The author of Shake Hands With The Devil and the narrator of the book, Lt. General Roméo Dallaire is an officer in the Canadian army who was tasked with being the force commander for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). In his own words, he wrote the book as “nothing more nor less than the account of a few humans who were entrusted with the role of helping others taste the fruits of peace. Instead, we watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect” (7). His experiences left him traumatized and “suicidal” (xv). Eventually, he received a medical discharge

Since returning from Rwanda, Dallaire has testified against the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide in human rights courts. Also, he has co-founded the Will to Intervene Project, a research organization designed to promote the intervention of foreign governments in humanitarian crises, and is a senior fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights. In addition, he founded a non-profit organization, the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security, which is dedicated to ending the use of child soldiers globally.