Man in the news: Wilson Gumisiriza

Last week Wilson Gumisiriza was cleared of murder charges. Brigadier General Gumisiriza was acquitted together with Major Wilson Ukwishaka in a case where Captains John Butera and Dieudonne Rukeba pleaded guilty of the murder of the Archbishop Vincent Nsengyiyunva and two bishops among other priests at Kabgayi on June 5, 1994. Butera and Rukeba were sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the murder of thirteen catholic clergy men during the 1994 Genocide. Gumisiriza had been charged with command responsibility and complicity because the officers who carried out the crime were under his command. He was arrested in June this year. The clergymen were killed after Rwanda Patriotic Front soldiers forces reached home to discover that their families had been wiped out in the Genocide. The soldiers who pleaded guilty were at the time part of a platoon commanded by the now Major Ukwishaka. Gumisiriza who was a Major in 1994, was at the time the intelligence officer of the 157 battalion of the then Rwanda Patriotic Army which was the armed wing of the RPF. Gumisiriza is one of the people who put their lives on line for the liberation of the country from the Habyarimana dictatorship that had kept many Banyarwanda as refugees for more than thirty years. He participated in the 1990-94 liberation struggle that was championed by the RPF. When the RPF/A captured power and put an end to the Genocide in July 1994 he steadily rose through the ranks of the military, and held different positions in the armed forces. In November 2002, Gumisiriza was appointed to head the 301 BDE (Brigade) in Cyangugu under the 4th division with headquarters in Butare then headed by General Ceasar Kayizare. In 2005, Gumisiriza was promoted to his current rank of Brigadier General alongside several other officers with whom he had served in the RPA cum RDF. They included John Bagabo, Eric Murokole, Augustin Turagara, Mubaraka Muganga, Geoffrey Byegeka, Jack Musemakweri and Dan Gapfizi. Rise through the ranks of the military is a testimony of his abilities and discipline given the fact that RDF is one of the most highly disciplined and professional military forces on the African continent. It therefore came as no surprise that the RDF was willing to put one of its highly celebrated military officers under court-martial for crimes allegedly committed by soldiers under his command. The trial of the RDF general and the other officers was closely monitored by a representative from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha. During the trial, the prosecution called on the military tribunal chaired by Brigadier General Steven Kalyango to sentence Gumisiriza to life imprisonment. However, according to media reports, Gumisiriza said in his defence that he was not God to foresee what soldiers who were miles away could be thinking so as to abort their mission. Also during his trial, Gumisiriza’s lawyer, Athanase Rutabingwa, said that his client had served his country diligently and that bringing him before the court over “unsabtantiated” allegations was enough humiliation. Kalyango ruled that the doctrine of command responsibility could not apply to Gumisiriza and ordered that he be released immediately. Ends