The meaning of the army’s response when a soldier recently tragically killed five civilians

What prompted Sgt. Gervais Minani, 39, of the Rwanda Defense Force in Nyamasheke to shoot dead five civilians last Wednesday? Was it an intoxication-induced rage that caused Minani to perpetrate this tragic mass shooting? Maybe. (News reports said the soldier shot people he had had an altercation with in a bar). Or, could it be that he had some undisclosed mental illness? What exactly caused Minani to commit such an anomalous (by a soldier of the RDF) act? People can only speculate, until the military makes public the results of its investigation – which it announced shortly after news of the incident broke. Beyond how the shooting affected the local communities where it occurred in Nyamasheke, it’s instructive to think about how the RDF, as an institution, handled the situation. The military quickly tracked down and arrested the suspect. They then issued a statement describing what had happened, where, what time, who was involved. They assured Rwandans they were investigating, to get to the root of the incident, and that legal action would be taken against the suspect. Afterwards RDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronald Rwivanga, addressing the media, extended the institutions’ condolences to the bereaved and grieving families of the victims, and their friends. “There is absolutely no reason (a soldier) would shoot and kill civilians,” Rwivanga said on RBA, adding, “RDF would like to condole the affected families and everyone dear to the deceased.” Now, to those Rwandans of the generation born after the liberation of this country from the forces of darkness in 1994, there is nothing out of the ordinary when our military comes forward – with the facts and with transparency – when one of its own commits a crime, whatever the reasons. To all young Rwandans, that’s simply what’s to be expected. Just like it’s a given the culprit will face punishment, including the fact that culprit won’t, afterwards, ever be a part of the armed forces again and thus can’t be a danger to anyone else. For this country’s younger generation, it’s something taken for granted that the Army, and indeed all the other security institutions, the Police or Reserve Forces, are accountable to the civilian population – something that the RDF’s demonstrated when putting out a communique with all the (immediate) facts, and its spokesperson availing himself to the media. And so, when all was said and done, Rwanda’s young once again saw, demonstrably, that its security forces indeed are “of the people.” But for the generation(s) that came up in the years before liberation, us, what Rwanda’s security forces are is nothing short of miraculous! Yes, it is (much as even we have gotten so used to the way they are, it in fact is no longer remarkable). We even forget that it isn’t that long ago that the mere sight of a soldier filled one with terror. I will come back to that in a moment. For Rwandans today, even the-not-so-young of us, if you happen to come upon armed troops patrolling the roads, you go about your business with not the slightest worry. We are fully certain these men and women in uniform are professionals with only one thing in mind: to keep us safe. The same applies with policemen and women. Also, not only do we know they are professional in their work; we know they will respond not with force or violence when their services are required. An officer, say a policeman that finds they have to arrest a law breaker, a criminal, or an unruly civilian causing a disturbance, will do so after identifying themselves to the suspect, warning him, and ordering him to turn himself over, before resorting to any force. As it should be. Contrary to so much propaganda by those whose work it is to tarnish Rwanda and its institutions, members of its security forces do not torture, mistreat, or terrorize civilians. The situation is such that Rwandan civilians probably are amongst those with the least fear (not to be mistaken for disrespect) of their security forces anywhere in the world. That is just an objective fact. It’s truly remarkable for a country where the words “there are soldiers on the road” induced abject fear. I am not even talking of the period after the first of October 1990 (when the RPF launched the war of liberation) when Habyarimana’s troops, the FAR, had the perfect pretext to terrorize civilians, arresting and beating up people; making people “disappear”; shooting people that tried to flee from them, in broad daylight; and other brutal, inhuman acts. Rwanda’s post-colonial army was very much a creation of its colonial masters who built it as a tool to brutalize the African masses into perpetual submission. When Mbonyumutwa, Kayibanda, Habyarimana et al took over after “independence”, the so-called army never shed its colonial character. It merely pled allegiance to a new African master, and became a tribal institution, to brutalize everyone into subservience to his government. As we know, this wasn’t a misfortune to befall only Rwanda, but all of sub-Saharan Africa. The post-colonial army (for lack of a better word to call individuals with access to firearms that became known more for wreaking havoc than anything else) was deeply anti-people. And so, when the RPF’s armed wing, RPA, prevailed against Habyarimana (and the short-lived successor regime) that was a major milestone in Rwanda’s history, in more ways than one. When the RPA drove out the FAR, it also broke the last vestige of colonialism in Rwanda. That’s what we see today.