Roméo Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil is his account of his time as head of the U.N. mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, and it's probably one of the more horrifying books you can read. Dallaire was for all intents and purposes the 'world's' representative in Rwanda as conflict turned to chaos, and there was really nothing he could do about the fact that Hutus were set on demonstrating the very worst of man's inhumanity to man, with their Tutsi and pro-Tutsi Hutu neighbors as their victims. And what's more, Dallaire went from a decorated Canadian military man to just a shell of a person, so troubled as he was by what he experienced in East Africa.

So Dallaire's in a pretty good position to give some practical advice to Martin Agwai, the Nigerian general who will head up the joint U.N/African Union force in Darfur. Here is some of his guidance:

It is important that your official reporting, in describing progress on mandate implementation, should highlight obstacles you face that require action by the two headquarters, or by member states. You can anticipate being let down by everyone on whom you depend for support, be that troops, funding, logistics or political engagement. Only by shining a spotlight on those failures in every possible way can you mobilise the attention necessary to get the action you need. Bear in mind that whoever fails you will, in the end, be the most active in blaming you for whatever goes wrong.

The full open letter from Dallaire to Agwai is here.