Roméo Dallaire

Harvard Book Store is honored to welcome the distinguished Canadian humanitarian and retired general ROMÉO DALLAIRE as he discusses his most recent book, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers. Mr. Dallaire will be joined by former child soldier GRACE AKALLO, who currently works as a spokesperson for children in Northern Uganda who are affected by war.

As the leader of the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda, Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire came face-to-face with the horrifying reality of child soldiers during the genocide of 1994. Since then, the incidence of child soldiers has proliferated in conflicts around the world—they are cheap, plentiful, expendable, and have an incredible capacity, once drugged and brainwashed, for both loyalty and barbarism.

The dilemma of the adult soldier who faces them is poignantly expressed in this book's title: When children are shooting at you, they are soldiers, but as soon as they are wounded or killed, they are children once again. Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the use of child soldiers. 

"They Fight Like Soldiers is a compelling, moving and insightful book that exposes the problem of child soldiers in all its dimensions. While it is much less personal than his powerful, award-winning memoir Shake Hands with Devil, the book is emblematic of Dallaire's resolve, compassion, and abiding commitment to justice. His Orwell-like sensibility, in which 'all humans are human; not one of us is more human than any other,' is refreshingly sincere. As Dallaire reminds us, he has come face to face with the absolute worst of humanity; if he can still believe in our collective capacity for change, so can we." —The Globe and Mail (Canada)