In its 2010 survey of the feelings of people in 153 countries, Gallup Poll found that 98% of Rwandans have confidence in the national army. It was the highest expression of confidence in the army of any nation in the world. How has the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) been able to build such high levels of citizens’ confidence in its work?
On May 9, 2011, a Rwandan choir team was visiting Tanzania when the bus they were travelling in suffered an accident in a place called Puni a few kilometers from Isaka hospital. Three people, two of them Rwandan died and several were injured. Within an hour, the Rwanda Defense Air-force had dispatched a helicopter to rescue the injured and had brought them for first class medical attention in Kigali. It arrived there even before the Tanzanian public healthcare system could send an ambulance from Isaka. Given that the Rwanda Defense Air-force had to seek permission to overfly Tanzanian airspace, this efficiency was impressive.
A week later, a family of 14 was buried inside their home by a big mudslide in a remote village in Gakoro Cell, Rugera Sector, Nyabihu District. Within a few minutes, the RDF brigade commander for the area was on the scene with his soldiers spearheading a search and rescue mission for possible survivors and retrieving the bodies. There were no survivors, however. The army worked all day with villagers in retrieving bodies, digging graves and preparing for burial.
On the day of burial, the minister of Defense, Gen. James Kabarebe and the minister for Disaster Preparedness, Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi (a former chief of staff in the government set up immediately after the death of Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994 and later minister of Defense till 2010 – another sign of reconciliation) appeared accompanied by the district mayor, three senators, high ranking army officers and other government officials.
After the burial, Rwandan peasants were singing praise of the RDF – some of the more enlightened villagers were equating their army to that of the United States which is always called upon to help civilians during disasters. These two incidents are not unusual in Rwanda as military helicopters are always available to evacuate ordinary citizens to King Faisal Hospital whenever there is an emergency. Neither is rescue the only area where the Rwandan army engages the civilian population to promote the public good.
For example, the RDF has been creating coffee wash stations for ordinary citizens to clean their coffee and export it for high value. It is now working with them to produce fruits like passion, orange and pineapple for Inyange Industries, itself a subsidiary of Crystal Ventures Limited, the holding company of the ruling party, RPF. Recently, the RDF has been discussing with international business persons how to work with Rwandan farmers to develop production, value addition and export of Cassava into a US$ 1 billion business.
However, it is during Army Week that RDF’s strategy of being involved in the promotion of the welfare of ordinary citizens is most pronounced. The aim of Army Week is to support socio-economic development as one of the roles of RDF stipulated in the constitution of Rwanda. Consequently, RDF has developed strong public relations through Civil-Military Activities. This is however done according to needs and organization capacity to support various national development programs.
In this role, RDF in involved in activities mainly linked to infrastructure development, environment protection, health and hygiene, and civic education, among others. In 2010, for example, Army Week was designed to support the national development agenda, enhance civil-military cooperation, improve rural economic transformation, health and poverty reduction programmers and promote food security
In pursuit of this, the RDF worked on health, specifically on ophthalmology, dental services, surgery, and ear, nose and throat (ENT). They also worked on the construction of houses and on infrastructure development involving bridges, water points, repair of roads etc.
In ophthalmology, the RDF handled 546 cases; in dental they attended 11,680 patients; this exceeded their initial target by 110.7%; surgery, they worked on 586 patients. The planned target was 300 which exceeded the target to reach 298.6%. It is in ENT that the target was not attained due to lack of awareness at the first place; but for the last week. In a final report the RDF reported that “patients are overwhelming the ENT staff though it was an unknown medical department in remote areas.”
However, the RDF went even further, contributing to the government’s One Cow Per Family Program as the table… shows. Other activities are shown in the information below.
RDF is also heavily involved in international humanitarian duty. In line with fighting against GBV, RDF initiated and trained Sudanese in refugee camps in Darfur on the use of Randereza cook stoves. This limits the frequency of women and girls going out of camps to fetch fire wood hence minimising their exposure to murder, rape, and other abuse.
These activities show the involvement of the RDF in helping to improve the lives and welfare of ordinary citizens, factors that have not only improved civil-military relations but greatly contributed to the process of reconciliation in Rwanda.
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written by Kayumba David, June 08, 2011
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written by rwakakoko, June 08, 2011
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written by Muzukulu Wamwe, June 09, 2011
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written by Mukiibi Mugerwa, June 09, 2011
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written by Kayumba David, June 09, 2011
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written by Kasibante, June 10, 2011
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It can be a role model of how to use the Army when there is no war.