Date:
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Time:
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location:
Rwanda Mission to the UN
Street:
124 East 39th Street
City/Town:
New York, NY
View Map
Description
PROTEST TO FREE PETER ERLINDER!
Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild New York City Chapter
Contact nlgnyc@igc.org for more information or to endorse the call and protest.
The National Lawyers Guild New York City Chapter (NLG-NYC) demands the immediate release of former NLG president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested on May 28, 2010 on charges of “genocide ideology.” He had traveled to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and the charges stem from the vigorous legal representation he is obligated to provide as a defense attorney. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday, June 4 at a hearing in Kigali.
Erlinder has been interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force’s Kacyiru headquarters and has been hospitalized twice since his detention. The NLG-NYC is extremely concerned for the safety and well-being of Professor Erlinder. His family has still not had any direct contact with him since his arrest.
Erlinder traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Conference in Brussels. Since his arrival in Kigali, the state-sponsored Rwandan media has been highly critical of Erlinder.
The Rwandan Parliament adopted the “Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology” (Genocide Ideology Law), on July 23, 2008. It defines genocide ideology broadly, requires no link to any genocidal act, and can be used to include a wide range of legitimate forms of expression, prohibiting speech protected by international conventions such as the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.
Professor Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law. He is a frequent litigator and consultant, often pro bono, in cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct, and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997, and is a current board member of the NLG Foundation. He has been a defense attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.
The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
Showing posts with label US Senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Senate. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Lawsuit Alleges Rwandan President Triggered Rwanda Genocide
Oklahoma City - On Thursday, 04.29.2010, three attorneys filed a wrongful death lawsuit, in an Oklahoma City federal court, alleging that Rwandan President Paul Kagame ordered the political assassinations that triggered the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
The three attorneys are representing MadameAgatha Habyarimana, widow of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, and Madame Sylvana Ntaryamira, widow of Burundian President, Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both their husbands died when assassins shot their plane out of the sky, on April 6, 1994.
The two presidents were flying home from a conference between east and central African leaders in Tanzania, held to discuss ways to end violence between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis from Burundi and Rwanda, when their plane was shot out of the sky, with a surface-to-air missile, over Rwanda’s capitol, Kigali, on the evening of 04.06.1994.
That evening the BBC reported:
The deaths of the presidents, both Hutus, look likely to make the situation in both states [Rwanda and Burundi] worse. Heavy fighting has already been reported around the presidential palace in Rwanda after news of the deaths spread. News agencies in Kigali said explosions have been rocking the city but it was not immediately clear who was involved in the fighting.
Between 800,000 and 1,200,000 Rwandans died before the fighting ended, largely in civilian massacres. At its end, current Rwandan President seized power in Kigali, as the victorious general in the 1990-1994 Rwandan Civil War.
Madames Habyarimana and Ntaryamira allege, in their wrongful death lawsuit, that Kagame, then leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ordered their husbands assassination, and, that his and his army's actions brought about the mass civilian massacre known as the Rwanda Genocide.
Earlier this week, French media reported that a Paris judge investigating the crash, Marc Trevidic, was planning to send experts to Rwanda. His predecessor, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, had accused the RPF of shooting down the plane and called for his arrest of President Kagame.
The widows do not live in the United States, but argue that a federal court in Oklahoma City has jurisdiction over their claims because of Kagame's substantial contacts withOklahoma Christian University.
President Kagame appeared at the university in Edmond, Oklahoma on Friday, 04.30.2010, the day after the lawsuit was filed, to deliver the commencement address, but left the ceremony early, surrounded by bodyguards, avoiding process service.
Media outlets around the world report that Kagame avoided process service, but it's not yet clear that he has, because a defendant may be considered served if it can be demonstrated that he has intentionally avoided process service.
Professor Peter Erlinder, Lead Defense Counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and one of the attorneys on the wrongful death case, said:
"The U.S. Secret Service and University staff informed Kagame that we had a valid summons and complaint that we wished to serve upon him. We were instructed we could not approach Kagame for security reasons, with which we agreed, but Secret Service informed us that security requirements permitted service on any authorized person on his staff."
"Rather than accept service, members of his staff refused to accept documents and the University ordered process servers, and lawyers, to leave campus....which is 'interference with service of process,' a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law. Also, because the University has now involved itself in the conspiracy to cover-up Kagame's crimes, they have exposed themselves to liability. The president of the University has been served with a copy of the complaint and summons for Mr. Kagame."
A university spokesman said, “President Kagame is at Oklahoma Christian as the head of Rwanda to honor the 10 outstanding Rwandan Presidential Scholars who are graduating today.
"We do not want to distract from their remarkable accomplishments by getting involved in the politics of Rwanda and surrounding countries. We cannot comment on pending lawsuits.
Attorneys in the lawsuit stated that, "There is no independent functioning judiciary in Rwanda and any suit against defendants there would have been and would still be futile and would result in serious reprisals."
Carla del Ponte, Lead Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals on Rwanda and Yugoslavia, in her book “Madame Prosecutor; Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity,” tells the story of how she was fired by the UN after announcing her intent to prosecute sitting Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the assassination of Presidents Habyarimana and Ntaryamira that triggered the genocide.
Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison
The three attorneys are representing MadameAgatha Habyarimana, widow of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, and Madame Sylvana Ntaryamira, widow of Burundian President, Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both their husbands died when assassins shot their plane out of the sky, on April 6, 1994.
The two presidents were flying home from a conference between east and central African leaders in Tanzania, held to discuss ways to end violence between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis from Burundi and Rwanda, when their plane was shot out of the sky, with a surface-to-air missile, over Rwanda’s capitol, Kigali, on the evening of 04.06.1994.
That evening the BBC reported:
The deaths of the presidents, both Hutus, look likely to make the situation in both states [Rwanda and Burundi] worse. Heavy fighting has already been reported around the presidential palace in Rwanda after news of the deaths spread. News agencies in Kigali said explosions have been rocking the city but it was not immediately clear who was involved in the fighting.
Between 800,000 and 1,200,000 Rwandans died before the fighting ended, largely in civilian massacres. At its end, current Rwandan President seized power in Kigali, as the victorious general in the 1990-1994 Rwandan Civil War.
Madames Habyarimana and Ntaryamira allege, in their wrongful death lawsuit, that Kagame, then leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ordered their husbands assassination, and, that his and his army's actions brought about the mass civilian massacre known as the Rwanda Genocide.
Earlier this week, French media reported that a Paris judge investigating the crash, Marc Trevidic, was planning to send experts to Rwanda. His predecessor, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, had accused the RPF of shooting down the plane and called for his arrest of President Kagame.
The widows do not live in the United States, but argue that a federal court in Oklahoma City has jurisdiction over their claims because of Kagame's substantial contacts withOklahoma Christian University.
President Kagame appeared at the university in Edmond, Oklahoma on Friday, 04.30.2010, the day after the lawsuit was filed, to deliver the commencement address, but left the ceremony early, surrounded by bodyguards, avoiding process service.
Media outlets around the world report that Kagame avoided process service, but it's not yet clear that he has, because a defendant may be considered served if it can be demonstrated that he has intentionally avoided process service.
Professor Peter Erlinder, Lead Defense Counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and one of the attorneys on the wrongful death case, said:
"The U.S. Secret Service and University staff informed Kagame that we had a valid summons and complaint that we wished to serve upon him. We were instructed we could not approach Kagame for security reasons, with which we agreed, but Secret Service informed us that security requirements permitted service on any authorized person on his staff."
"Rather than accept service, members of his staff refused to accept documents and the University ordered process servers, and lawyers, to leave campus....which is 'interference with service of process,' a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law. Also, because the University has now involved itself in the conspiracy to cover-up Kagame's crimes, they have exposed themselves to liability. The president of the University has been served with a copy of the complaint and summons for Mr. Kagame."
A university spokesman said, “President Kagame is at Oklahoma Christian as the head of Rwanda to honor the 10 outstanding Rwandan Presidential Scholars who are graduating today.
"We do not want to distract from their remarkable accomplishments by getting involved in the politics of Rwanda and surrounding countries. We cannot comment on pending lawsuits.
Attorneys in the lawsuit stated that, "There is no independent functioning judiciary in Rwanda and any suit against defendants there would have been and would still be futile and would result in serious reprisals."
Carla del Ponte, Lead Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals on Rwanda and Yugoslavia, in her book “Madame Prosecutor; Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity,” tells the story of how she was fired by the UN after announcing her intent to prosecute sitting Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the assassination of Presidents Habyarimana and Ntaryamira that triggered the genocide.
Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
An American lawyer is arrested in Kigali for genocide denial. Is it a sign of President Paul Kagame's creeping authoritarianism?
On Friday, American lawyer C. Peter Erlinder was arrested by the Rwandan government for allegedly denying the country's 1994 genocide. He had come to Kigali to meet with his client, opposition leader and hopeful presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who had been arrested on similar charges of negationism earlier this year. Many have speculated that the government is turning up the pressure on the opposition in advance of presidential elections, scheduled for August 9, 2010, which incumbent President Paul Kagame is widely expected to win.
Erlinder had caught the attention of the government far earlier than this most recent trip, however. A professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Erlinder first began working on Rwanda in 2003, when he took up the case of Aloys Ntabaluze, a defendant accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. After intense investigations, his defense team drafted what court documents call an "alternative explanation of the tragic events in Rwanda during the four year war." The defense's trial brief includes a section linking then-General Kagame to the shooting down of a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira in 1994 -- an assassination that triggered the genocide. "[I]mportantly from the standpoint of fixing central responsibility for the massacres that the assassination of President Habyarimana touched off, these acts were undertaken with full knowledge on the part of Gen. Kagame that resumption of the war would cause massive civilian casualties," the defense states (italics from original text).
There has long been ambiguity surrounding the downing of Habyarimana's plane and the events that precipitated the genocide. And though ordinary Rwandans and international conspiracy theorists have long debated the mysterious and cynical assassination, any attempt to investigate or prosecute the facts under the current Kagame government is a non-starter.
So it was little surprise that Erlinder's digging put him on the Kagame government's bad side, says the lawyer's daughter, Sarah, in an interview with Foreign Policy. And Erlinder did more than dig: In late April, when Kagame visited the United States to offer a commencement address at Oklahoma Christian University, Erlinder and several other American lawyers attempted to serve the Rwandan president with a lawsuit brought by the widows of Habyarimana and Ntaryamira, alleging his involvement in the 1994 assassination.
Sarah Erlinder argues that her father's incarceration is unjust and shines a light on a county far too long believed to be democratic -- a darling of foreign donors for its recovery from genocide. Instead, she says, this confirms what many of Kagame's critics have long said: that this champion of democracy has an authoritarian side, now becoming all the more apparent.
Foreign Policy: Take us back to how this started. When did your father arrive in Rwanda on this most recent visit?
Sarah Erlinder: He [headed to] Rwanda from Brussels on Sunday [May 23], where he had been at a defense conference that they'd organized for the people working with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR]. He arrived in Rwanda with the intention of visiting his client, Victoire Ingabire, and joining her legal team. Ingabire [an opposition candidate] had previously been arrested and accused of [denying the genocide].
FP: How did you hear about the arrest?
SE: There was an email list that my dad was using to send updates on work. We woke up on Friday morning to an email from someone that we didn't recognize saying that he had been arrested. I did a quick Google search, and there were already a couple of articles from the African press. I then called my dad's wife, who had also gotten the e-mail and was also confused.
We got on the phone to the embassy and then to the State Department trying to figure out [what happened.] The first step was just ensuring that they knew, and they had [indeed] been aware. We have also received an update from an American lawyer who wasn't there for the arrest but has met with my dad [since], and who [asked my father] what happened.
The two of them [my father and the other American lawyer] were supposed to leave on Thursday, but the prosecutor summoned Ingabire for questioning on Friday, so they extended their trip.
On Friday morning, the police came to the hotel [where my father was staying] and it sounds like they came to his room and arrested them there. They've kept the room sealed and have inventoried some of his personal belongings. The embassy told us that someone from the embassy was present with him when he was arrested.
The American lawyer and a Rwandan colleague were able to meet him on Saturday. But they were denied access on Sunday. On Monday, two Kenyan lawyers were able to get credentials, so they will be able to go back in and see him. They weren't able to get into the interviews [that the Rwandan police were doing with my father before]. The American got credentials today.
FP: What has been the response of the State Department to the case so far?
SE: The first response from the State Department was that there were certain steps that they follow to make sure that he is physically safe. But after that, Americans are arrested abroad all the time, and they have to let process play out -- which we found unacceptable. This isn't a college kid who got in a fight on spring break in Cancún; this is much more serious. And there is not really a fair, open, judicial process. He's really being held based on statements and writings that he made in the courts representing his client at the ICTR.
The embassy has been responsive to general updates on his well-being. He was brought to the hospital and spent the night there [for high blood pressure] and is back in the jail there now. The embassy sent someone to be with him at the hospital for a while.
FP: Tell us about his client, Aloys Ntabaluze, who he has been representing at the ICTR.
SE: He's been representing [this client] since 2003. He had a friend and colleague who was involved in the ICTR [back then] and suggested that he might be interested. So, my father put his name on the list and got assigned to a case. He went to Arusha in June, 2003, for the first time and saw that the trials had already started and that he wasn't the second-chair counsel but the lead.
He didn't know a lot more than the average interested person about Rwanda or what had happened there. That's the other thing that's poignant about situation: The Rwandan government has made it sound like he has this agenda, as if he didn't go there as attorney but rather only trotting the globe for his agenda. But everything he's talked about, he uncovered while investigating the case.
[In fact, he began the] Rwanda Document Project online, where anyone can see the documents that he's found. He was trying to make this as open as possible and really shine a light on a closed society and on a very taboo topic. He was putting real hot-button issues [out there]. And if you say, "perhaps the Hollywood Hotel Rwanda narrative that everyone thinks was the way that things happened -- it didn't happen exactly that way," then you're a genocide denier.
I was so surprised the first time a reporter asked me whether he denied the genocide. This is obviously someone who doesn't know him. He would never do that to the victims, to their families. But is he trying to get information that hasn't been available before to the public? Yes, and that's obviously what's put him in danger now and on the bad side of the Kagame government.
FP: In speaking with the lawyers on the ground, is there speculation that his arrest could be linked with the upcoming presidential elections?
SE: They definitely think so. Timing wise, it's a perfect storm. Leading up to the election, the government is really continuing to tighten down. Even charging the opposition candidate in the first place -- in a free society, we let someone vote for who they want.
Also, Paul Kagame was in Oklahoma last month and my dad and a couple of other lawyers [tried to serve] him a lawsuit under the Alien Torts Claim act on behalf of widows of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, both of whom were killed in the plane crash that touched off the genocide there. There are definitely things you can trace [that he did] that would make the Kagame government angry.
My dad was aware of this risk when he went there. He contacted his congressional delegation, the State Department, and the embassy before going to draw attention to his safety. From what we've heard from the attorneys [in Rwanda who had seen him,] he was preparing for the worst, but he can't believe that they did this.
FP: The lawsuit against Kagame -- was that something that your father began working on separately in the United States?
SE: He was working on that on a different front. The things that he had uncovered through his representation at the ICTR -- he kept meeting and talking to more and more people who had known these things for a while and who couldn't talk about them or bring them to light.
The Rwandan government has used intimidation and violence against its own people for a long time, and so the one bright side of this situation is that there are a lot of people who wouldn't ordinarily be paying attention [who are listening now] -- because they've gone far enough this time, and with a U.S. citizen, that people are rightfully outraged. [It is] not acceptable that a local [judicial] process [against my father] would play out there. He's [been arrested for a] speech crime allegedly committed as an attorney. This is not what a free and open society would allow.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
St. Paul lawyer interrogated again in Rwandan jail
St. Paul lawyer interrogated again in Rwandan jail
St. Paul lawyer Peter Erlinder was interrogated by Rwandan authorities again Tuesday after being released from a hospital.
Erlinder, who is accused of denying the genocide that tore apart the Aftican nation in 1994, also was seen by at least one staffer from the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
His wife, Masako Usui, said he was returned to jail Tuesday morning after falling ill and being hospitalized Monday. She said his lawyers told her he's basically safe but can't sleep well, and she's trying to send him his blood pressure medication.
Erlinder, 62, was arrested last Friday, shortly after arriving in Rwanda, where he had planned to help defend presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire against charges of promoting genocidal ideology.
After being questioned at the jail for about two hours Monday, Erlinder was taken to a Kigali hospital after suffering from a fever and dizziness.
His American attorney, Kurt Kerns, said he believes conditions in the jail exacerbated Erlinder's preexisting ailments including high blood pressure.
Klobuchar said Kerns got permission Tuesday from Rwandan officials to represent Erlinder.
"We're continuing to push for his release," Klobuchar said. "He's an attorney who's represented all kinds of unpopular causes and clients, but that doesn't mean he should be jail."
Erlinder, a longtime faculty member at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, has outspokenly defended suspected terrorists, sex offenders and convicted murderers.
Two years ago, the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, called Erlinder a "genocidaire" -- a genocide criminal -- for taking the case of another defendant accused of genocide.
About 800,000 people died during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
St. Paul lawyer Peter Erlinder was interrogated by Rwandan authorities again Tuesday after being released from a hospital.
Erlinder, who is accused of denying the genocide that tore apart the Aftican nation in 1994, also was seen by at least one staffer from the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
His wife, Masako Usui, said he was returned to jail Tuesday morning after falling ill and being hospitalized Monday. She said his lawyers told her he's basically safe but can't sleep well, and she's trying to send him his blood pressure medication.
Erlinder, 62, was arrested last Friday, shortly after arriving in Rwanda, where he had planned to help defend presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire against charges of promoting genocidal ideology.
After being questioned at the jail for about two hours Monday, Erlinder was taken to a Kigali hospital after suffering from a fever and dizziness.
His American attorney, Kurt Kerns, said he believes conditions in the jail exacerbated Erlinder's preexisting ailments including high blood pressure.
Klobuchar said Kerns got permission Tuesday from Rwandan officials to represent Erlinder.
"We're continuing to push for his release," Klobuchar said. "He's an attorney who's represented all kinds of unpopular causes and clients, but that doesn't mean he should be jail."
Erlinder, a longtime faculty member at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, has outspokenly defended suspected terrorists, sex offenders and convicted murderers.
Two years ago, the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, called Erlinder a "genocidaire" -- a genocide criminal -- for taking the case of another defendant accused of genocide.
About 800,000 people died during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Peter Erlinder Jailed by One of the Major Genocidaires of Our Era
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Peter Erlinder Jailed by One of the Major Genocidaires of Our Era
by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson1
The May 28 arrest of the U.S. attorney Peter Erlinder by the Paul Kagame dictatorship in Rwanda reveals much about this regime that is routinely sanitized in establishment U.S. and Western intellectual life and media coverage. But if we use Erlinder's arrest to call attention to some less well-known facts, a much grimmer scenario about Kagame than as a "man of the hour in modern Africa," who "offers such encouraging hope for the continent's future" (Stephen Kinzer),2 comes to light.
For one thing, Kagame does not like free elections, and he has avoided or emasculated them assiduously. Erlinder arrived in Kigali on May 23 to take up the legal representation of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu expatriate who had spent the past 16 years in the Netherlands, but who immediately upon her return to Rwanda in January was regarded as the leading opposition figure, though her United Democratic Forces hadn't been able to register as an official party. The Kagame regime arrested her on April 21, and charged her with "association with a terrorist group; propagating genocide ideology; negationism and ethnic divisionism."3 As 2010 is an election year in Rwanda (now scheduled for August 9), this should help Kagame once again to avoid any meaningful electoral contest.
In 2003, Rwanda's last election year, opposition parties, candidates, and media not only weren't welcomed, they wound up harassed, shut-down, arrested, exiled, and disappeared. In 2002, Kagame's main rival at the time, a Hutu and former President Pasteur Bizimungu, was arrested and charged with "divisionism," a kind of Kagame-speak that means to provide political choices other than the one-party Kagame dictatorship. In 2003, the Hutu former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu was permitted onto the presidential ballot but prevented from campaigning, and his Democratic Republic Movement (MDR) banned altogether; he and his MDR were also accused of "divisionism."
The official August 25 presidential vote that year reported 94% for Kagame. In a country whose population then, as now, as at the start of 1994, was majority Hutu by roughly a 6-to-1 margin over the Tutsi, only Kagame's intimidation and repression of Rwanda's civil society, and his election-rigging, could have produced a result like this. Thus when Peter Erlinder spoke in late April about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire as a "carbon-copy of Kagame's tactics in 2003, when all serious political challengers were jailed or driven from the country," and when he likened the charges against her (and now against himself as well) to "trumped-up political thought-crimes . . . arising from the 'crime' of publicly objecting to the Kagame military dictatorship and Kagame's version of Rwandan civil war history,"4 this was what he meant.
The Arusha Accords of August 1993 had stipulated that national elections be held in Rwanda by no later than 1995, but this was precluded by the military takeover of Rwanda by Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in April-July 1994, which allowed the minority Tutsi faction (less than 15 percent) to seize power by force.
The allegation of "genocide denial" has been an important instrument of Kagame's rule, with potentially rival politicians, or in fact any Kagame target, so accused and pushed out of the way. According to news accounts during the first 24 hours after his arrest, Erlinder, a lead defense counsel before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild in New York, "is being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide and was being interrogated . . . at police headquarters in the capital, Kigali. . . . A police spokesman, Eric Kayingare, said that Mr. Erlinder was accused of 'denying the genocide' and 'negationism' from statements he had made at the tribunal in Arusha, as well as 'in his books, in publications'."5 Martin Ngoga, the Prosecutor General of the Kagame regime, told Agence France Presse that Erlinder "denies the genocide in his writings and his speeches. Worse than that, he has become an organizer of genocide deniers. If negating [the Tutsi genocide] is not punished in [the United States,] it is punished in Rwanda. And when he came here he knew that."6
Under Rwanda's 2003 Constitution,7 the "State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof," foremost of which is "fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations" (Article 9). "Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law" (Article 13). The Rwandan State is so conscious of the political usefulness of "genocide" that its Constitution even creates a National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide (Article 179).
Of course, this is straight out of Kafka, as a compelling case can be made that Kagame and his RPF were the major genocidaires in Rwanda and, in alliance with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni dictatorship, both under U.S. and U.K. protection, have extended and enlarged their genocidal operations to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Peter Erlinder has never denied the fact that mass-atrocity crimes and even genocide were committed in Rwanda, much less that a large number of Tutsi were slaughtered. But he has shown, with carefully gathered documentary evidence, that an even larger number of Hutu were also slaughtered there, and that Kagame and the RPF were the initiators and main perpetrators of these mass killings. This, ultimately, is what the charge of "denying the genocide" really means: Like a growing body of researchers, Erlinder rejects the version of the "Rwandan genocide" long since institutionalized within U.S.-, Western-, and RPF-establishment circles.
One of Erlinder's notable documentary discoveries is an internal memorandum drafted in September 1994 for the eyes of then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in which it was reported that a UN team on the ground in Rwanda "concluded that a pattern of killing had emerged" there, the "[RPF] and Tutsi civilian surrogates [killing] 10,000 or more Hutu civilians per month, with the [RPF] accounting for 95% of the killing." This memorandum added that the UN team "speculated that the purpose of the killing was a campaign of ethnic cleansing intended to clear certain areas in the south of Rwanda for Tutsi habitation. The killings also served to reduce the population of Hutu males and discouraged refugees from returning to claim their lands."8
We may recall that the reported (but contested9) massacre of 8,000 military-aged men at Srebrenica in July 1995 led to genocide charges, imprisonment of many Serb officials and military personnel, and huge indignation in the West. Yet, here is an internal U.S. document alleging "10,000 or more Hutu civilians" butchered per month by Kagame's forces to cleanse the ground for Tutsi resettlement -- and not only is the leading butcher not imprisoned, but his regime continues to bathe in Western support and adulation, and can get away with charging the man who helped expose his crimes with "genocide denial"!
Consider also the five following material facts:
1. The "triggering event" in the mass killings known as the "Rwandan genocide" was the shooting down of the Falcon-50 jet carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, then-Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, and ten others on its approach to the Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on the evening of April 6, 1994. It is now conclusively established that these political assassinations were carried out by Kagame's forces. When ICTR investigator Michael Hourigan had assembled compelling evidence showing this, then-ICTR Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour quashed his investigation on orders from U.S. officials. This official line of inquiry has been suppressed ever since, though it was amplified and confirmed by the French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, whose own inquiry concluded in late 2006 that Kagame and the RPF, fully aware that they would lose the elections scheduled by the Arusha Accords due to the overwhelming majority enjoyed by the Hutu in the country, opted for the "physical elimination" of Habyarimana and reopening their assault on the Rwandan government to achieve their goal of an RPF-takeover of the country.10 Although three consecutive U.S. presidential administrations (Clinton's, Bush's, and Obama's) and the establishment U.S. media have been wonderfully cooperative in keeping crucial evidence such as this on the "genocide" out of public sight, the work of Peter Erlinder and his colleagues has been important in the struggle to counter the Western party-line.
2. The important U.S. analysts Christian Davenport and Allan Stam also concluded that more Hutu than Tutsi were killed during the period of the "Rwandan genocide" (April-July, 1994), and that killings on the ground in Rwanda actually "surged" in each area attacked by Kagame's RPF.11
3. Allan Stam, a former Special Forces soldier as well as an academician, has pointed out that the Kagame-RFP military offensive following the "triggering event" of the "Rwandan genocide" (i.e., the shootdown of the Falcon-50 jet) were closely modeled on the U.S. ground invasion of Iraq during the first Gulf War, and that Kagame's forces went into mass action within one hour of this event.12 (Kagame actually studied at Fort Leavenworth in the United States, and was apparently a quick learner.)
4. Both before and during the "Rwandan genocide," the United States pressed for the reduction of UN troops in Rwanda. The Rwandan government urged more UN troops,13 but the presence of a larger contingent of UN troops on the ground clearly would have interfered with Kagame's well-planned and executed military operations. This points up the likelihood that any pre-planned, organized mass killings were dominated by Kagame's RPF, and that the U.S. government supported it.
5. Kagame's forces established control of Rwanda within one hundred days of the triggering event. This is not consistent with the notion that his was an unplanned defensive reaction and that his ethnic group, the minority Tutsi, was the main victim.
Paul Kagame has used the excuse of pursuing "genocidaires" to justify his regular invasions of the Congo. The casualties in these operations, coordinated with fellow dictator Yoweri Museveni, have run into the millions. We believe that Kagame has far outstripped Idi Amin as a mass killer (Amin's killings are estimated at 100,000-300,000, whereas Kagame's surely run well over a million civilians). But Kagame is servicing establishment U.S. and Western interests, and for the past 20 years has therefore received a free pass to rob and kill.
And all the while, Kagame has ridden the wave of fighting against "genocide denial"! Hopefully, he has gone too far in using that Kafkaesque gimmick against Peter Erlinder, a notable fighter against both actual genocide and genocide denial.
Endnotes
1 For a much more comprehensive development of the themes discussed here, see Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Propaganda System," Monthly Review 60, May, 2010. Also see Herman and Peterson, The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010).
2 Quoting Kinzer's hagiographic words in A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008), 337.
3 "Rwanda Opposition Chief Held for 'Genocide Denial'," Agence France Presse, April 21, 2010.
4 Peter Erlinder quoted in "U.S. Lawyer to Defend Victoire Ingabire: First Female Presidential Candidate in Rwanda -- Jailed by President/Gen. Paul Kagame," News Advisory, International Humanitarian Law Institute, April 23, 2010 (as posted to the BayView website).
5 Josh Kron and Jeffrey Gettleman, "American Lawyer for Opposition Figure Is Arrested in Rwanda," New York Times, May 29, 2010.
6 "Rwanda Arrests U.S. Lawyer Defending Opposition Figure," Agence France Presse, May 28, 2010.
7 See Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, June 4, 2003, and its Amendments, as posted to the website of the Rwandan Ministry of Defense. Here we note that the word 'genocide' appears no fewer than 14 different times in Rwanda's approx. 16,400-word-long Constitution.
8 George E. Moose, "Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda," Information Memorandum to The Secretary, U.S. Department of State, undated though clearly drafted between September 17 and 20, 1994. This document is archived at the Rwanda Documents Project at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, ICTR Military-1 Exhibit, DNT 264.
9 See Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "The Dismantling of Yugoslavia," Monthly Review 59, October, 2007, esp. Sect. 5 and Sect. 6, 19-26.
10 See Jean-Louis Bruguière, Request for the Issuance of International Arrest Warrants, Tribunal de Grande Instance, Paris, France, November 21, 2006, 15-16 (para. 100-103).
11 See Christian Davenport and Allan Stam, Rwandan Political Violence in Space and Time, unpublished manuscript, 2004 (available at Christian Davenport's personal website > "Project Writings"); and Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam, "What Really Happened in Rwanda?" Miller-McCune, October 6, 2009.
12 See Allan C. Stam, "Coming to a New Understanding of the Rwanda Genocide," a lecture before the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, February 18, 2009. Beginning at approx. the 22:47 mark, Stam explains: "Now, moments later, the RPF -- literally moments, somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes after his plane is shot down, the RPF invades. Now, we could characterize this invasion as, 'Wow, a spontaneous reaction to go in and defend our allies'. The problem is, this invasion looks staggeringly like the United States' invasion of Iraq in 1991. It has exactly the same features. There is a central drive in this case due south towards Kigali, very much like the central drive towards Baghdad. There is the sweeping left-hook -- but in this case because the map is reversed there is the sweeping right-hook. This is a plan that was not worked out on the back of an envelope. Fifty-thousand soldiers move into action on two fronts, in a coordinated fashion, 'spontaneously'? Tsk."
13 In the words of Rwandan UN Ambassador Jean-Damascène Bizimana: "[T]he international community does not seem to have acted in an appropriate manner to reply to the anguished appeal of the people of Rwanda. This question has often been examined from the point of view of the ways and means to withdraw [UNAMIR], without seeking to give the appropriate weight to the concern of those who have always believed, rightly, that, in view of the security situation now prevailing in Rwanda, UNAMIR's members should be increased to enable it to contribute to the re-establishment of the cease-fire and to assist in the establishment of security conditions that could bring an end to the violence. . . . The option chosen by the Council, reducing the number of troops in UNAMIR. . . , is not a proper response to this crisis. . . ." See "The situation concerning Rwanda," UN Security Council (S/PV.3368), April 21, 1994, 6.
Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago. Herman and Peterson are co-authors of The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010)
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About MR
Peter Erlinder Jailed by One of the Major Genocidaires of Our Era
by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson1
The May 28 arrest of the U.S. attorney Peter Erlinder by the Paul Kagame dictatorship in Rwanda reveals much about this regime that is routinely sanitized in establishment U.S. and Western intellectual life and media coverage. But if we use Erlinder's arrest to call attention to some less well-known facts, a much grimmer scenario about Kagame than as a "man of the hour in modern Africa," who "offers such encouraging hope for the continent's future" (Stephen Kinzer),2 comes to light.
For one thing, Kagame does not like free elections, and he has avoided or emasculated them assiduously. Erlinder arrived in Kigali on May 23 to take up the legal representation of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu expatriate who had spent the past 16 years in the Netherlands, but who immediately upon her return to Rwanda in January was regarded as the leading opposition figure, though her United Democratic Forces hadn't been able to register as an official party. The Kagame regime arrested her on April 21, and charged her with "association with a terrorist group; propagating genocide ideology; negationism and ethnic divisionism."3 As 2010 is an election year in Rwanda (now scheduled for August 9), this should help Kagame once again to avoid any meaningful electoral contest.
In 2003, Rwanda's last election year, opposition parties, candidates, and media not only weren't welcomed, they wound up harassed, shut-down, arrested, exiled, and disappeared. In 2002, Kagame's main rival at the time, a Hutu and former President Pasteur Bizimungu, was arrested and charged with "divisionism," a kind of Kagame-speak that means to provide political choices other than the one-party Kagame dictatorship. In 2003, the Hutu former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu was permitted onto the presidential ballot but prevented from campaigning, and his Democratic Republic Movement (MDR) banned altogether; he and his MDR were also accused of "divisionism."
The official August 25 presidential vote that year reported 94% for Kagame. In a country whose population then, as now, as at the start of 1994, was majority Hutu by roughly a 6-to-1 margin over the Tutsi, only Kagame's intimidation and repression of Rwanda's civil society, and his election-rigging, could have produced a result like this. Thus when Peter Erlinder spoke in late April about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire as a "carbon-copy of Kagame's tactics in 2003, when all serious political challengers were jailed or driven from the country," and when he likened the charges against her (and now against himself as well) to "trumped-up political thought-crimes . . . arising from the 'crime' of publicly objecting to the Kagame military dictatorship and Kagame's version of Rwandan civil war history,"4 this was what he meant.
The Arusha Accords of August 1993 had stipulated that national elections be held in Rwanda by no later than 1995, but this was precluded by the military takeover of Rwanda by Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in April-July 1994, which allowed the minority Tutsi faction (less than 15 percent) to seize power by force.
The allegation of "genocide denial" has been an important instrument of Kagame's rule, with potentially rival politicians, or in fact any Kagame target, so accused and pushed out of the way. According to news accounts during the first 24 hours after his arrest, Erlinder, a lead defense counsel before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild in New York, "is being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide and was being interrogated . . . at police headquarters in the capital, Kigali. . . . A police spokesman, Eric Kayingare, said that Mr. Erlinder was accused of 'denying the genocide' and 'negationism' from statements he had made at the tribunal in Arusha, as well as 'in his books, in publications'."5 Martin Ngoga, the Prosecutor General of the Kagame regime, told Agence France Presse that Erlinder "denies the genocide in his writings and his speeches. Worse than that, he has become an organizer of genocide deniers. If negating [the Tutsi genocide] is not punished in [the United States,] it is punished in Rwanda. And when he came here he knew that."6
Under Rwanda's 2003 Constitution,7 the "State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof," foremost of which is "fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations" (Article 9). "Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law" (Article 13). The Rwandan State is so conscious of the political usefulness of "genocide" that its Constitution even creates a National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide (Article 179).
Of course, this is straight out of Kafka, as a compelling case can be made that Kagame and his RPF were the major genocidaires in Rwanda and, in alliance with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni dictatorship, both under U.S. and U.K. protection, have extended and enlarged their genocidal operations to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Peter Erlinder has never denied the fact that mass-atrocity crimes and even genocide were committed in Rwanda, much less that a large number of Tutsi were slaughtered. But he has shown, with carefully gathered documentary evidence, that an even larger number of Hutu were also slaughtered there, and that Kagame and the RPF were the initiators and main perpetrators of these mass killings. This, ultimately, is what the charge of "denying the genocide" really means: Like a growing body of researchers, Erlinder rejects the version of the "Rwandan genocide" long since institutionalized within U.S.-, Western-, and RPF-establishment circles.
One of Erlinder's notable documentary discoveries is an internal memorandum drafted in September 1994 for the eyes of then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in which it was reported that a UN team on the ground in Rwanda "concluded that a pattern of killing had emerged" there, the "[RPF] and Tutsi civilian surrogates [killing] 10,000 or more Hutu civilians per month, with the [RPF] accounting for 95% of the killing." This memorandum added that the UN team "speculated that the purpose of the killing was a campaign of ethnic cleansing intended to clear certain areas in the south of Rwanda for Tutsi habitation. The killings also served to reduce the population of Hutu males and discouraged refugees from returning to claim their lands."8
We may recall that the reported (but contested9) massacre of 8,000 military-aged men at Srebrenica in July 1995 led to genocide charges, imprisonment of many Serb officials and military personnel, and huge indignation in the West. Yet, here is an internal U.S. document alleging "10,000 or more Hutu civilians" butchered per month by Kagame's forces to cleanse the ground for Tutsi resettlement -- and not only is the leading butcher not imprisoned, but his regime continues to bathe in Western support and adulation, and can get away with charging the man who helped expose his crimes with "genocide denial"!
Consider also the five following material facts:
1. The "triggering event" in the mass killings known as the "Rwandan genocide" was the shooting down of the Falcon-50 jet carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, then-Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, and ten others on its approach to the Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on the evening of April 6, 1994. It is now conclusively established that these political assassinations were carried out by Kagame's forces. When ICTR investigator Michael Hourigan had assembled compelling evidence showing this, then-ICTR Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour quashed his investigation on orders from U.S. officials. This official line of inquiry has been suppressed ever since, though it was amplified and confirmed by the French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, whose own inquiry concluded in late 2006 that Kagame and the RPF, fully aware that they would lose the elections scheduled by the Arusha Accords due to the overwhelming majority enjoyed by the Hutu in the country, opted for the "physical elimination" of Habyarimana and reopening their assault on the Rwandan government to achieve their goal of an RPF-takeover of the country.10 Although three consecutive U.S. presidential administrations (Clinton's, Bush's, and Obama's) and the establishment U.S. media have been wonderfully cooperative in keeping crucial evidence such as this on the "genocide" out of public sight, the work of Peter Erlinder and his colleagues has been important in the struggle to counter the Western party-line.
2. The important U.S. analysts Christian Davenport and Allan Stam also concluded that more Hutu than Tutsi were killed during the period of the "Rwandan genocide" (April-July, 1994), and that killings on the ground in Rwanda actually "surged" in each area attacked by Kagame's RPF.11
3. Allan Stam, a former Special Forces soldier as well as an academician, has pointed out that the Kagame-RFP military offensive following the "triggering event" of the "Rwandan genocide" (i.e., the shootdown of the Falcon-50 jet) were closely modeled on the U.S. ground invasion of Iraq during the first Gulf War, and that Kagame's forces went into mass action within one hour of this event.12 (Kagame actually studied at Fort Leavenworth in the United States, and was apparently a quick learner.)
4. Both before and during the "Rwandan genocide," the United States pressed for the reduction of UN troops in Rwanda. The Rwandan government urged more UN troops,13 but the presence of a larger contingent of UN troops on the ground clearly would have interfered with Kagame's well-planned and executed military operations. This points up the likelihood that any pre-planned, organized mass killings were dominated by Kagame's RPF, and that the U.S. government supported it.
5. Kagame's forces established control of Rwanda within one hundred days of the triggering event. This is not consistent with the notion that his was an unplanned defensive reaction and that his ethnic group, the minority Tutsi, was the main victim.
Paul Kagame has used the excuse of pursuing "genocidaires" to justify his regular invasions of the Congo. The casualties in these operations, coordinated with fellow dictator Yoweri Museveni, have run into the millions. We believe that Kagame has far outstripped Idi Amin as a mass killer (Amin's killings are estimated at 100,000-300,000, whereas Kagame's surely run well over a million civilians). But Kagame is servicing establishment U.S. and Western interests, and for the past 20 years has therefore received a free pass to rob and kill.
And all the while, Kagame has ridden the wave of fighting against "genocide denial"! Hopefully, he has gone too far in using that Kafkaesque gimmick against Peter Erlinder, a notable fighter against both actual genocide and genocide denial.
Endnotes
1 For a much more comprehensive development of the themes discussed here, see Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Propaganda System," Monthly Review 60, May, 2010. Also see Herman and Peterson, The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010).
2 Quoting Kinzer's hagiographic words in A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008), 337.
3 "Rwanda Opposition Chief Held for 'Genocide Denial'," Agence France Presse, April 21, 2010.
4 Peter Erlinder quoted in "U.S. Lawyer to Defend Victoire Ingabire: First Female Presidential Candidate in Rwanda -- Jailed by President/Gen. Paul Kagame," News Advisory, International Humanitarian Law Institute, April 23, 2010 (as posted to the BayView website).
5 Josh Kron and Jeffrey Gettleman, "American Lawyer for Opposition Figure Is Arrested in Rwanda," New York Times, May 29, 2010.
6 "Rwanda Arrests U.S. Lawyer Defending Opposition Figure," Agence France Presse, May 28, 2010.
7 See Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, June 4, 2003, and its Amendments, as posted to the website of the Rwandan Ministry of Defense. Here we note that the word 'genocide' appears no fewer than 14 different times in Rwanda's approx. 16,400-word-long Constitution.
8 George E. Moose, "Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda," Information Memorandum to The Secretary, U.S. Department of State, undated though clearly drafted between September 17 and 20, 1994. This document is archived at the Rwanda Documents Project at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, ICTR Military-1 Exhibit, DNT 264.
9 See Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "The Dismantling of Yugoslavia," Monthly Review 59, October, 2007, esp. Sect. 5 and Sect. 6, 19-26.
10 See Jean-Louis Bruguière, Request for the Issuance of International Arrest Warrants, Tribunal de Grande Instance, Paris, France, November 21, 2006, 15-16 (para. 100-103).
11 See Christian Davenport and Allan Stam, Rwandan Political Violence in Space and Time, unpublished manuscript, 2004 (available at Christian Davenport's personal website > "Project Writings"); and Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam, "What Really Happened in Rwanda?" Miller-McCune, October 6, 2009.
12 See Allan C. Stam, "Coming to a New Understanding of the Rwanda Genocide," a lecture before the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, February 18, 2009. Beginning at approx. the 22:47 mark, Stam explains: "Now, moments later, the RPF -- literally moments, somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes after his plane is shot down, the RPF invades. Now, we could characterize this invasion as, 'Wow, a spontaneous reaction to go in and defend our allies'. The problem is, this invasion looks staggeringly like the United States' invasion of Iraq in 1991. It has exactly the same features. There is a central drive in this case due south towards Kigali, very much like the central drive towards Baghdad. There is the sweeping left-hook -- but in this case because the map is reversed there is the sweeping right-hook. This is a plan that was not worked out on the back of an envelope. Fifty-thousand soldiers move into action on two fronts, in a coordinated fashion, 'spontaneously'? Tsk."
13 In the words of Rwandan UN Ambassador Jean-Damascène Bizimana: "[T]he international community does not seem to have acted in an appropriate manner to reply to the anguished appeal of the people of Rwanda. This question has often been examined from the point of view of the ways and means to withdraw [UNAMIR], without seeking to give the appropriate weight to the concern of those who have always believed, rightly, that, in view of the security situation now prevailing in Rwanda, UNAMIR's members should be increased to enable it to contribute to the re-establishment of the cease-fire and to assist in the establishment of security conditions that could bring an end to the violence. . . . The option chosen by the Council, reducing the number of troops in UNAMIR. . . , is not a proper response to this crisis. . . ." See "The situation concerning Rwanda," UN Security Council (S/PV.3368), April 21, 1994, 6.
Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago. Herman and Peterson are co-authors of The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
US Advocates Demand Rwanda's Immediate Release of U.S. Attorney Erlinder
Advocates Demand Rwanda's Immediate Release of U.S. Attorney Erlinder
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: David Gespass, National Lawyers Guild; 205 566-2530
Gena Berglund. International Humanitarian Law Institute of Minnesota;
651 208-7964 Emira Woods, Institute for Policy Studies; 301 523-2979
International Human Rights Advocates join Erlinder family to condemn Rwanda's arrest of U.S. Attorney Peter Erlinder and demand his immediate release. Saturday, May 29, 2010 (Washington, DC) –Professor Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States and president of the Association des Avocats de la Defense (ADAD), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, was arrested by the government of Rwanda under the leadership of president Paul Kagame. Peter Erlinder has been arrested in the course of his representation of Rwanda’s opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire. Erlinder’s arrest was politically motivated and seeks to punish him for fulfilling his responsibilities as a lawyer, to be a vigorous and conscientious advocate for his clients. The Rwandan government and President Kagame must allow fair and public trials. Erlinder’s advocacy is in the finest tradition of the legal profession and every individual and government committed to the rule of law, including the authorities in Rwanda, should applaud his dedication to human rights and international law. As international human rights activists, we join the Erlinder family to call on the United States government, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and individuals around the world to prevail upon Rwanda to release Erlinder immediately. The U.S. has had a special relationship with Rwanda which remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance in Africa. Given the U.S. government's expressed commitment to democracy and the rule of law, it is critical that the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress uphold these values in Rwanda and demand the immediate release of Peter Erlinder, an advocate of justice.
"Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of his clients. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for representing defendants it dislikes. A government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by Erlinder's membership, his leadership as past president and his courageous advocacy." said David Gespass, president of the National Lawyers Guild.
"The offense Peter is charged with is not based on facts, but on the suppression of free speech in his representation of clients, which undermines the rule of law. His family knows he stands with people who are oppressed by those in power and he encourages people to stand up for justice." Masako Usui, wife of Peter Erlinder.
"The real issue here seems to be whether the U.S. and the world will stand by and allow my father to be detained and prosecuted for doing his job, as an attorney and advocate for his clients. After a career of defense of others, he needs our help now demanding his immediate release and dismissal of all charges." said Sarah Erlinder, daughter of Peter Erlinder.
"The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is outraged at the arrest of Peter Erlinder in Rwanda. This arrest violates the rights and privileges of lawyers in discharging their professional responsibilities, constitutes a willful obstruction of the judicial process and is in gross violation of the rights of defense of an accused person," said Jeanne Mirer, President, International Association of Democratic Lawyers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: David Gespass, National Lawyers Guild; 205 566-2530
Gena Berglund. International Humanitarian Law Institute of Minnesota;
651 208-7964 Emira Woods, Institute for Policy Studies; 301 523-2979
International Human Rights Advocates join Erlinder family to condemn Rwanda's arrest of U.S. Attorney Peter Erlinder and demand his immediate release. Saturday, May 29, 2010 (Washington, DC) –Professor Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States and president of the Association des Avocats de la Defense (ADAD), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, was arrested by the government of Rwanda under the leadership of president Paul Kagame. Peter Erlinder has been arrested in the course of his representation of Rwanda’s opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire. Erlinder’s arrest was politically motivated and seeks to punish him for fulfilling his responsibilities as a lawyer, to be a vigorous and conscientious advocate for his clients. The Rwandan government and President Kagame must allow fair and public trials. Erlinder’s advocacy is in the finest tradition of the legal profession and every individual and government committed to the rule of law, including the authorities in Rwanda, should applaud his dedication to human rights and international law. As international human rights activists, we join the Erlinder family to call on the United States government, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and individuals around the world to prevail upon Rwanda to release Erlinder immediately. The U.S. has had a special relationship with Rwanda which remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance in Africa. Given the U.S. government's expressed commitment to democracy and the rule of law, it is critical that the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress uphold these values in Rwanda and demand the immediate release of Peter Erlinder, an advocate of justice.
"Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of his clients. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for representing defendants it dislikes. A government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by Erlinder's membership, his leadership as past president and his courageous advocacy." said David Gespass, president of the National Lawyers Guild.
"The offense Peter is charged with is not based on facts, but on the suppression of free speech in his representation of clients, which undermines the rule of law. His family knows he stands with people who are oppressed by those in power and he encourages people to stand up for justice." Masako Usui, wife of Peter Erlinder.
"The real issue here seems to be whether the U.S. and the world will stand by and allow my father to be detained and prosecuted for doing his job, as an attorney and advocate for his clients. After a career of defense of others, he needs our help now demanding his immediate release and dismissal of all charges." said Sarah Erlinder, daughter of Peter Erlinder.
"The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is outraged at the arrest of Peter Erlinder in Rwanda. This arrest violates the rights and privileges of lawyers in discharging their professional responsibilities, constitutes a willful obstruction of the judicial process and is in gross violation of the rights of defense of an accused person," said Jeanne Mirer, President, International Association of Democratic Lawyers
American embassy declines comment on arrest of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza’s lawyer Peter Erlinder
American embassy declines comment on arrest of Ingabire’s lawyer
Friday, 28 May 2010 16:07 by Fred Mwasa and Adam Hooper
Kigali: American national Prof. Peter Erlinder is scheduled to appear in court following arrest by Police detectives over negating the Tutsi mass Genocide. The arrest of the fire-brand criminal lawyer comes as President Kagame prepares to leave for Paris for a France-Africa summit, RNA reports.
Mr. Erlinder was rounded up Friday morning by detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). He was immediately moved to the CID office in the Police headquarters located within walking distance of the American embassy.
The controversial attorney was arrested for denying the 1994 Tutsi Genocide, said Police Spokesman Eric Kayiranga. “He is accused of [denying the massacres] through publications, conferences, constantly denying that there was never Genocide in Rwanda. He has also said everything we say about the Genocide is a fabrication.”
The Police Spokesman said Prof. Erlinder will be handed to the National Prosecuting Authority which should culminate into an appearance in a court within 72 hours.
When contacted, U.S. Embassy public affairs officer Edwina Sagitto simply said: "The embassy is aware of the arrest of Peter Erlinder by Rwandan Police. Beyond that, the embassy cannot comment due to privacy concerns."
Peter Erlinder is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States. He directs the non-profit International Humanitarian Law Institute, and he is the lead defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The attorney arrived in Kigali on Sunday from a conference in Belgium which has been described by government and Genocide survivors as platform for negationists. Several Genocide fugitives were invited as speakers, including Dr. Eugene Rwamucyo, who was arrested by French authorities on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Kayiranga said Prof. Erlinder was arrested five days later because the dossier was still being prepared. “We do not just detain people … it is done after a dossier is ready,” he said.
The prosecutions department told reporters that the suspect will be paraded in court anytime but within the prescribed timeframe of not more than seventy-two hours.
Mr. Erlinder was picked up at 8:30am from the Tunisian-owned Laico Hotel (formerly Novotel Hotel) in Kacyiru where he was staying. Incidentally, the hotel is located within view of the American embassy.
He is described in Rwanda as the ‘big fish defender’ because of his association with Ingabire Victoire, Genocide accused Col Theoneste Bagosora and most recently former First Lady Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana. All the three carry serious accusations related to the Tutsi mass slaughter.
The arrest comes a day after the US government declared its stance on Rwanda, for the first time in several years coming out strongly against the human rights situation in the country. The top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, demanded a “speedy, fair, and transparent trial” for Ingabire.
The American diplomat for Africa made reference to the suspended tabloids UMUVUGIZI and UMUSESO, as well as the Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian who was refused a work permit in April. He also informed American lawmakers of the progress of the imminent trail of government critic Ingabire Victoire, as well as the registration of the two opposition parties.
“We have relayed our concerns about these developments to the Government of Rwanda, urging senior government leaders to respect freedoms of expression, press, association, and assembly,” Carson said Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister and Government Spokesman Louise Mushikiwabo strongly dismissed the concerns.
“The concerns expressed by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs over the state of rights and freedoms in Rwanda at this particular time need to be contextualized: it is a result of an out-of-Rwanda reading of the situation in Rwanda, with added election hype,” she said in an email message Thursday to RNA.
Meanwhile, after denouncing Prof. Peter Erlinder on Thursday in a statement, Genocide survivors on Friday took their anger to the American embassy. Carrying placards, a group of over 100 demonstrators including students in school uniform called for his arrest and prosecution.
Prof. Erlinder was part of a three-man team of lawyers who tried to serve President Kagame with a notice of suit at the Oklahoma University in April accusing him of responsibility for the assassination of ex-President Juvenal Habyarimana.
The suit was filed by Agathe Habyarimana and Sylvana Ntaryarima – the two widows to the presidents who died in the same plane on April 06 1994 – culminating into the Tutsi Genocide.
The arrest of the American lawyer also comes as President Kagame prepares to head to Paris for the France-Africa summit next week. It will be the first time the President has visited France since his time as a rebel lead
Friday, 28 May 2010 16:07 by Fred Mwasa and Adam Hooper
Kigali: American national Prof. Peter Erlinder is scheduled to appear in court following arrest by Police detectives over negating the Tutsi mass Genocide. The arrest of the fire-brand criminal lawyer comes as President Kagame prepares to leave for Paris for a France-Africa summit, RNA reports.
Mr. Erlinder was rounded up Friday morning by detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). He was immediately moved to the CID office in the Police headquarters located within walking distance of the American embassy.
The controversial attorney was arrested for denying the 1994 Tutsi Genocide, said Police Spokesman Eric Kayiranga. “He is accused of [denying the massacres] through publications, conferences, constantly denying that there was never Genocide in Rwanda. He has also said everything we say about the Genocide is a fabrication.”
The Police Spokesman said Prof. Erlinder will be handed to the National Prosecuting Authority which should culminate into an appearance in a court within 72 hours.
When contacted, U.S. Embassy public affairs officer Edwina Sagitto simply said: "The embassy is aware of the arrest of Peter Erlinder by Rwandan Police. Beyond that, the embassy cannot comment due to privacy concerns."
Peter Erlinder is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States. He directs the non-profit International Humanitarian Law Institute, and he is the lead defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The attorney arrived in Kigali on Sunday from a conference in Belgium which has been described by government and Genocide survivors as platform for negationists. Several Genocide fugitives were invited as speakers, including Dr. Eugene Rwamucyo, who was arrested by French authorities on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Kayiranga said Prof. Erlinder was arrested five days later because the dossier was still being prepared. “We do not just detain people … it is done after a dossier is ready,” he said.
The prosecutions department told reporters that the suspect will be paraded in court anytime but within the prescribed timeframe of not more than seventy-two hours.
Mr. Erlinder was picked up at 8:30am from the Tunisian-owned Laico Hotel (formerly Novotel Hotel) in Kacyiru where he was staying. Incidentally, the hotel is located within view of the American embassy.
He is described in Rwanda as the ‘big fish defender’ because of his association with Ingabire Victoire, Genocide accused Col Theoneste Bagosora and most recently former First Lady Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana. All the three carry serious accusations related to the Tutsi mass slaughter.
The arrest comes a day after the US government declared its stance on Rwanda, for the first time in several years coming out strongly against the human rights situation in the country. The top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, demanded a “speedy, fair, and transparent trial” for Ingabire.
The American diplomat for Africa made reference to the suspended tabloids UMUVUGIZI and UMUSESO, as well as the Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian who was refused a work permit in April. He also informed American lawmakers of the progress of the imminent trail of government critic Ingabire Victoire, as well as the registration of the two opposition parties.
“We have relayed our concerns about these developments to the Government of Rwanda, urging senior government leaders to respect freedoms of expression, press, association, and assembly,” Carson said Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister and Government Spokesman Louise Mushikiwabo strongly dismissed the concerns.
“The concerns expressed by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs over the state of rights and freedoms in Rwanda at this particular time need to be contextualized: it is a result of an out-of-Rwanda reading of the situation in Rwanda, with added election hype,” she said in an email message Thursday to RNA.
Meanwhile, after denouncing Prof. Peter Erlinder on Thursday in a statement, Genocide survivors on Friday took their anger to the American embassy. Carrying placards, a group of over 100 demonstrators including students in school uniform called for his arrest and prosecution.
Prof. Erlinder was part of a three-man team of lawyers who tried to serve President Kagame with a notice of suit at the Oklahoma University in April accusing him of responsibility for the assassination of ex-President Juvenal Habyarimana.
The suit was filed by Agathe Habyarimana and Sylvana Ntaryarima – the two widows to the presidents who died in the same plane on April 06 1994 – culminating into the Tutsi Genocide.
The arrest of the American lawyer also comes as President Kagame prepares to head to Paris for the France-Africa summit next week. It will be the first time the President has visited France since his time as a rebel lead
Friday, May 28, 2010
Rwandan police arrest US lawyer Prof Peter Erlinder
By EDMUND KAGIRE AND PATRICK CONDON (AP)
KIGALI, Rwanda — An American lawyer helping defend a Rwandan presidential hopeful against charges that include promoting a genocidal ideology was arrested Friday and charged with genocide denial, police said.
The U.S. National Lawyers Guild demanded Peter Erlinder's immediate release and said the government was trying to hamstring the legal defense of Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Paul Kagame in Aug. 9 elections.
Kagame has been lauded abroad for social and economic reforms and is expected to win another seven-year term but human rights groups say his administration has an ironclad hold on power and quashes opposing views.
"There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted," said David Gespass, the president of The U.S. National Lawyers Guild.
Rwanda's 1994 genocide claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacres ended when mostly Tutsi rebels led by Kagame defeated the mostly Hutu extremist perpetrators.
Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda in January to contest elections after 16 years of living abroad. She says she returned to Rwanda because the country needs an open discussion to promote reconciliation.
She immediately visited a memorial to Tutsis killed in the 1994 genocide and asked why Hutus who also died weren't remembered. She was arrested and freed on bail but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. If convicted, Ingabire, 41, could be sentenced to more than two decades in prison.
Her case has become a test of where Rwanda stands in its effort to move past the genocide — and how much freedom the government will allow.
Erlinder is the president of an association of defense lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that is trying the masterminds of the 1994 genocide. He is also a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He came to Rwanda four days ago and "has been publicly saying that there was no genocide in Rwanda," said police spokesman Eric Kayiranga.
"It has nothing to do with diplomacy, it is totally a criminal case," said Kayiranga when asked whether the arrest could cause a diplomatic spat with the U.S.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said her office is working with the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda to make sure that Erlinder "is treated well and that the legal process works quickly and fairly so he can come home."
Klobuchar said Friday she has spoken to U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda W. Stuart Symington, a longtime friend, and he told her that embassy officials met with Erlinder soon after his arrest and reported that he is in good health.
"I know Professor Erlinder as a long-standing member of Minnesota's legal community. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family," Klobuchar said in a statement.
Steve Linders, the spokesman for William Mitchell College of Law, said that officials at the school were in contact with the U.S. State Department and the offices of several Minnesota members of Congress "trying to get facts in place and monitor the situation."
"Our primary concern is obviously for Professor Erlinder's safety, and we're hoping the situation is resolved fairly as well as promptly," Linders said.
Linders said Erlinder's work in Rwanda was not sponsored by the school, but said William Mitchell professors have a long history of outside legal work for a variety of causes.
A lawyer since 1979, Erlinder, 62, has been on the William Mitchell faculty since 1982. He has worked as a litigator or legal consultant on numerous high-profile cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, alleged government or police misconduct and defense of political activism.
The St. Paul resident assisted in the legal defense of Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a Canadian citizen who in 2009 pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to aiding al-Qaida. He also represented Sami al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiring to aid terrorists.
Last November, Erlinder traveled to the Netherlands in order to aid in the defense of a Somali man from Minneapolis being held there on U.S. terrorism charges. He also recently advised Chippewa Indian bands in northern Minnesota in a dispute over treaty fishing rights.
Linders said Erlinder has worked on legal issues involved Rwanda for some time, and had traveled to the country prior to his current trip.
The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.
Associated Press writer Patrick Condon in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
KIGALI, Rwanda — An American lawyer helping defend a Rwandan presidential hopeful against charges that include promoting a genocidal ideology was arrested Friday and charged with genocide denial, police said.
The U.S. National Lawyers Guild demanded Peter Erlinder's immediate release and said the government was trying to hamstring the legal defense of Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Paul Kagame in Aug. 9 elections.
Kagame has been lauded abroad for social and economic reforms and is expected to win another seven-year term but human rights groups say his administration has an ironclad hold on power and quashes opposing views.
"There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted," said David Gespass, the president of The U.S. National Lawyers Guild.
Rwanda's 1994 genocide claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacres ended when mostly Tutsi rebels led by Kagame defeated the mostly Hutu extremist perpetrators.
Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda in January to contest elections after 16 years of living abroad. She says she returned to Rwanda because the country needs an open discussion to promote reconciliation.
She immediately visited a memorial to Tutsis killed in the 1994 genocide and asked why Hutus who also died weren't remembered. She was arrested and freed on bail but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. If convicted, Ingabire, 41, could be sentenced to more than two decades in prison.
Her case has become a test of where Rwanda stands in its effort to move past the genocide — and how much freedom the government will allow.
Erlinder is the president of an association of defense lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that is trying the masterminds of the 1994 genocide. He is also a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He came to Rwanda four days ago and "has been publicly saying that there was no genocide in Rwanda," said police spokesman Eric Kayiranga.
"It has nothing to do with diplomacy, it is totally a criminal case," said Kayiranga when asked whether the arrest could cause a diplomatic spat with the U.S.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said her office is working with the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda to make sure that Erlinder "is treated well and that the legal process works quickly and fairly so he can come home."
Klobuchar said Friday she has spoken to U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda W. Stuart Symington, a longtime friend, and he told her that embassy officials met with Erlinder soon after his arrest and reported that he is in good health.
"I know Professor Erlinder as a long-standing member of Minnesota's legal community. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family," Klobuchar said in a statement.
Steve Linders, the spokesman for William Mitchell College of Law, said that officials at the school were in contact with the U.S. State Department and the offices of several Minnesota members of Congress "trying to get facts in place and monitor the situation."
"Our primary concern is obviously for Professor Erlinder's safety, and we're hoping the situation is resolved fairly as well as promptly," Linders said.
Linders said Erlinder's work in Rwanda was not sponsored by the school, but said William Mitchell professors have a long history of outside legal work for a variety of causes.
A lawyer since 1979, Erlinder, 62, has been on the William Mitchell faculty since 1982. He has worked as a litigator or legal consultant on numerous high-profile cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, alleged government or police misconduct and defense of political activism.
The St. Paul resident assisted in the legal defense of Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a Canadian citizen who in 2009 pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to aiding al-Qaida. He also represented Sami al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiring to aid terrorists.
Last November, Erlinder traveled to the Netherlands in order to aid in the defense of a Somali man from Minneapolis being held there on U.S. terrorism charges. He also recently advised Chippewa Indian bands in northern Minnesota in a dispute over treaty fishing rights.
Linders said Erlinder has worked on legal issues involved Rwanda for some time, and had traveled to the country prior to his current trip.
The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.
Associated Press writer Patrick Condon in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
National Lawyers Guild Demands Immediate Release of Attorney Peter Erlinder Vigorous Legal Advocate Arrested in Rwanda
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2010
1:07 PM
CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
David Gespass, 205-566-2530
Heidi Boghosian, 917-239-4999
National Lawyers Guild Demands Immediate Release of Attorney Peter Erlinder
Vigorous Legal Advocate Arrested in Rwanda
NEW YORK - May 28 - The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) demands the immediate release of its former president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested early today on charges of "genocide ideology." He had traveled to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder is reportedly being interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force's Kacyiru headquarters.
"Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of Umuhoza. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by his membership and his courageous advocacy," said David Gespass, the Guild's president.
Erlinder traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers' Conference in Brussels. Since his arrival in Kigali, the state-sponsored Rwandan media has been highly critical of Erlinder.
The Rwandan Parliament adopted the "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology" (Genocide Ideology Law), on July 23, 2008. It defines genocide ideology broadly, requires no link to any genocidal act, and can be used to include a wide range of legitimate forms of expression, prohibiting speech protected by international conventions such as the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.
Sarah Erlinder, Arizona attorney and NLG member said, "My father has made a career defending unpopular people and unpopular speech-and is now being held because of his representation of unpopular clients and analysis of an historical narrative that the Kagame regime considers inconvenient. We can help defend his rights now by drawing U.S. government and media attention to his situation and holding the Rwandan government accountable for his well-being."
Before leaving for Brussels and then Kigali, Professor Erlinder notified the U.S. State Department, his Minnesota Congressional Representative Betty McCullom, Representative Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Professor Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law. He is a frequent litigator and consultant, often pro bono, in cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct, and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997, and is a current board member of the NLG Foundation. He has been a defense attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.
###
The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members--lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers and legal workers united in chapters and committees--the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Links:
* Home
May 28, 2010
1:07 PM
CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
David Gespass, 205-566-2530
Heidi Boghosian, 917-239-4999
National Lawyers Guild Demands Immediate Release of Attorney Peter Erlinder
Vigorous Legal Advocate Arrested in Rwanda
NEW YORK - May 28 - The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) demands the immediate release of its former president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested early today on charges of "genocide ideology." He had traveled to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder is reportedly being interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force's Kacyiru headquarters.
"Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of Umuhoza. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by his membership and his courageous advocacy," said David Gespass, the Guild's president.
Erlinder traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers' Conference in Brussels. Since his arrival in Kigali, the state-sponsored Rwandan media has been highly critical of Erlinder.
The Rwandan Parliament adopted the "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology" (Genocide Ideology Law), on July 23, 2008. It defines genocide ideology broadly, requires no link to any genocidal act, and can be used to include a wide range of legitimate forms of expression, prohibiting speech protected by international conventions such as the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.
Sarah Erlinder, Arizona attorney and NLG member said, "My father has made a career defending unpopular people and unpopular speech-and is now being held because of his representation of unpopular clients and analysis of an historical narrative that the Kagame regime considers inconvenient. We can help defend his rights now by drawing U.S. government and media attention to his situation and holding the Rwandan government accountable for his well-being."
Before leaving for Brussels and then Kigali, Professor Erlinder notified the U.S. State Department, his Minnesota Congressional Representative Betty McCullom, Representative Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Professor Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law. He is a frequent litigator and consultant, often pro bono, in cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct, and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997, and is a current board member of the NLG Foundation. He has been a defense attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.
###
The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members--lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers and legal workers united in chapters and committees--the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Links:
* Home
Monday, May 24, 2010
Obama Asked to Hold Uganda and Rwanda accountable for DRC atrocities
United States President Barack Obama has been urged to hold Uganda and
Rwanda accountable for their actions in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) in which at least 45,000 people are said to be dying every
month due to the conflict in which both countries are involved.
In a letter to US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US
city of Berkeley in California says for the last 13 years, nearly six million men, women and children have died in the DRC and hundreds of thousands more have been victims of the conflict in which the armies of Uganda and Rwanda have taken part.
The Berkeley City letter said the conflict has resulted in unimaginable
atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity and threaten
the peace, security and well-being of Congo and its people.
It added: "Those responsible for such crimes have largely gone unpunished."
The letter which was also copied to United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon went on to say that it was gravely concerned for the
people of the DRC. It urged the US administration not to use US
military forces in the DRC and that it should make it a priority to
support local Congolese institutions with a proven record of
delivering services to the people.
It also urged the United States to
play a key role in the DRC and the African Great Lakes region by
relieving the tremendous suffering of the region's men, women and
children.
Berkeley City also wants the Obama Administration to hold US
corporations accountable for their actions in the DRC.
Several US companies are involved in the buying of various kinds of DRC precious stones mostly sold by warring military factions who in turn use the
hard currency gained from the sale of such stones to buy military
equipment such as guns, ammunition, grenades and bombs that prolongs
the DRC conflict.
It therefore directed Berkeley City Clerk to send the letter to Mrs Clinton, US Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Berkeley also called for an end to the wrongful exploitation of the Congolese people's resources, saying that these should not be a curse but rather a blessing to the Congolese people.
In what has become known as a landmark ruling in 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), seating at its Peace Palace
headquarters in the Hague, ruled that there was ‘credible evidence'
sufficient to conclude that the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF),
in the course of their military intervention into the DRC, committed
acts of killing, torture and other forms of inhumane treatment of the
civilian population.
The Court concluded that Uganda had violated the sovereignty and also the territorial integrity of the DRC and that its actions constituted interference in the internal affairs of the DRC and in the civil war raging there. "The unlawful military intervention by Uganda was of such magnitude and duration that the Court considers it to be a grave violation of the prohibition on the use of force expressed in Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter," ICJ ruled.
The ICJ also held Uganda as being ‘internationally responsible' for
acts of looting, plundering and exploitation of the DRC's natural
resources committed by members of the UPDF in the territory of the
DRC, for violating its obligation of vigilance in regard to these acts
and for failing to comply with its obligations under Article 43 of the
Hague Regulations of 1907.
During ICJ's hearings, Uganda had claimed that the DRC had allowed opponents of the Ugandan regime to operate
freely in the country and mount attacks on Uganda. But the court ruled
that during its deliberations, Uganda had failed to produce any
evidence to support these claims.
"The Court notes that during this period, the DRC was in fact acting together with Uganda against the rebels, not in support of them,2 ICJ ruled. While Uganda had argued that its attacks on the DRC was in self-defence, the ICJ ruled it considered that any military action taken by the DRC against Uganda during that period could not be deemed wrongful since it would have been justified as action taken in self-defence.
The Court also pointed out that, while it had pronounced on the violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed by Ugandan military forces on the territory of the DRC, it nonetheless observed that the actions of the various parties in the complex
conflict in the DRC had contributed to the immense suffering faced by
the Congolese population. It said it was painfully aware that many
atrocities had been committed in the course of the conflict.
Rwanda accountable for their actions in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) in which at least 45,000 people are said to be dying every
month due to the conflict in which both countries are involved.
In a letter to US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US
city of Berkeley in California says for the last 13 years, nearly six million men, women and children have died in the DRC and hundreds of thousands more have been victims of the conflict in which the armies of Uganda and Rwanda have taken part.
The Berkeley City letter said the conflict has resulted in unimaginable
atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity and threaten
the peace, security and well-being of Congo and its people.
It added: "Those responsible for such crimes have largely gone unpunished."
The letter which was also copied to United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon went on to say that it was gravely concerned for the
people of the DRC. It urged the US administration not to use US
military forces in the DRC and that it should make it a priority to
support local Congolese institutions with a proven record of
delivering services to the people.
It also urged the United States to
play a key role in the DRC and the African Great Lakes region by
relieving the tremendous suffering of the region's men, women and
children.
Berkeley City also wants the Obama Administration to hold US
corporations accountable for their actions in the DRC.
Several US companies are involved in the buying of various kinds of DRC precious stones mostly sold by warring military factions who in turn use the
hard currency gained from the sale of such stones to buy military
equipment such as guns, ammunition, grenades and bombs that prolongs
the DRC conflict.
It therefore directed Berkeley City Clerk to send the letter to Mrs Clinton, US Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Berkeley also called for an end to the wrongful exploitation of the Congolese people's resources, saying that these should not be a curse but rather a blessing to the Congolese people.
In what has become known as a landmark ruling in 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), seating at its Peace Palace
headquarters in the Hague, ruled that there was ‘credible evidence'
sufficient to conclude that the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF),
in the course of their military intervention into the DRC, committed
acts of killing, torture and other forms of inhumane treatment of the
civilian population.
The Court concluded that Uganda had violated the sovereignty and also the territorial integrity of the DRC and that its actions constituted interference in the internal affairs of the DRC and in the civil war raging there. "The unlawful military intervention by Uganda was of such magnitude and duration that the Court considers it to be a grave violation of the prohibition on the use of force expressed in Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter," ICJ ruled.
The ICJ also held Uganda as being ‘internationally responsible' for
acts of looting, plundering and exploitation of the DRC's natural
resources committed by members of the UPDF in the territory of the
DRC, for violating its obligation of vigilance in regard to these acts
and for failing to comply with its obligations under Article 43 of the
Hague Regulations of 1907.
During ICJ's hearings, Uganda had claimed that the DRC had allowed opponents of the Ugandan regime to operate
freely in the country and mount attacks on Uganda. But the court ruled
that during its deliberations, Uganda had failed to produce any
evidence to support these claims.
"The Court notes that during this period, the DRC was in fact acting together with Uganda against the rebels, not in support of them,2 ICJ ruled. While Uganda had argued that its attacks on the DRC was in self-defence, the ICJ ruled it considered that any military action taken by the DRC against Uganda during that period could not be deemed wrongful since it would have been justified as action taken in self-defence.
The Court also pointed out that, while it had pronounced on the violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed by Ugandan military forces on the territory of the DRC, it nonetheless observed that the actions of the various parties in the complex
conflict in the DRC had contributed to the immense suffering faced by
the Congolese population. It said it was painfully aware that many
atrocities had been committed in the course of the conflict.
Friday, May 21, 2010
The US State Department and The pending Legislation in the Senate Called the Congo Conflict Minerals Act.
First Published By The Confused Eagle,
May 14th was not a good day for the US State Department. While attempting to address a situation in Africa. In an attempt to place blame on one party it has cast an eye on its unwillingness to follow the Laws of the United States.
Currently there is pending Legislation in the Senate Called the Congo Conflict Minerals Act. This is an attempt to ensure that the Electronics Industry does not profit from importing Gold and other Minerals that are driving the Conflict in the Kivu Provinces of the DRC. The region was one of the fronts during Africa's World War. And at this date Militias are using force on Civilians to mine these minerals and using the Profits from this and other activities to purchase weapons.
On that date Members of the US State Department met with representatives of the Auto Industry, the Electronics Industry and other Industries that use Gold, Tungsten, Tin and Tantalum. This effort was part of the effort by the Obama Administration in its effort to help manufacturers from using these ill-gotten Minerals.
However two other questions are begging to be asked:
First why isn't section 105 of Public Law 109-456 being implimented? This section goes back to the Foreign Aid Assistance Act of 1961. This would call for Sanctions to be placed upon any country that is involved within the Internal Situation in the Congo but was not providing Peacekeeping, Humanitarian or Counterterrorism Assistance. We know that there are TWO specific countries that are NOW violating this law. (Rwanda and Uganda)
Why hasn't there been a call for this section to be enforced? Both Nations have Elections in the Near Future. In July Rwanda goes to the Polls in what is turning into a Campaign where if you are against Kagame you cannot run. In 2011 Uganda Goes to the Polls. The State Department has set aside funds for the monitoring of these elections and having to Provide reports every quarter to Congress as part of the Operations for the FY 11 Budget.
The Second Section that needs to be Implemented is section 107. This calls for the President of the United States to appoint a Special Envoy to Central Africa. What is disturbing is that President Obama the Main Sponsor of this Law in the Senate is not even following through with the LAW THAT HE WROTE!! Howard Wolpe has the Position of Special Representative for the Great Lakes. He is not a Special Envoy. This also give a problem to legitimacy as whatever Mr. Wolpe says on behalf of the President will not be taken seriously by those in the Great Lakes of Africa.
Currently the Congo Conflict Minerals Act is still in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate. So the meeting at the State Department which had so much Fanfare may only be Smoke and Mirrors. It is easier for the Diplomats to attack the Business People in the US than to actually put people on the ground in the region and actually try to effect change that way.
There is plenty of criticism to go around. The Obama Administration should not be the only one who should be held accountable. Every Administration since the Carter Administration which assisted the efforts of Morocco and Belgium to prop up Moboutu in 1977 has failed to implement this law to protect the People of the Congo.
So what are the Priorities on C Street now?
Tomorrow Morning the LRA Disarmament Bill is voted upon in the House of Representatives. This piece of Legislation is moving with celerity compared to the process that it went through the United States Senate.
This Bill which has Bi-Partisan Support will have the US take an increased role in defeating the over two decade long Insurgency of Joseph Kony. The violence that has been launched by his followers have affected not only Northern Uganda but also the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Central African Republic and Sudan. In fact in the Past the LRA has received material support from the current Sudanese Leadership in a past proxy war against the Ugandan Government.
The timing of this vote will raise some Alarms. First is the timing of this. The Weekend Prior to the announcement that the vote would take place the Speaker of the House and selected leaders flew to Germany and met with General Ward and other Leaders and Planners of AFRICOM. At this time there are three locations where any US Military Action against the LRA can originate from. They are Djibouti, Juba in Southern Sudan or Kisangani in the DRC.
Another area of concern is the belief that once again Washington is giving President Museveni of Uganda a Blank Check to do whatever he wants to do in the region. Twice during the George W. Bush Administration President Museveni was given the green light to invade the Congo to deal with the LRA. He was just as cozy with the Clinton Administration as well after President Kagame came to power in Rwanda as well.
At this time reports are that the LRA Disarmament Bill which is 11th on the Agenda for tomorrow morning will be passed by the House and then be placed on the desk of the President within the next 48 hours. This sets into motion a clock where a strategy has to be drawn up by the Administration within 180 Days.
Other Concerns:
On April 23rd of this year another journalist perished in Africa. Bibi Ngota perished while in custody in Cameroon. In the previous issue of Confused Eagle I wrote about the actions of Security Forces in Cameroon and the tensions with Nigeria regarding the Bakissi Peninsula.
In 2012 there are Elections scheduled for Cameroon as well. Cameroon is important for several reasons. It is the terminus for a pipeline that originates in T'Chad. It lies on the Gulf of Guinea which has Piracy and Human Trafficking issues that the Media seems content to ignore.
Recently the US Marines Conducted some Training with the Senegalese Marines in an exercise. Africa is a Security interest of the United States. West Africa is a region that is very unstable. The tensions along the Guinea-Liberia Border may be the Next Flash point.
Tensions are rising within Cote D'Ivorie as the process to hold Presidential Elections hit another Snag.
The largest Rebel Group in Darfur JEM (Justice and Equality Movement) is threatening renewed hostilities if the Egyptian Authorities take Khalil Ibriham into custody as Khartoum demands.
And there are Elections in Ethiopia in a couple of weeks.
May 14th was not a good day for the US State Department. While attempting to address a situation in Africa. In an attempt to place blame on one party it has cast an eye on its unwillingness to follow the Laws of the United States.
Currently there is pending Legislation in the Senate Called the Congo Conflict Minerals Act. This is an attempt to ensure that the Electronics Industry does not profit from importing Gold and other Minerals that are driving the Conflict in the Kivu Provinces of the DRC. The region was one of the fronts during Africa's World War. And at this date Militias are using force on Civilians to mine these minerals and using the Profits from this and other activities to purchase weapons.
On that date Members of the US State Department met with representatives of the Auto Industry, the Electronics Industry and other Industries that use Gold, Tungsten, Tin and Tantalum. This effort was part of the effort by the Obama Administration in its effort to help manufacturers from using these ill-gotten Minerals.
However two other questions are begging to be asked:
First why isn't section 105 of Public Law 109-456 being implimented? This section goes back to the Foreign Aid Assistance Act of 1961. This would call for Sanctions to be placed upon any country that is involved within the Internal Situation in the Congo but was not providing Peacekeeping, Humanitarian or Counterterrorism Assistance. We know that there are TWO specific countries that are NOW violating this law. (Rwanda and Uganda)
Why hasn't there been a call for this section to be enforced? Both Nations have Elections in the Near Future. In July Rwanda goes to the Polls in what is turning into a Campaign where if you are against Kagame you cannot run. In 2011 Uganda Goes to the Polls. The State Department has set aside funds for the monitoring of these elections and having to Provide reports every quarter to Congress as part of the Operations for the FY 11 Budget.
The Second Section that needs to be Implemented is section 107. This calls for the President of the United States to appoint a Special Envoy to Central Africa. What is disturbing is that President Obama the Main Sponsor of this Law in the Senate is not even following through with the LAW THAT HE WROTE!! Howard Wolpe has the Position of Special Representative for the Great Lakes. He is not a Special Envoy. This also give a problem to legitimacy as whatever Mr. Wolpe says on behalf of the President will not be taken seriously by those in the Great Lakes of Africa.
Currently the Congo Conflict Minerals Act is still in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate. So the meeting at the State Department which had so much Fanfare may only be Smoke and Mirrors. It is easier for the Diplomats to attack the Business People in the US than to actually put people on the ground in the region and actually try to effect change that way.
There is plenty of criticism to go around. The Obama Administration should not be the only one who should be held accountable. Every Administration since the Carter Administration which assisted the efforts of Morocco and Belgium to prop up Moboutu in 1977 has failed to implement this law to protect the People of the Congo.
So what are the Priorities on C Street now?
Tomorrow Morning the LRA Disarmament Bill is voted upon in the House of Representatives. This piece of Legislation is moving with celerity compared to the process that it went through the United States Senate.
This Bill which has Bi-Partisan Support will have the US take an increased role in defeating the over two decade long Insurgency of Joseph Kony. The violence that has been launched by his followers have affected not only Northern Uganda but also the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Central African Republic and Sudan. In fact in the Past the LRA has received material support from the current Sudanese Leadership in a past proxy war against the Ugandan Government.
The timing of this vote will raise some Alarms. First is the timing of this. The Weekend Prior to the announcement that the vote would take place the Speaker of the House and selected leaders flew to Germany and met with General Ward and other Leaders and Planners of AFRICOM. At this time there are three locations where any US Military Action against the LRA can originate from. They are Djibouti, Juba in Southern Sudan or Kisangani in the DRC.
Another area of concern is the belief that once again Washington is giving President Museveni of Uganda a Blank Check to do whatever he wants to do in the region. Twice during the George W. Bush Administration President Museveni was given the green light to invade the Congo to deal with the LRA. He was just as cozy with the Clinton Administration as well after President Kagame came to power in Rwanda as well.
At this time reports are that the LRA Disarmament Bill which is 11th on the Agenda for tomorrow morning will be passed by the House and then be placed on the desk of the President within the next 48 hours. This sets into motion a clock where a strategy has to be drawn up by the Administration within 180 Days.
Other Concerns:
On April 23rd of this year another journalist perished in Africa. Bibi Ngota perished while in custody in Cameroon. In the previous issue of Confused Eagle I wrote about the actions of Security Forces in Cameroon and the tensions with Nigeria regarding the Bakissi Peninsula.
In 2012 there are Elections scheduled for Cameroon as well. Cameroon is important for several reasons. It is the terminus for a pipeline that originates in T'Chad. It lies on the Gulf of Guinea which has Piracy and Human Trafficking issues that the Media seems content to ignore.
Recently the US Marines Conducted some Training with the Senegalese Marines in an exercise. Africa is a Security interest of the United States. West Africa is a region that is very unstable. The tensions along the Guinea-Liberia Border may be the Next Flash point.
Tensions are rising within Cote D'Ivorie as the process to hold Presidential Elections hit another Snag.
The largest Rebel Group in Darfur JEM (Justice and Equality Movement) is threatening renewed hostilities if the Egyptian Authorities take Khalil Ibriham into custody as Khartoum demands.
And there are Elections in Ethiopia in a couple of weeks.
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