SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

This EMERGENCY screening is being presented in support of Rwandan Refugee John Nsabimana. Currently only months away from graduation at B.C.'s Lester B. Pearson United World College, John has been denied refugee status here in Canada and will be deported in under a month
without even the chance to finish his degree unless a last ditch appeal to the minister for him to remain in Canada on compassionate grounds is granted. Only massive public pressure on the minister can ensure that John stays in Canada to finish his degree rather than being returned to an all too likely early death in Rwanda.

John, whose parents were killed in the genocide which this film details, counts among his supporters Romeo Dallaire, Amnesty International and a wide variety of human rights groups, individual citizens and university students.

It is now time for us to add the students of Mount Allison to that list!

You don't need to give money, you don't need to take time, all you need to do to help John is show up at this screening and sign one of the form letters we will provide. That's right, all we need from you
to possibly save a man's life, and certainly his future, is your John/Jill Hancock.

Below is a synopsis of the film

In 100 days - between April 6 and July 16, 1994 - an estimated 800,000 men, women and children ere brutally killed in the obscure African country of Rwanda. The victims - many horrifically hacked to death
with machetes - were Tutsi, and moderate Hutus who supported them.

One man was tasked by the United Nations with ensuring that peace was maintained in Rwanda - Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire. But unsupported by U.N. headquarters and its Security Council far away in New York, Dallaire and his handful of soldiers were incapable of
stopping the genocide.

After ten years of mental torture, reliving the horrors daily and more than once attempting suicide, Roméo Dallaire has poured out his soul in an extraordinary book. Shake Hands With The Devil is a cri de
coeur. The General pulls no punches in his condemnation of top UN officials, expedient Belgian policy makers and senior members of the Clinton administration who chose to do nothing as Dallaire pleaded for reinforcements and revised rules of engagement.

Dallaire is convinced that, with a few thousand more troops and a mandate to act pre-emptively, he could have stopped the killings. His impotence, at a time of extreme crisis, preys on his conscience still.

The experienced Canadian documentary production company, White Pine Pictures, secured the documentary rights to General Dallaire's book and exclusive access to follow him during his first return trip to Rwanda, in April 2004 - the 10th anniversary of the genocide. We were there as he revisited the killing fields that haunt him.

Shake Hands With The Devil is the most powerful documentary produced about the Rwandan genocide. Unflinching. Gut-wrenching. Challenging. Hard-hitting. This is appointment television for viewers throughout the world who care about human rights and international justice.

Canada / 2004 / 91 min
Director: Peter Raymont
Associate Producer&Researcher: Patrick
Reed/Producers: Peter Raymont, Lindalee Tracy

Official Site