Newswise — Lieutenant-General (ret.) Roméo A. Dallaire, who led a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, will be the speaker at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) 2010 undergraduate commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 16, beginning at 4:00 p.m. in the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.
The commencement ceremony will be held jointly by NSU’s Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, Fischler School of Education and Human Services, and H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship. The public is invited and encouraged join the university in recognizing the hard work and dedication of NSU students earning their bachelor’s degrees.
“Lieutenant-General Dallaire’s experiences reflect leadership, courage, conviction, and a commitment to honor – all the qualities we would hope for in our graduates,” said Don Rosenblum, Ph.D., dean of NSU’s Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. “I believe that Dallaire’s charge to the graduates will provide a stellar crown to the year’s annual theme of ‘good and evil’ as well as frame our students’ collegiate experiences as they move forward to graduate school and professional life.”
Dallaire led a notable career in the Canadian-Armed Forces, achieving the rank of Lieutenant-General and becoming Assistant Deputy Minister. He is widely known for having served as the force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) from 1993 to 1994 and for trying to stop the genocide waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and Hutu moderates during a three month period in 1994, where an estimated 800,00 Rwandans were killed. His leadership and courage in the face of these atrocities earned Dallaire international respect, as well as Canada’s most prestigious military honor, the Meritorious Service Cross.
Author of the book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Dallaire provides a personal account of and chronicles the inhumanity he encountered and the failure of the international community to stop the genocide encountered during those fateful months of his tour as UNAMIR in Rwanda.
Since his retirement from the military, Dallaire has worked to bring an understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder to the general public. He has also been a visiting lecturer at several Canadian and American universities, and has written several articles and chapters in publications on conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance and human rights.
For more information on NSU’s 2010 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony, visitwww.nova.edu/cwis/registrar/commencement.html .
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