Roland Amoussouga speaks on...
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About this Video
Country of Origin:
Togo
Interview Date:
October 29, 2008; October 30, 2008
Location:
Arusha, Tanzania
Interviewers:
Batya Friedman
Donald J Horowitz
Ronald Slye
Robert Utter
Donald J Horowitz
Ronald Slye
Robert Utter
Videographer:
Max Andrews
Timestamp:
34:49 - 40:53
Transcript
Donald J Horowitz: So we were talking about you were doing the – you were in the law firm thathad contracts . . .
Yeah.
DJH: . . . to monitor . . .
Yes.
DJH: . . . various elections and . . .
Mm‐hmm.
DJH: . . . and things of that sort and w‐, give me a year approximately when this was.
It was in 1990 to ‘92.
DJH: Okay and was it after that that you joined the UN?
Yes, it was during one of those assignment in, in Madagascar . . .
DJH: Mm‐hmm.
. . . because I was there for the, the referendum, the presidential election, the, thelegislative election that I end up meeting some peoples from the UN who had been alsoon the ground. And they appreciated my work and offered me to come and help thembecause we, we happened to work together in Morocco and in Madagascar.
And funnily I was often the only black of the group so it gives them a sense when I tellthem, no I’m not an American, I’m just from this part of Africa and everything. So it, Ihave very good rapport with them and they offered me the opportunity to come andjoin them; to help them in Cambodia for 1 week or, and in Haiti for 6 months.
So when I accepted I negotiated with my law firm, say, “Okay, give me a leave ofabsence for one, one year and then we’ll see.” And they agreed and after one year Isaid, “No, I’ll take the risk to stay with the UN.” So I stayed with the UN since ‘93 andsince ‘93 up to today and here is my almost eight or nine duty stations since the time Ijoined the UN. I was posted on very short missions in various countries and then since ‘96 I’ve been deployed here in Arusha.
DJH: In Arusha. I want to go for a moment to a, a question we sort of talked about alittle offline, and I’d like – you had said when you first heard about what, and sawwhat was going on in Rwanda and you came out of the shower and so forth, that thiswas not a place you wanted to go. But ultimately you did go there.
Yeah.
DJH: Why did you make that decision?
You know as an African I believe that when the call came I have to answer that callbecause I have to give something back to my continent. By virtue of my training, byvirtue of my experience, I became an asset. An asset. And I also in my thinking, I wasalso close to that country because it’s in Africa.
And as an African I thought that the genocide which was a genocide of proximitycommitted by neighbors on neighbors, family members on family members deservefirst to be addressed by neighbors within the family context, the neighborhoods, thecountry, the continent, elsewhere. So I felt that it, I was duty bound to offer myexpertise, myself, to help clean up that mess.
And I seriously believe that this mess is, was a very bad –dirt on the conscience of the,any African because you cannot believe it’s the first time that we went beyond thathorror of seeing black people taking machetes, killing one another within the samefamily because you happen to be different by virtue of your ethnicity in quotes.
Because ethnicity does not find justification in terms of its definition within the contextof Rwanda but basically I felt that I was, I needed to answer that call – personal interestset aside, because I wanted to go back and rest with my family. But I felt that there wasa call beyond my humble self that I needed to answer and to go.
And I know that by going I can get killed. There is no mind in my mind. Whenever Imake a decision I know that whenever I go somewhere I can get killed or I will comealive. But I put that call first before my own humble interest of looking after myself ormy family and so say, “Okay my continent needs me.”
And I went. And when I went I felt good about it because I was part of the very firstgroup of people who went to start cleaning up that mess. And i‐, it was a tremendousassignment. But I was very happy that I deferred to that call without preconditions. Itwas very important for me.
DJH: And, and now you’ve been meeting that call in a variety of ways for almost 15years.
Yes, yes. Particularly on the Rwandan case . . .
DJH: Yes.
. . . because as I said, Rwanda has taken more than half of my lifetime in terms of myprofessional experience.
DJH: Okay.
Okay, I started working in ’84 . . .
DJH: Yes.
. . . and ten years later I was in Rwanda. And Rwanda since then is part of my life.
DJH: Thank you. Thank you.