians think is right or wrong. When you put them in another country which has a very different perception of what is right or wrong, there is an issue.
“There is no way right now to adjust our moral compass to that other reality. The principles that we establish for our missions don’t apply there. It becomes a real challenge to maintain your moral compass.”
Grenier spoke of standing beside a boy as the youngster was shot by the Interahamwe (a Hutu paramilitary organization) in Rwanda, and the mental anguish that some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan suffered after hearing the cries of young boys who were being abused by Afghan troops on a joint base.
“All the resiliency training and briefings in the world do not to this date help us to recalibrate our compass for things like that,” he said.
“Something gets lost in translation between the air base at Trenton (Ontario) and wherever it is that Canadians land. That is the starting point for understanding the challenge to successfully prosecute a mission in a place like Africa and to get everyone back home safe and sane, not only from the battlefield but the mental battlefield.”
The African mission now being drawn up in offices in Ottawa would create unrealistic demands because the discussion is taking place in a vacuum with a poor understanding of the true situation on the far side of the world, the former armoured corps and public affairs officer said.
“I don’t want to play with words such as peacekeeping, peacemaking or peace-enforcing but I think that it is very naive to think that the peacekeeping concept can be implemented in 2016 and going forward,” he said. “The Kumbaya thing will not work, especially in Africa.
“Given the volatility of these countries, why do we think that our human kindness will work over there? Maybe niceness will work if it is backed up with some real teeth and a line in the sand.”
Grenier recalled what a fellow blue beret from Senegal told him early in his UN tour in Rwanda.
“‘When an African shows you his fist, you show him your knife’,” the officer said. “‘When an African shows you his knife, you show him your gun. You never show weakness’.”
Grenier said: “What we do is create complex mandates with the best intentions in the world, but in a context that is completely different than where the mandate has to be executed. It is as if politicians and bureaucrats have skipped a series of chapters that have been written since the end of the Cold War.”
Nor do governments calculate the true cost of these missions, he added. “We do the simple math of fuel, beans, boots and bullets and are satisfied with that answer. The cost in the mental health of the troops only becomes obvious 20 years later. We have never grasped that.”
Grenier’s new battle space is mental health in the workplace. He works with police and paramedics to combat the on-the-job stresses they face every day.
And although he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder himself, Grenier said the number of Canadian troops who have been diagnosed as having PTSD after serving in such places as Rwanda and Afghanistan has been greatly exaggerated.
“There is a national obsession with PTSD that I despise,” he said. “The fact that you are injured in the mind does not always mean that you have PTSD.”
Although Grenier has great respect for Dallaire, he feels the general’s fame sometimes diverts attention from the problems of other troops who witnessed murder and mayhem.
“With the general, Canadians are a bit star-struck,” Grenier said. “It is a phenomena that is not good or bad. Countries need heroes and he became one. But all the attention that he has had, had the perverse effect of taking attention from the issue.
“The mistake that is made is that people listen to General Dallaire, when people like him have no trouble getting a psychiatrist to support and treat them. That is not the case for soldiers at the bottom of the chain.”
Grenier added: “The American Psychiatry Association and Veterans Affairs want to hear the general’s views, and he certainly deserves to be heard. But his experiences are not representative of what the masses experienced. That is not his fault. He has tried to include others and has invited them to speak in Ottawa, but people there would rather hear from a celebrity.”
A soldier who served with Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide is deeply worried the Trudeau government is about to embark on another UN peacekeeping quagmire in Africa that could have grave consequences for the mental health of troops sent there.
“We have historically made the same mistakes again and again,” says Stéphane Grenier, who founded Mental Health Innovations Consulting after retiring from the Canadian Forces four years ago as a lieutenant-colonel. His retirement followed deployments to Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Haiti.
“History will repeat itself because people will not be properly prepared to go overseas,” Grenier predicted.
Compounding the problem in past doomed missions was that the UN did not provide strong support for troops in the field, he added.
 |
| (Matthew Fisher/Postmedia) Retired Lt.-Col. Stephane Grenier says Canadian soldiers aren't trained to deal with the different standards of morality in Africa. |
Most troops face trauma but few suffer from PTSD, study of active soldiers finds
John Ivison: Canadian military quick to leave behind soldiers suffering from PTSD
“Is there any indication the UN is better equipped today to govern military forces trying to implement what are impossible mandates?” he asked. “I don’t think so. Until that is fixed, history will repeat itself.”
Grenier became a passionate advocate for mental health after witnessing shocking barbarism when more than one million Rwandans were slaughtered in the genocide in that country in 1994.
What Canada was most lacking, he said, was training for soldiers, diplomats and other government workers to deal with what he called the moral conflicts that arise on such missions.
“Because our soldiers are Canadian, and mostly raised in Canada, they live their lives according to a moral compass that is calibrated to Canadian values, to a sense of what Canadians think is right or wrong. When you put them in another country which has a very different perception of what is right or wrong, there is an issue.
“There is no way right now to adjust our moral compass to that other reality. The principles that we establish for our missions don’t apply there. It becomes a real challenge to maintain your moral compass.”
Grenier spoke of standing beside a boy as the youngster was shot by the Interahamwe (a Hutu paramilitary organization) in Rwanda, and the mental anguish that some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan suffered after hearing the cries of young boys who were being abused by Afghan troops on a joint base.
“All the resiliency training and briefings in the world do not to this date help us to recalibrate our compass for things like that,” he said.
“Something gets lost in translation between the air base at Trenton (Ontario) and wherever it is that Canadians land. That is the starting point for understanding the challenge to successfully prosecute a mission in a place like Africa and to get everyone back home safe and sane, not only from the battlefield but the mental battlefield.”
The African mission now being drawn up in offices in Ottawa would create unrealistic demands because the discussion is taking place in a vacuum with a poor understanding of the true situation on the far side of the world, the former armoured corps and public affairs officer said.
“I don’t want to play with words such as peacekeeping, peacemaking or peace-enforcing but I think that it is very naive to think that the peacekeeping concept can be implemented in 2016 and going forward,” he said. “The Kumbaya thing will not work, especially in Africa.
“Given the volatility of these countries, why do we think that our human kindness will work over there? Maybe niceness will work if it is backed up with some real teeth and a line in the sand.”
Grenier recalled what a fellow blue beret from Senegal told him early in his UN tour in Rwanda.
“‘When an African shows you his fist, you show him your knife’,” the officer said. “‘When an African shows you his knife, you show him your gun. You never show weakness’.”
 |
| (Marianne Helm/Postmedia) Retired Lt.-Gen Romeo Dallaire, shown in 2004, was haunted by the atrocities he witnessed while leading Canadian forces in Rwanda. |
Nor do governments calculate the true cost of these missions, he added. “We do the simple math of fuel, beans, boots and bullets and are satisfied with that answer. The cost in the mental health of the troops only becomes obvious 20 years later. We have never grasped that.”
Grenier’s new battle space is mental health in the workplace. He works with police and paramedics to combat the on-the-job stresses they face every day.
And although he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder himself, Grenier said the number of Canadian troops who have been diagnosed as having PTSD after serving in such places as Rwanda and Afghanistan has been greatly exaggerated.
“There is a national obsession with PTSD that I despise,” he said. “The fact that you are injured in the mind does not always mean that you have PTSD.”
Although Grenier has great respect for Dallaire, he feels the general’s fame sometimes diverts attention from the problems of other troops who witnessed murder and mayhem.
“With the general, Canadians are a bit star-struck,” Grenier said. “It is a phenomena that is not good or bad. Countries need heroes and he became one. But all the attention that he has had, had the perverse effect of taking attention from the issue.
“The mistake that is made is that people listen to General Dallaire, when people like him have no trouble getting a psychiatrist to support and treat them. That is not the case for soldiers at the bottom of the chain.”
Grenier added: “The American Psychiatry Association and Veterans Affairs want to hear the general’s views, and he certainly deserves to be heard. But his experiences are not representative of what the masses experienced. That is not his fault. He has tried to include others and has invited them to speak in Ottawa, but people there would rather hear from a celebrity.”
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Former General Romeo Dallaire backs Canadian missions to Africa
By: Peter Goffin, Toronto Star
Lieut.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire is welcoming Canada’s military commitment to peacekeeping missions in Africa.
“They should have never left,” said Dallaire, who was commander of UN forces in Rwanda in 1994, when more than 800,000 people, most of them members the Tutsi ethnic minority, were murdered by ethnic Hutu extremists.
“The idea to start earning our spurs again in Africa, in a deliberate fashion to build capacity, to me, is probably one of the wisest decisions,” he said.
The Liberal government has pledged up to 600 troops and $450 million to UN peacekeeping missions, likely in Mali, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has said Canadian forces will use force on these missions if necessary.
Dallaire, who served in the Canadian senate from 2005 to 2014, said Canada has an important role to play in bringing peace to foreign countries, but that it will require far more than blunt military might.
“There’s no such thing as simply bringing in a military solution to any conflict anymore. That’s over,” Dallaire said.
“We’re into imploding nations and failing states, and, because of that, you concurrently have got to bring in a security sector, a development sector, a humanitarian sector, a nation-building sector, and all these disciplines have got to learn how to work together.”
Dallaire’s new memoir Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle With PTSD, released Tuesday, deals primarily with the mental and emotional anguish he experienced in the years after leaving Rwanda, a path that led him to alcohol abuse, overeating and many suicide attempts.
In portions of the book, Dallaire rebukes the UN for not allowing him to intervene in Rwanda as tensions rose. And he criticizes Canadian government and military leaders for sending soldiers on increasingly complex missions in the 1990s with outdated strategies and inadequate preparation.
“We had stumbled unprepared into a series of missions in . . . Iraq, Kuwait, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, each with racial, ethnic and religious complexities we had no concept of,” wrote Dallaire. “Our troops had witnessed — were still witnessing — previously unimagined, massive abuses of human rights . . . . We had trained them for none of it.”
The retired lieutenant-general told the Star that the Canadian Forces have gained plenty of experience since then, due, in large part, to deployment in Afghanistan, but that UN peacekeeping will be different than the NATO-commanded mission in Afghanistan.
“NATO is not UN,” Dallaire said. “Getting (soldiers) to adapt to a whole different chain of command, to a different modus operandi, to mandates that are far more complex and ambiguous — that is a learning curve that still has to be worked on.”
Since the 1990s, Canadian Forces personnel have served in advisory, training and logistics capacities and contributed equipment to UN and African Union missions in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Rwanda, Darfur, South Sudan and others.
Missions recently announced represent a significant renewal of Canada’s role in UN peacekeeping
Dallaire said it was a “cop out” for Canada to downshift its peacekeeping commitments during the war in Afghanistan.
“It was a limitation that has been created by budget cuts and deliberate reduction of the capability of the Forces,” he said. “I truly believe that returning to these missions means returning to Forces that use all its assets, including reservists, to be prepared to deploy reasonable numbers of troops.”
The Canadian Forces have the capacity and experience to make a significant contribution in Africa, Dallaire said.
As for what that contribution could look like, the general spoke of a broad scope. “I see not only troops, but equipment. I see development (workers) linking in to places that may be falling into conflict,” he said. “There’s a whole spectrum of stuff to be done.”
 |
| Former General Romeo Dallaire has written a new book called 'First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD' about the mental demons he has faced since his time in Africa as head of the UN peacekeeping mission. (RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR) |
General, who witnessed Rwandan genocide, cautions that modern peacekeeping requires more than military force.
Lieut.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire is welcoming Canada’s military commitment to peacekeeping missions in Africa.
“They should have never left,” said Dallaire, who was commander of UN forces in Rwanda in 1994, when more than 800,000 people, most of them members the Tutsi ethnic minority, were murdered by ethnic Hutu extremists.
“The idea to start earning our spurs again in Africa, in a deliberate fashion to build capacity, to me, is probably one of the wisest decisions,” he said.
The Liberal government has pledged up to 600 troops and $450 million to UN peacekeeping missions, likely in Mali, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has said Canadian forces will use force on these missions if necessary.
Dallaire, who served in the Canadian senate from 2005 to 2014, said Canada has an important role to play in bringing peace to foreign countries, but that it will require far more than blunt military might.
“There’s no such thing as simply bringing in a military solution to any conflict anymore. That’s over,” Dallaire said.
“We’re into imploding nations and failing states, and, because of that, you concurrently have got to bring in a security sector, a development sector, a humanitarian sector, a nation-building sector, and all these disciplines have got to learn how to work together.”
Dallaire’s new memoir Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle With PTSD, released Tuesday, deals primarily with the mental and emotional anguish he experienced in the years after leaving Rwanda, a path that led him to alcohol abuse, overeating and many suicide attempts.
In portions of the book, Dallaire rebukes the UN for not allowing him to intervene in Rwanda as tensions rose. And he criticizes Canadian government and military leaders for sending soldiers on increasingly complex missions in the 1990s with outdated strategies and inadequate preparation.
“We had stumbled unprepared into a series of missions in . . . Iraq, Kuwait, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, each with racial, ethnic and religious complexities we had no concept of,” wrote Dallaire. “Our troops had witnessed — were still witnessing — previously unimagined, massive abuses of human rights . . . . We had trained them for none of it.”
The retired lieutenant-general told the Star that the Canadian Forces have gained plenty of experience since then, due, in large part, to deployment in Afghanistan, but that UN peacekeeping will be different than the NATO-commanded mission in Afghanistan.
“NATO is not UN,” Dallaire said. “Getting (soldiers) to adapt to a whole different chain of command, to a different modus operandi, to mandates that are far more complex and ambiguous — that is a learning curve that still has to be worked on.”
Since the 1990s, Canadian Forces personnel have served in advisory, training and logistics capacities and contributed equipment to UN and African Union missions in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Rwanda, Darfur, South Sudan and others.
Missions recently announced represent a significant renewal of Canada’s role in UN peacekeeping
Dallaire said it was a “cop out” for Canada to downshift its peacekeeping commitments during the war in Afghanistan.
“It was a limitation that has been created by budget cuts and deliberate reduction of the capability of the Forces,” he said. “I truly believe that returning to these missions means returning to Forces that use all its assets, including reservists, to be prepared to deploy reasonable numbers of troops.”
The Canadian Forces have the capacity and experience to make a significant contribution in Africa, Dallaire said.
As for what that contribution could look like, the general spoke of a broad scope. “I see not only troops, but equipment. I see development (workers) linking in to places that may be falling into conflict,” he said. “There’s a whole spectrum of stuff to be done.”
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Dallaire: Put the Focus on Child Soldiers
This could be our new peacekeeping project, writes Roméo Dallaire.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
— Roméo Dallaire
Twenty-two years ago, I was the force commander of the UNAMIR peacekeeping mission before, during and after the Rwandan genocide. I witnessed first-hand, in one of humanity’s darkest hours, the horrific impacts of conflict and genocide. This experience has produced an unrelenting drive in me as a humanitarian to both prevent conflict and protect peace.
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| JUSTIN LYNCH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS South Sudan’s government has recruited child soldiers for a renewed conflict, according to a United Nations document. |
With this experience as a backdrop, it was with immense pleasure that I recently returned from a five-country fact-finding mission to Africa with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and esteemed colleagues Justice Louise Arbour and Ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard. Over a week, we reached out to the highest authorities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to understand how Canada can re-engage in peace support operations in the region.
We undertook this trip, in the words of Minister Sajjan, to discover the ground truth about conflict. It is only through an intimate understanding of how and why conflict persists that we will be in a position to effectively contribute to its prevention.
The most obvious observation, without a doubt, was the brutal fact that war has radically changed. Therefore, our tactics and approach must change also.
Today, children are both the primary drivers and victims of conflicts around the globe and particularly in Africa. From Mali to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, children continue to swell the ranks of both state and non-state armies. It is in this complex and ambiguous conflict environment that Canada will eventually re-engage in peace support operations.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
At the height of the Rwandan genocide, when I first faced the use of child soldiers, I had neither the knowledge nor tactics required to confront this threat adequately and preventively. Today, troop-contributing countries deployed in peace support operations remain undertrained to counter the most prevalent threat in most conflicts today: the extensive recruitment and use of child soldiers.
At every turn of our trip, Minister Sajjan deliberately sought out specific gaps that Canada could fill by collaborating with nations in building local capacity with the aim of contributing to conflict-prevention and peace-support operations.
As a nation, Canada is well-positioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations — particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war. Canada, through the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, is already engaged in countries such as Uganda by building a capacity to counteract the recruitment and use of child soldiers in peace-support operations throughout the region.
This focus on the recruitment and use of child soldiers should be underpinned by an upfront children’s-rights approach in peace-support operations. When children and their rights are elevated as part of a larger strategy and methodology to peace-support operations, points of collaboration can be found and efforts amplified. It is not only through children that many conflicts are now unfortunately fought, but it is where the promise of lasting peace resides.
Canada’s return to the field, praised and impatiently awaited by all countries we visited, is caveated with a clear request to bring innovative thinking, tools and longterm commitments to instilling new skills and knowledge that will support the efforts of all toward peace and preventing conflict.
Over the coming months and years, under the direction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada will continue to re-engage with the United Nations and the African Union on their respective peace support operations. Collaborative and concerted efforts — specifically protecting children through enhancing the role of military, peacekeepers and police to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers — should be a priority in the prevention of conflict.
Canada is indeed wellpositioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations, particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war.
We undertook this trip, in the words of Minister Sajjan, to discover the ground truth about conflict. It is only through an intimate understanding of how and why conflict persists that we will be in a position to effectively contribute to its prevention.
The most obvious observation, without a doubt, was the brutal fact that war has radically changed. Therefore, our tactics and approach must change also.
Today, children are both the primary drivers and victims of conflicts around the globe and particularly in Africa. From Mali to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, children continue to swell the ranks of both state and non-state armies. It is in this complex and ambiguous conflict environment that Canada will eventually re-engage in peace support operations.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
At the height of the Rwandan genocide, when I first faced the use of child soldiers, I had neither the knowledge nor tactics required to confront this threat adequately and preventively. Today, troop-contributing countries deployed in peace support operations remain undertrained to counter the most prevalent threat in most conflicts today: the extensive recruitment and use of child soldiers.
At every turn of our trip, Minister Sajjan deliberately sought out specific gaps that Canada could fill by collaborating with nations in building local capacity with the aim of contributing to conflict-prevention and peace-support operations.
As a nation, Canada is well-positioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations — particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war. Canada, through the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, is already engaged in countries such as Uganda by building a capacity to counteract the recruitment and use of child soldiers in peace-support operations throughout the region.
This focus on the recruitment and use of child soldiers should be underpinned by an upfront children’s-rights approach in peace-support operations. When children and their rights are elevated as part of a larger strategy and methodology to peace-support operations, points of collaboration can be found and efforts amplified. It is not only through children that many conflicts are now unfortunately fought, but it is where the promise of lasting peace resides.
Canada’s return to the field, praised and impatiently awaited by all countries we visited, is caveated with a clear request to bring innovative thinking, tools and longterm commitments to instilling new skills and knowledge that will support the efforts of all toward peace and preventing conflict.
Over the coming months and years, under the direction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada will continue to re-engage with the United Nations and the African Union on their respective peace support operations. Collaborative and concerted efforts — specifically protecting children through enhancing the role of military, peacekeepers and police to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers — should be a priority in the prevention of conflict.
Canada is indeed wellpositioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations, particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
The Case to Merge VAC and DND
By: Ryan Olshansky, CDA Institute
CDA Institute Analyst Ryan Olshansky makes the case to merge Veteran Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence.
Transition has been an ongoing issue for veterans who have to deal with both the Department of National Defence (DND) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). Our sacred obligation to veterans requires seamless transition to civilian life. Yet, with the rocky transition between VAC and DND remaining rampant, I suggest veterans would be better served if the two departments merged.
Veterans who begin their transition to civilian life jump through several hurdles to receive the benefits and services to which they are entitled. Once they are released by the military, veterans participate in a transition interview with VAC, where all the requirements for benefits and services are made clear. Responsibility is put on the veteran to collect the necessary medical records and to submit them alongside a completed application form. Given the sheer volume of applications, and the fact that many applications are incomplete or are missing records, decisions often take a few months.
Admittedly, VAC has made improvements to transition over the past couple of years. For example, VAC recently hired 101 more staff in disability benefits processing to support veterans with applications and to render decisions more quickly. Budget 2016 provided $78.1 million over five years to hire more case managers. VAC also recently created MyVAC Account, an online portal in which veterans can apply for benefits and services and track their applications online in the comfort of their own homes. Indeed, ever since the Auditor General issued a report in 2014 that said the Disability Benefits Program is “slow, and the application process is complex,” the Department has made tangible efforts to make transition easier and less stressful.
But these solutions still ignore a fundamental problem: silos between departments. Interdepartmental client-exchange has proven to be a thorn in the side of veterans and the government alike. It has compromised standards of care, compounded wait times and added additional stress to veterans.
I do not think we should be surprised that standalone veterans’ affairs departments are mired in controversy around the world. Obviously, VAC has dealt with a number of issues the past few years. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has been under intense scrutiny for long wait times. While the reasons are obviously multifold, it is clear that the transition of mentally and physically debilitated veterans into separate departments is difficult. The French government has paved a different path, where veterans’ affairs is administered by the Ministry of Defense. In France, the Minister of Defence is advised on veterans’ affairs policy by the Secretary of State for War Veterans. The Secretary of State is held to account politically, and French veterans enjoy the benefits of tightly integrated military and post-military administrations.
One way to reduce these silos in Canada is to have an interdepartmental committee that standardizes and synthesizes all health-related policies, processes and IT programs between VAC and DND. This would be a huge undertaking at which successive governments have not proven to be very good. A simpler way to deal with these silos is to eliminate them altogether and merge the two departments. Former Senator and retired general Romeo Dallaire posited in the Senate Committee on National Defence that VAC should be absorbed as a sub-department in DND and be represented by an associate minister. He has a point. One soldier served under a single roof for their entire life makes eminent sense. A move to DND would simplify the points of contact for veterans and it would consolidate service providers. Veterans would get access to all health and wellness services offered to serving members. A merger would also benefit serving members; a single department with the goal of equality for all soldiers and veterans has the mandate to do away with the outdated policy of excluding many modern-day veterans from guaranteed beds in long-term care facilities.
Most importantly, it would provide for near immediate information sharing and consistent decisions. A medically released soldier would straightaway qualify for benefits that are equal to the injury that caused their release. Too many times a soldier is medically released from the military with a seriously debilitating injury – let’s say 70 percent, only to discover that it was measured by VAC at a lesser mark – maybe 35 percent. How is that fair? A merged department would be able to use consistent calculations when deciding benefits.
VAC’s mandate also includes commemoration, but they exercise that mandate in conjunction with DND and Heritage Canada, both of which are capable of growing their departments to celebrate veterans and historic battles, especially since VAC’s budget last year allocated less than one percent to commemoration.
There would be pushback from VAC staff located in Charlottetown; a move to National Defence or a separate merged department would require a good many to relocate to Ottawa. This is why a VAC-DND merger will require a dose of good faith and political will, both of which the current government has in spades. It is not coincidental that Prime Minister Trudeau made the dual appointment of Minister Hehr to VAC and DND to deal with transition. To the Prime Minister’s credit, the first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one.
Minister Hehr would be wise to heed the advice of General Dallaire, and if this government isn’t bold enough to swallow the pill and face internal backlash from public officials at VAC, then cries about the treatment of our veterans will amount to nothing more than crocodile tears.
CDA Institute Analyst Ryan Olshansky makes the case to merge Veteran Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence.
Transition has been an ongoing issue for veterans who have to deal with both the Department of National Defence (DND) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). Our sacred obligation to veterans requires seamless transition to civilian life. Yet, with the rocky transition between VAC and DND remaining rampant, I suggest veterans would be better served if the two departments merged.
Veterans who begin their transition to civilian life jump through several hurdles to receive the benefits and services to which they are entitled. Once they are released by the military, veterans participate in a transition interview with VAC, where all the requirements for benefits and services are made clear. Responsibility is put on the veteran to collect the necessary medical records and to submit them alongside a completed application form. Given the sheer volume of applications, and the fact that many applications are incomplete or are missing records, decisions often take a few months.
Admittedly, VAC has made improvements to transition over the past couple of years. For example, VAC recently hired 101 more staff in disability benefits processing to support veterans with applications and to render decisions more quickly. Budget 2016 provided $78.1 million over five years to hire more case managers. VAC also recently created MyVAC Account, an online portal in which veterans can apply for benefits and services and track their applications online in the comfort of their own homes. Indeed, ever since the Auditor General issued a report in 2014 that said the Disability Benefits Program is “slow, and the application process is complex,” the Department has made tangible efforts to make transition easier and less stressful.
But these solutions still ignore a fundamental problem: silos between departments. Interdepartmental client-exchange has proven to be a thorn in the side of veterans and the government alike. It has compromised standards of care, compounded wait times and added additional stress to veterans.
I do not think we should be surprised that standalone veterans’ affairs departments are mired in controversy around the world. Obviously, VAC has dealt with a number of issues the past few years. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has been under intense scrutiny for long wait times. While the reasons are obviously multifold, it is clear that the transition of mentally and physically debilitated veterans into separate departments is difficult. The French government has paved a different path, where veterans’ affairs is administered by the Ministry of Defense. In France, the Minister of Defence is advised on veterans’ affairs policy by the Secretary of State for War Veterans. The Secretary of State is held to account politically, and French veterans enjoy the benefits of tightly integrated military and post-military administrations.
One way to reduce these silos in Canada is to have an interdepartmental committee that standardizes and synthesizes all health-related policies, processes and IT programs between VAC and DND. This would be a huge undertaking at which successive governments have not proven to be very good. A simpler way to deal with these silos is to eliminate them altogether and merge the two departments. Former Senator and retired general Romeo Dallaire posited in the Senate Committee on National Defence that VAC should be absorbed as a sub-department in DND and be represented by an associate minister. He has a point. One soldier served under a single roof for their entire life makes eminent sense. A move to DND would simplify the points of contact for veterans and it would consolidate service providers. Veterans would get access to all health and wellness services offered to serving members. A merger would also benefit serving members; a single department with the goal of equality for all soldiers and veterans has the mandate to do away with the outdated policy of excluding many modern-day veterans from guaranteed beds in long-term care facilities.
Most importantly, it would provide for near immediate information sharing and consistent decisions. A medically released soldier would straightaway qualify for benefits that are equal to the injury that caused their release. Too many times a soldier is medically released from the military with a seriously debilitating injury – let’s say 70 percent, only to discover that it was measured by VAC at a lesser mark – maybe 35 percent. How is that fair? A merged department would be able to use consistent calculations when deciding benefits.
VAC’s mandate also includes commemoration, but they exercise that mandate in conjunction with DND and Heritage Canada, both of which are capable of growing their departments to celebrate veterans and historic battles, especially since VAC’s budget last year allocated less than one percent to commemoration.
There would be pushback from VAC staff located in Charlottetown; a move to National Defence or a separate merged department would require a good many to relocate to Ottawa. This is why a VAC-DND merger will require a dose of good faith and political will, both of which the current government has in spades. It is not coincidental that Prime Minister Trudeau made the dual appointment of Minister Hehr to VAC and DND to deal with transition. To the Prime Minister’s credit, the first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one.
Minister Hehr would be wise to heed the advice of General Dallaire, and if this government isn’t bold enough to swallow the pill and face internal backlash from public officials at VAC, then cries about the treatment of our veterans will amount to nothing more than crocodile tears.
----
Ryan Olshansky is a former advisor to the Veterans Affairs Minister and the Associate Defence Minister. He recently graduated from Carleton University and is an Analyst at the CDA Institute. (Image courtesy of Justin Tang/Canadian Press.)
Ryan Olshansky is a former advisor to the Veterans Affairs Minister and the Associate Defence Minister. He recently graduated from Carleton University and is an Analyst at the CDA Institute. (Image courtesy of Justin Tang/Canadian Press.)
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Dallaire: ISIS cannot be Defeated without strategy for Child Soldiers
Written by: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — One of Canada's most famous former soldiers says the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant cannot be defeated without a strategy to deal with legions of child soldiers being indoctrinated into the violent, extremist cause.
Retired lieutenant-general — and former Liberal senator — Romeo Dallaire recently introduced a program of recruiting veterans to help train local security forces in the world's hot spots in anti-radicalization techniques and recovery efforts.
His goal is to have at least 200 former soldiers trained and ready to give instruction anywhere in the world and to that end last week received $175,000 in seed money from Wounded Warriors Canada to get a cadre of veterans trained in a pilot program.
But separately, he says, some of the training regime may be adopted as doctrine by the Canadian Army and possibly even delivered on the ground to Kurdish fighters by special forces.
Unlike Africa, where child soldiers have long been an issue, Dallaire says ISIL represents a more insidious problem because of the ruthless tactics the group employs and the fact the children are more isolated from the rest of the world.
A series of reports, including one from the United Nations, say children have been hauling weapons, acting as human shields and even becoming suicide bombers. Videos posted online show them watching beheadings as a part of their training to become jihadis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late last year that between January and August 2015, 1,100 children under the age of sixteen were recruited by the Islamic State — something Dallaire says cannot be allowed to continue.
"There is no doubt in my military mind that the sustainment of that conflict is based on the early recruitment and massive use of young people," said Dallaire, who has been meeting senior members of the Trudeau government, and the country's top military commander to persuade them to get behind the effort.
The Liberal government's retooled anti-ISIL strategy last week did not touch on the issue of child soldiers, despite a commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid.
Dallaire met officials at the White House and elsewhere last week in Washington, where the perception of the issue is evolving.
"The Americans are concerned because they have now finally captured the fact that child soldiers — and the use of children — in these conflicts is far more than a humanitarian problem," he said. "It is far more than a social-economic problem. It is a threat, and that is starting to sink in."
Since leaving the Senate, Dallaire, who encountered child soldiers in his ill-fated 1994 Rwanda peacekeeping mission, has focused on the issue through The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative. His group estimates that 250,000 children have forced to fight in armed conflicts around the world.
He said he hopes Veterans Affairs will see the wisdom of further supporting the training program for ex-soldiers, which he describes as training the trainers.
It will give veterans a renewed sense of purpose and put to use some of the skills they've learned over a lifetime in uniform, he added.
Some of the instruction ex-soldiers can give to local security forces involves getting into classrooms in at-risk countries and preventing radicalization in the first place.
Women, Dallaire says, have an important role to play in the programs because in Muslim countries they are often the only ones who can talk with the mothers of child soldiers. They even have a role in disarming the young people, because research shows boys respond more positively to a female influence.
OTTAWA — One of Canada's most famous former soldiers says the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant cannot be defeated without a strategy to deal with legions of child soldiers being indoctrinated into the violent, extremist cause.
Retired lieutenant-general — and former Liberal senator — Romeo Dallaire recently introduced a program of recruiting veterans to help train local security forces in the world's hot spots in anti-radicalization techniques and recovery efforts.
His goal is to have at least 200 former soldiers trained and ready to give instruction anywhere in the world and to that end last week received $175,000 in seed money from Wounded Warriors Canada to get a cadre of veterans trained in a pilot program.
But separately, he says, some of the training regime may be adopted as doctrine by the Canadian Army and possibly even delivered on the ground to Kurdish fighters by special forces.
Unlike Africa, where child soldiers have long been an issue, Dallaire says ISIL represents a more insidious problem because of the ruthless tactics the group employs and the fact the children are more isolated from the rest of the world.
A series of reports, including one from the United Nations, say children have been hauling weapons, acting as human shields and even becoming suicide bombers. Videos posted online show them watching beheadings as a part of their training to become jihadis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late last year that between January and August 2015, 1,100 children under the age of sixteen were recruited by the Islamic State — something Dallaire says cannot be allowed to continue.
"There is no doubt in my military mind that the sustainment of that conflict is based on the early recruitment and massive use of young people," said Dallaire, who has been meeting senior members of the Trudeau government, and the country's top military commander to persuade them to get behind the effort.
The Liberal government's retooled anti-ISIL strategy last week did not touch on the issue of child soldiers, despite a commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid.
Dallaire met officials at the White House and elsewhere last week in Washington, where the perception of the issue is evolving.
"The Americans are concerned because they have now finally captured the fact that child soldiers — and the use of children — in these conflicts is far more than a humanitarian problem," he said. "It is far more than a social-economic problem. It is a threat, and that is starting to sink in."
Since leaving the Senate, Dallaire, who encountered child soldiers in his ill-fated 1994 Rwanda peacekeeping mission, has focused on the issue through The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative. His group estimates that 250,000 children have forced to fight in armed conflicts around the world.
He said he hopes Veterans Affairs will see the wisdom of further supporting the training program for ex-soldiers, which he describes as training the trainers.
It will give veterans a renewed sense of purpose and put to use some of the skills they've learned over a lifetime in uniform, he added.
Some of the instruction ex-soldiers can give to local security forces involves getting into classrooms in at-risk countries and preventing radicalization in the first place.
Women, Dallaire says, have an important role to play in the programs because in Muslim countries they are often the only ones who can talk with the mothers of child soldiers. They even have a role in disarming the young people, because research shows boys respond more positively to a female influence.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
UN Planning on Deploying Peacekeepers to Burundi
One of Justin Trudeau's promises during the election was that he would return Canada to the Peacekeeping table. There has been no indication that Western Nations will be asked to contribute to the proposed mission in Burundi, but will Canada volunteer to be part of one? It would mean returning to the region where Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Romeo Dallaire commanded the UN Mission in Rwanda during the 1994-95 genocide; to help prevent another possible genocide. One that could include the same ethic groups from the 1994-95 conflict.
Below written by AFP;
UN officials are making plans to rush peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Burundi if violence spirals out of control there, diplomats said Wednesday.
The deployment is one of several options being drawn up by the United Nations peacekeeping department to prevent Burundi from descending into Rwanda-style mass killings.
"One option is to get MONUSCO troops from the DRC across the border into Burundi," said a Security Council diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
The 20,000-strong MONUSCO force in the Democratic Republic of Congo is backed up by a rapid-reaction brigade made up of elite troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania that could also be deployed, he said.
The plans are being drawn up as the UN Security Council is poised to vote, possibly as early as Thursday, on a French-drafted resolution condemning the violence and threatening sanctions against leaders who incite attacks.
The draft resolution requests that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon present options to the council within 15 days on actions that could be taken to thwart the violence.
Burundi has been rocked by killings, torture and illegal detentions since President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid to prolong his term in office in April.
At least 240 people have been killed and more than 200,000 Burundians have fled the country.
THE USE OF FORCE
The deployment of a UN force in Burundi would require the approval of Bujumbura authorities or a decision from the Security Council under a chapter 7 resolution, which authorizes the use of force.
Another option under consideration is the deployment of an African Union force made up of troops from regional countries.
"The use of MONUSCO assets and personnel has been mentioned as one possible option," said a UN spokesman for peacekeeping.
"While this is ultimately a matter for the Security Council to decide, a regional coalition would be well-placed to provide a rapid and credible response if the situation in Burundi worsens," he added.
International alarm over the crisis in Burundi has been mounting after repeated appeals to Nkurunziza to enter into a dialogue with the opposition fell on deaf ears.
Diplomats have also raised concerns about Rwanda becoming embroiled in the conflict after President Paul Kagame accused Burundi's leaders of carrying out "massacres" on their people.
British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, whose country holds the council presidency this month, said negotiations on the draft resolution were progressing "very rapidly" and that a vote was likely soon.
"The Security Council has come together in the course of this week to ensure we do everything possible to increase the pressure on the authorities in Bujumbura and warn against the dangers of mass atrocities," Rycroft told reporters.
Below written by AFP;
UN officials are making plans to rush peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Burundi if violence spirals out of control there, diplomats said Wednesday.
The deployment is one of several options being drawn up by the United Nations peacekeeping department to prevent Burundi from descending into Rwanda-style mass killings.
"One option is to get MONUSCO troops from the DRC across the border into Burundi," said a Security Council diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
The 20,000-strong MONUSCO force in the Democratic Republic of Congo is backed up by a rapid-reaction brigade made up of elite troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania that could also be deployed, he said.
The plans are being drawn up as the UN Security Council is poised to vote, possibly as early as Thursday, on a French-drafted resolution condemning the violence and threatening sanctions against leaders who incite attacks.
The draft resolution requests that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon present options to the council within 15 days on actions that could be taken to thwart the violence.
Burundi has been rocked by killings, torture and illegal detentions since President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid to prolong his term in office in April.
At least 240 people have been killed and more than 200,000 Burundians have fled the country.
THE USE OF FORCE
The deployment of a UN force in Burundi would require the approval of Bujumbura authorities or a decision from the Security Council under a chapter 7 resolution, which authorizes the use of force.
Another option under consideration is the deployment of an African Union force made up of troops from regional countries.
"The use of MONUSCO assets and personnel has been mentioned as one possible option," said a UN spokesman for peacekeeping.
"While this is ultimately a matter for the Security Council to decide, a regional coalition would be well-placed to provide a rapid and credible response if the situation in Burundi worsens," he added.
International alarm over the crisis in Burundi has been mounting after repeated appeals to Nkurunziza to enter into a dialogue with the opposition fell on deaf ears.
Diplomats have also raised concerns about Rwanda becoming embroiled in the conflict after President Paul Kagame accused Burundi's leaders of carrying out "massacres" on their people.
British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, whose country holds the council presidency this month, said negotiations on the draft resolution were progressing "very rapidly" and that a vote was likely soon.
"The Security Council has come together in the course of this week to ensure we do everything possible to increase the pressure on the authorities in Bujumbura and warn against the dangers of mass atrocities," Rycroft told reporters.
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