Gatsinzi was born in Kigali on 9 January 1948.[3] He started his formal education at Collège Saint-André in Nyamirambo, Kigali, where he graduated with a diploma in 1968. His military career began at the Kigali Military Academy in the same year, and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 31 March 1970.
Gatsinzi pursued his military career courses in Belgium at Heverlee (Louvain) in the School of Logistics in 1971 and in Brussels at the Royal High Institute of Defence from 1974 to 1976.
Beside the military assignments in the Rwandan Army, Colonel Gatsinzi served in the OAU Neutral Military Observer Group set by the Organization of African Unity. That OAU NMOG was meant to monitor the cease fire during the period of the negotiations between the Government and the RPF during the Rwandan Civil War (1990–1994). He also participated in the negotiations process.
During the genocide, from 6 to 17 April 1994 he served as Army Chief of Staff of the FAR.[4] Because he advocated a more moderate approach and opposed expansion of the genocide, Gatsinzi was removed from the post and was replaced by Augustin Bizimungu.[5][6] Afterwards he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to negotiate with the RPF and "other duties that did not involve direct command of troops".[7]
After the genocide
Because of his resistance to the genocide and willingness to negotiate with the RPF, he was integrated into the Rwandan Patriotic Army shortly after their taking power. He was appointed chief of staff of the gendarmerie in 1997.[8]
Gatsinzi held various political and military appointments with the following as his main career highlights:
Deputy Chief of Staff of Rwanda Patriotic Army from 1995–1997
Chief of Staff of the National Gendarmerie from 1997–2000
Secretary General of the National Security Service from 2000 to 2002
Minister of Defence on 15 November 2002
Re-appointed Minister of Defence on 19 October 2003 till 10 April 2010
Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs from 2010 to 2013
Gatsinzi held a series of honorific military medal awards.
Gatsinzi was appointed Minister of Defence on 15 November 2002, succeeding Brig.-Gen. Emmanuel Habyarimana.
Gatsinzi died on 7 March 2023, at the age of 75.[9]
^Guichaoua, André (2015). From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990–1994. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 159, 212. ISBN9780299298203.
^Guichaoua, André (2015). From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990–1994. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 251–253. ISBN9780299298203.
^Twagiramungu, Noel, "Two Rebel Roads to Power: Explaining Variation in the Transition from Genocidal Violence to Rebel Governance in Contemporary Rwanda and Burundi," PhD Dissertation, Tufts University, 2014, p. 137.
