Major brent beardsley biography graphic organizer

Major Brent Beardsley photo courtesy of Canadian Department of National Defence

The United States had been pushing for a full withdrawal of U.N. troops from Rwanda.

On April 21, the U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to cut its peacekeeping force in Rwanda from troops to

Major Brent Beardsley was Military Assistant to U.N. commander Dallaire. Beardsley says the tiny U.N. force in Kigali woke up to Rwanda's insignificance.

"It was almost to the point where you know you want to get on the phone and just yell in to it 'Is there anybody alive out there?' The world just didn't care and it made no difference what you said or how you said it to them," recalls Beardsley.

"We could have packed up dead bodies, put them on a HERC, flown to New York, walked in the Security Council and dumped them on the floor in front of the Security Council, and all that would have happened was we would have been charged for illegally using a U.N.

aircraft."

By early May at least , Rwand