Roméo’s Song

I tossed my sanity aside
To duel with time and race the days—
I wrestled with a hundred nations
To keep a civil war at bay…

Time is running out,
Does anybody care?

To keep the peace I built an army,
But apathy held me like chains;
Who cares for small Rwanda,
Who held no wealth in her domain?

Time is running out,
Does anybody care?

I fought for peace within the storm
While hatred brewed behind the masks;
I cried for peace and looked for answers
But no one gave me what I asked…

Time is running out,
Does anybody care?

And when perfect time had come
The murderers revealed their scheme:
The Tutsis fell beneath their blades
Their blood becoming crimson streams…

Time is running out,
Does anybody care?

I needed help to save the others,
I cried to all the world for aid,
But no one cared enough to help,
Their charity a big charade…

Time is running out,
Does anybody care?

No one could gain from saving lives,
So no one stopped the genocide,
And when the storm had cleared its course
Eight hundred thousand Tutsis died…

Time had run its course,
And no one seemed to care…

Roméo Dallaire was the force commander of UNAMIR (The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda). He was directly involved in saving the lives of about 20,000 Tutsis and Hutus through the Rwanda genocide, but was unable to get the U.N. to send more troops into Rwanda to stop the genocide until 3 months after the genocide began.