United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda
Marchal had, by 1994, accumulated thirty years of experience in the Belgian military, fifteen of them as a paracommando. Before his Rwanda assignment, he had been chief of staff to the Minister of Defense. Marchal had five years of experience working in Zaire, and his United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) commander, Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, praised him, stating, "Luc carried no colonial baggage" and that he "had a special knack for working with troops from less sophisticated armies."