Marcel Gatsinzi  Marcel Gatsinzi () is a Rwandan soldier and politician, who was Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs from 2010 to 2013. Gatsinzi also served as Rwanda's Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2010. An ethnic Hutu from Butare, Gatsinzi is a former member of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), which was the national army prior to the takeover of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. General Gatsinzi was born on 9 January 1948 in Kigali. 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. He 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. Gatsinzi was promoted to brigadier general when he was removed from that position, replaced by Augustin Bizimungu. Afterwards he was assigned to negotiate with the RPF and "other duties that did not involve direct command of troops". Gatsinzi has held various political and military appointments with the following as his main career highlights: Gatsinzi holds a series of honorific military medal awards. Gatsinzi was appointed Minister of Defence on 15 November 2002, succeeding Brig.-Gen. Emmanuel Habyarimana.