OTTAWA – Liberal Sen. Romeo Dallaire wants Canada and other countries to quickly send soldiers in to Libya.
The former General who led the United Nations mission in Rwanda said the international community shouldn’t wait any longer.
HMCS Charlottetown is set to ship out of Halifax, Wednesday, with hundreds of sailors being deployed to the conflict region in the North African country.
The main purpose of the warship’s presence is to help with evacuation and humanitarian efforts. It could take up to a week for the vessel to arrive.
“They kill day and night,” Dallaire said. He thinks troops should be ready to intervene.
He also adds that the longer Canada waits, the more people will die and the higher the risk for Canadian soldiers will be.
“When you got the Libyan leader calling his own people ‘cockroaches’ and saying ‘I’m gonna wipe them all out’, those are the exact same terms as the Rwandan genocide,” Dallaire said.
Other countries have started preparing contingency plans should diplomatic efforts fail.
The UN Security Council has started looking at the idea of instituting a no-fly zone over the country.