This blog is meant to promote peace, democracy, harmony, development, and reconciliation among the Rwandan Communities . This is an online voice of Justice, Freedom,and Transparency of the people of the Great Lakes Region
Ms Rosette Kayumba, wife to renegade military general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, has accused the Rwandan government of trying to assassinate her husband in South Africa, an allegation Kigali vehemently denied yesterday.
Speaking to the BBC hours after Gen. Nyamwasa was shot at their exile home in Johannesburg, Ms Kayumba said: “[Rwandan President Paul Kagame] said in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, wherever he is he will follow him and kill him.”
She believes the lone gunman who waylaid them on returning from a shopping errand , was a hired hit man since he never demanded for cash or any valuables and shot until the pistol jammed firing. On Monday , Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs minister and government spokesperson, said by phone from Kigali that the allegations are “preposterous”. “This [assassination of opponents] is not something President Kagame does. He’s a man of integrity,” she said.
Mr Kagame, she said, is a leader who “demands accountability from all persons”, Gen. Nyamwasa inclusive - although he chose to flee. “If you want accountability from someone, you don’t kill them; you give them an opportunity for explanation or justify their case,” Ms Mushikiwabo said. Gen.
Nyamwasa, who until his escape in late February was Rwanda’s ambassador to India, fled to exile, alleging he was being hunted by the government on fabricated charges.
Authorities in Kigali have in the past been guarded about Gen. Nyamwasa’s alleged crime, but minister Mushikiwabo yesterday said the general is being investigated for his “involvement with elements that were involved with the insecurity - throwing of grenades - in Kigali.”
Sixteen people were killed, in March this year, injured in two simultaneous grenade explosions, one at a car-washing bay and the other at a bus station in a wealthy Kigali suburb.
Earlier, two people died and several others were wounded when a grenade exploded on February 19. President Kagame told Daily Monitor in an interview published in May, that Gen. Nyamwasa, a former Chief of Staff of Rwanda’s Defence Forces, had promoted divisions in the army and fled to avoid “accountability”.
He said: “People like Kayumba or [ex-Intelligence chief Patrick] Karegeya or others who flee the country will always say whatever they want to say in an attempt to absolve themselves from any responsibility.” “I think for them to escape - already there is a responsibility they are escaping or fleeing from.”
In a rejoinder emailed to this newspaper a week later, Gen. Kayumba denied the accusations levelled against him and instead made several allegations of his own against President Kagame and the Rwanda Patriotic Front government.
“President Kagame is not honest when he alleges that we ran away from accountability. [Our] disagreements [are] centred on governance, tolerance, insensitivity, intrigue and betrayal of our colleagues,” he wrote.
And he added: “Accountability should begin from the top; beginning with the President before he demands accountability from his subordinates.” Gen.
Nyamwasa, an alumnus of Makerere University and Mbarara High School in Uganda, first enlisted, in 1984, as a member of the then Yoweri Museveni-led successful National Resistance Army military campaign.
He later joined the RPF, led by Mr Kagame, serving it as the military intelligence chief – but all the while maintained close working relation with the UPDF and headed investigations into the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan armies during the 1997-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ugandan military yesterday joined sympathisers from around the world to commiserate with the Nyamwasa family.
“Humanly speaking, his shooting is unfortunate,” said Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, the defence and military spokesman. “I believe any person deserves [to enjoy] the right to life unless deprived of it by a court of law. We hope the criminals will be apprehended.”
It is understood that after serving in various senior positions, Gen. Nyamwasa’s relation with President Kagame soured over accusations and counter-accusations of unexplained riches, insubordination and dictatorship.
In 2001, Gen. Kagame fired the general as the military chief and replaced him with his counterpart James Kabarebe. The President, in November 2002, however, warmed up to Gen.
Nyamwasa re-deploying him as Head of Security Services and later Rwanda’s ambassador to India until he escaped four months ago, citing threats to his life.
The renegade reportedly fled through Uganda and Kenya, stirring diplomatic nightmare among the East African neighbours, before settling in South Africa where he is seeking asylum - that appears likely.
In accounts offered to the British public broadcaster, the BBC, about the Saturday shooting incident, Ms Rosette Nyamwasa said a man they did not know approached as if to speak to them just as they drove in their Johannesburg suburban home.
“[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband,” she said.
“Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head... My husband got out immediately... And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn’t cock the gun.”
The Rwandan Foreign Ministry says the charges are “ridiculous and far-fetched” but the general’s wife could have made them either because she is “distraught or upset”. “We feel for the Nyamwasa family,” Ms Mushikiwabo said, “Anyone interested in [knowing the cause and motive of the gun attack] should allow the South African government to investigate and report.”
The minister said Rwandan prosecutors have offered incriminating evidence and she has engaged her South African counterpart to persuade authorities there to arrest and extradite Gen. Nyamwasa. “We hope he recovers soon so that we can pursue that line,” said Ms Mushikiwabo.
By midday yesterday, Rwanda said the only information they had about the shooting of Gen. Nyamwasa was through the media and the South African government was yet to formally notify them.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota law professor who was imprisoned in Rwanda for challenging the official version of the country's 1994 genocide got a big hug from his wife and cheers from supporters as he arrived home Tuesday.
"The stories of my demise were only slightly exaggerated," Peter Erlinder said after arriving at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The Rwandan authorities released him on medical grounds late last week, but did not drop their investigation, and he said at the time that he would return there to face charges.
Flanked by his wife and daughter, Erlinder credited Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Betty McCollum, U.N. officials and a worldwide show of "globalized people power" for getting him freed.
Erlinder, 62, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, was in Rwanda to help defend an opposition presidential candidate when he was arrested May 28. He was accused of violating Rwandan laws against minimizing the country's 1994 genocide, though he has not been formally charged.
The professor said individual Rwandans he encountered, including his jailers, were all "wonderful" toward him "in spite of the lies they've been told about how the genocide happened." That drew a plea from his wife, Masako Usui, not to stir things up again, which was only partially successful.
On its surface, Erlinder went on, the Rwandan capital Kigali looked much improved since his last trip there in 2004. And he noted many world leaders have said Rwanda has changed for the better into a more democratic country.
"I made the mistake of believing them," Erlinder said.
Erlinder said his imprisonment showed Rwanda hasn't changed, and he compared the authorities in the East African nation to the East German and Soviet secret police.
"I have seen how it works and they make the Stasi and the KGB look like amateurs," he said.
But Erlinder deferred most questions about his ordeal and his plans until a news conference set for Wednesday.
The press officer at the Rwandan embassy in Washington, Carol Rugege, was away from her office and not available for comment, a man answering the phone at the embassy said Tuesday.
Erlinder already had been involved with Rwanda through his work as a defense lawyer with the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was created by the U.N. Security Council to prosecute those accused of responsibility for the genocide.
He disputes the generally accepted version of history, which holds that roughly 800,000 Rwandans, the vast majority of them ethnic Tutsis, were massacred by extremist Hutus over 100 days. The mass killing began after President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was brought down in April 1994.
Erlinder told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday he's never denied there was a genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, but he contends large numbers of Hutus were killed too, maybe more Hutus than Tutsis. He also disputes the view that the slaughter was planned long before Habyarimana's death. He said the U.S. government has systematically suppressed evidence of what actually happened, and that documents from the U.S. and U.N. that recently have been made public, as well as evidence that has emerged through the tribunal, back him up.
(This version CORRECTS Erlinder quote about Stasi and KGB to reflect he said 'amateurs,' not 'angels.')
Six people have been arrested in South Africa over the shooting of a Rwandan dissident, police say.
Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo refused to give the nationalities of the suspects but said more arrests were likely.
Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of Rwanda's president, is recovering in hospital after what his wife called an assassination attempt.
Rwanda has denied any involvement in the shooting in Johannesburg.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg says a Rwandan national known to Lt Gen Nyamwasa is believed to be among those detained.
Brig Mariemuthoo said the six would be charged with attempted murder but declined to give any more details, saying the investigations had reached a "sensitive stage".
Sources close to Lt Gen Nyamwasa told the BBC on Sunday that he was recovering and should be able to leave hospital in a few days.
Once a close confidante of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Lt Gen Nyamwasa left Kigali in February and has since accused the president of corruption - charges Mr Kagame denies.
Rwanda's government accuses Lt Gen Nyamwasa of links to grenade attacks in Kigali earlier this year and has previously tried to secure his extradition.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa has denied the allegations.
There have been several recent defections from the military ahead of elections due in August.
'Grabbed the gun'
The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday (1000 GMT) when the gunman approached their car.
Continue reading the main story [Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband Rosette Nyamwasa "[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband," Rosette Nyamwasa told the BBC.
"Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head.
"My husband got out immediately.
"And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn't cock the gun."
She added that Mr Kagame wanted her husband dead.
"[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him," she said.
But Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement that Mr Kagame's government "does not condone violence" and said she trusted South Africa to investigate the shooting thoroughly.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa also claimed the judiciary was compromised and told the BBC in a recent interview that the judges were now "President Paul Kagame's property".
A couple of months after Lt Gen Nyamwasa went into exile along with another top military officer, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership.
At the time, two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.
Arrest warrants
Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the killing and which is now in power.
But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.
Mr Kagame, in power for the past 16 years, is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa's more dynamic leaders.
However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections.
The US defence lawyer accused of denying the Rwandan 1994 genocide arrived in Kenya last night after three weeks of captivity in Kigali.
And one of his Kenyan lawyers was denied entry to the US.
Prof Peter Erlinder on Sunday said he fears for his life even while in Kenya following Saturday’s attempted assassination of Rwandan military defector Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa, blamed on Rwanda’s intelligence.
Erlinder, who was arrested in Kigali when he went to represent a Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, also accused of denying genocide, said he believes he is still alive because he is a white man from a powerful country.
"Imagine if I was not a mzungu. Imagine if I was not from the US. Imagine if I was not a law professor," he said.
Visa denied
Erlinder added it was time to revise the Rwanda genocide history from the one presented by President Paul Kagame and his Western backers.
The US State Department refused to grant Mr Kennedy Ogeto a visa to travel with the professor to the US. Another Kenyan lawyer, Gershom Otachi, will now travel with him following a visa grant in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. The two Kenyans represented Erlinder during his three-week torment in Rwanda’s jails.
The three are defence lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, formed in 1995 to try key suspects from the genocide and civil war that rocked Rwanda in the mid 1990s.
Erlinder accused his government of standing by as the Rwanda regime subjected him to degrading and life threatening treatment.
"My special request to Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton is to let my lawyers to travel to the US to help me explain to the world what happened."
The Times Editorial: The law enforcement agencies should do all in their power to arrest those involved in the attempted killing of former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The exiled lieutenant-general, who fled Rwanda early this year following a fallout with President Paul Kagame, was returning from a shopping trip at noon on Saturday when he was shot and wounded.
His wife, Rosette, is convinced that the incident, which took place in the family's driveway, was an assassination attempt.
She has directly implicated Kagame, alleging that the president "said in Parliament that he will actually kill my husband; that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him".
Though the police are said to have detained a former Rwandan soldier in connection with the incident, it is not yet clear whether the attack was indeed politically motivated. If it is, and if it is found that the assailant was linked to the Rwandan government, this would spark a major diplomatic crisis between the small Great Lakes country and South Africa.
Over the past 16 years, the two countries have enjoyed a healthy working relationship. South Africa was heavily involved in Rwanda's reconstruction following that country's 1994 genocide.
But this should not mean that the South African government should turn a blind eye to criminal activities, especially political assassinations, possibly committed in the name of the Rwandan government.
The Rwandan government denied any involvement yesterday.
But if it is found that the shooting had to do with the fallout between Kagame and Nyamwasa, then our government would have to take strong action - including the expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador to South Africa
KIGALI (Reuters) - An international court has called on Rwanda to free an American lawyer it is holding on charges of genocide denial and threatening state security, arguing that he has immunity due to his work at the court. Peter Erlinder works at the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), set up to try those responsible for the most serious crimes committed during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. He was arrested by Rwanda in May.
He has been denied bail despite pleas from his lawyers and the U.S. State Department that he be released on health grounds.
"The ICTR hereby notifies the Rwandan authorities that Professor Erlinder enjoys immunity and requests therefore, his immediate release," the court said in a letter sent to Rwanda and seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Erlinder, who earlier this year filed a lawsuit accusing Rwandan President Paul Kagame of ordering the killings that sparked the 1994 genocide, is the first foreigner to be tried under Rwanda's 2003 anti-genocide legislation.
The ICTR said Erlinder should not have been held as Rwandan prosecutors used a statement made in a case at the international court as evidence in the case against him in Rwanda.
Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, said Erlinder's case was not related to his work at the ICTR and Kigali would seek to clarify the issue with the court, but gave no details.
Erlinder works as a defence counsel at the international court but went to Rwanda to defend outspoken presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire, who was arrested on genocide denial charges in April and later released on bail.
The U.S. lawyer has been in hospital four times since his arrest complaining of heart problems and panic attacks. He has denied the charges of questioning the genocide against Tutsis, saying his words were misinterpreted by the government. Rights groups say the anti-genocide law is vague and used for political and personal reasons. Rwanda denies that, saying the laws are necessary to prevent a repeat of the genocide in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.
Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she understood Rwanda's security concerns.
"But I think that there are ways of dealing with that legitimate concern other than politically acting against opposition figures or lawyers and others," she told a conference in Washington.
Urgent need for a high profile international campaign to release Professor Peter Erlinder, an eminent voice for international peace who stands uncompromisingly for justice for all
The jailing in Rwanda of attorney Peter Erlinder, who went there to represent Victoire Ingabire, President Kagame’s leading opponent in the August presidential election, has sparked debates about the credibility of the Rwandan government. Here, Cynthia McKinney is writing to fellow associates of the Brussels War Crimes Tribunal in response to a message from Christian Scherrer, who describes himself as a genocide scholar, has investigated genocide in Rwanda and is a professor of peace studies at the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University in Japan. Scroll down for more appeals to free Erlinder, from the National Lawyers Guild and the Africa Faith and Justice Network and recommendations on how you can help.
by Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinneyI am sorry to have to take time away from caring for my father to deal with this, but I will. For reference, I have included the most knowledgeable non-Great Lakes residents on this planet about Mr. Kagame and the Rwandan regime and the case of Mr. Erlinder. I would like to beg your pardon in advance for what I am about to say and how I will say it. However, since Mr. Scherrer started it by calling my name out publicly, I will now set the record straight: Sadly, Christian Scherrer has taken on the sounds of a two-bit shill rather than those of a truth seeker and truth teller.
As for the truth, there are none more knowledgeable on this subject than Charles Onana, Wayne Madsen, Keith Harmon Snow, and lawyers Jordi Palau and Michael Hourigan.
Let me begin with Charles Onana: Charles has written the essential book on the act of terror that resulted in the downing of a plane containing the democratically elected presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi. In that book, Charles named Kagame as the mastermind and organizer on the ground, in conjunction with non-African powers (as is usually the case on The Continent) of the terrorist act that resulted in what has become known as the “Rwandan Genocide.” Kagame sued Charles in French court for defamation and lost the case. I worked closely with Charles during my days in Congress and during the time of his book and the case in France. It was through Charles that I met Victoire (Ingabire), the presidential candidate jailed by Kagame and who was represented by Erlinder.
Wayne Madsen also wrote a book about the U.S. use of proxies in Africa, of which Kagame is the most important now that Jonas Savimbi is dead. Wayne testified for me in Congress on the situation in the Great Lakes and is extremely knowledgeable about the nature of the Kagame regime.
Keith Harmon Snow travels to the region often and testified for me in Congress at the most comprehensive Congressional briefing ever held on Capitol Hill and one that is well known to region watchers. Keith has written extensively on the Kagame regime and its ties to the U.S.
Jodi Palou is a Spanish attorney who secured justice in Spain’s courts by pleading for and getting an indictment for genocide against 40 of Kagame’s soldiers. The case is ongoing and the consideration of corporate complicity in genocide is next. I served as a witness in this case.
Michael Hourigan was a United Nations investigator charged with investigating the Rwandan Genocide. However, when he touched upon Paul Kagame’s role in sparking that very tragic event, he was asked to ignore critical evidence implicating certain “foreign powers” and Paul Kagame, himself. Hourigan resigned instead. He came to work on the issue with me in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill.
Peter ErlinderSome of us also gave testimony to Judge Bruguiere, who was France’s terrorism judge at the time. Judge Bruguiere’s report traces in exacting detail the chain of possession of the missile used to kill the two African presidents that sparked the “Rwandan Genocide.”
Sadly, Christian has only discredited himself by unnecessarily singling me out in such an unprofessional, unfounded and insolent manner. Peter Erlinder is in need of all assistance the international organization for human rights lawyers can muster. He is in the hands of a murderous, brutal regime.
The message from Christian Scherrer Please be careful. Rwanda is not a rogue state but a country which has suffered a tremendous genocide and they have been left to be slaughtered by a fascist-communalist government while the international community was watching!
Please get more on what you say in the end, “I need a few more details on his arrest,” before you alert the network into action.
Leave Cynthia out; she is accused (with some reason) to have denied genocide in Rwanda.
In short: As you know, I was there right after the genocide in the first U.N. Human Rights field operation. I have designed Rwanda’s response to genocide 1994-95, discussed it with the first post-genocide government and was supported by all U.N. orgs (organizations) in Rwanda – about seven – except one. Three years later the Rwandans started to implement my three-point proposal for re-establishing justice and accountability. The government did a huge and excellent job.
They will surely listen to me.
My advice for now: Put the international campaign on hold until we know the facts.
If you want me to find out what happened, I can find out.
And tell Cynthia (we love her) to stay out. She surely misinterprets Rwandan-U.S. relations and she knows nothing about Rwanda.
The message from Niloufer Bhagwat, leading constitutional lawyer and vice president of the Indian Association of Lawyers, to which Scherrer is responding I am back and extremely anxious about Professor Peter Erlinder. It is very important that this (his jailing) be immediately brought to the notice of the highest (officials) at the U.N. Human Rights Council and name the government of Rwanda and its illegal activities.
Niloufer BhagwatAs you are wholly aware, Professor Peter Erlinder is a highly respected lawyer and professor well known and well thought of within the United States, in Japan and internationally and an eminent former president of the National Lawyers Guild. Even the secretary general of the United Nations (should) be officially informed, as there is a threat to his life and this has arisen because they had sought the assistance of lawyers as volunteers for the pro bono defense of accused persons before the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), which has led to the illegal arrest and detention of Professor Peter Erlinder.
I am aware that they requested for volunteers as I was also requested at the relevant time, but declined as I did not approve of the manner in which the Security Council was arbitrarily appointing these Special Tribunals. The arrest and intimidation of Professor Peter Erlinder and his medical condition further exposes the Security Council Tribunals as kangaroo courts witnessed by the intimidation and death of former President Milosevic to better devour the economic space of former Yugoslavia.
You are aware of the shenanigans of some of the permanent members of the Security Council both in Rwanda and in former Yugoslavia, among other regions, which led to the genocide and civil strife respectively, to camouflage the sordid reality of the interventions (for which) the so called special tribunals were established. Some of the lawyers who were requested to volunteer learned first hand as to what had happened. Peter Erlinder among others was one of them and wrote extensively on the issue; therefore the mistreatment and arrest which has led to the deterioration of his medical condition. We cannot afford to lose Peter Osamu. …
Cynthia McKinney could advise us on who would be the best person to intervene from the United States. I am sure she will advise us and assist in raising the issue in Washington. Her voice, which is respected even among her worst critics, cannot be ignored. …
The prosecutors and defense counsel at the Security Council appointed tribunals should boycott the tribunals and/or lodge a serious protest with the Security Council until Professor Peter Erlinder is released.
For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, check these websites: http://dignity.ning.com/, http://www.enduswars.org, http://www.livestream.com/dignity, http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun, http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney, http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney and http://www.youtube.com/runcynthiarun.
The DC Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild protests the detention of attorney Peter Erlinder by Rwanda Washington, D.C. – American law professor and former president of the National Lawyers Guild Peter Erlinder was recently arrested by Rwandan authorities and charged with “genocide negationism,” a speech crime that could carry a sentence of 25 years in prison. He traveled to Rwanda on May 23 to aid in the defense of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, a leading opposition figure and presidential candidate. The DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (DC-NLG) strongly condemns this politically motivated prosecution of an attorney for vigorously defending his client and protested outside the Rwandan Embassy Tuesday, June 8.
Victoire Ingabire appears alone in a Kigali court on April 21 before she had obtained legal representation. She is the leading candidate in the election scheduled for Aug. 9 challenging Paul Kagame for the presidency of Rwanda. When she was charged with a speech crime that Kagame uses against his political opponents, attorney Peter Erlinder traveled to Rwanda to represent her. Within a few days, he too was charged and sent to prison, where he remains. – Photo: FDU-Inkingi PartyPresident Turna Lewis of the DC-NLG said, “Professor Erlinder traveled to Rwanda to provide representation in a legal proceeding. The rule of law requires that defendants be permitted to obtain legal counsel that will advocate for their interests. Any country that prosecutes attorneys for defending their clients cannot claim to respect democracy or human rights.”
The crime that Professor Erlinder has been accused of, “genocide ideology,” requires no proof of participation in genocidal acts and criminalizes speech protected by international human rights law as codified in the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966. According to Human Rights Watch, the Rwandan government regularly uses prosecutions or threats of prosecution under this law to stifle legitimate dissent.
Yesterday, Professor Erlinder was denied bail and was transferred from the jail where he had been held to the general prison in Kigali. He could be held for another month until his appeal is heard.
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. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997. He has been a defense attorney at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.
Remain abreast of latest updates via Free Professor Erlinder Now on Facebook.
This statement was forwarded by Friends of the Congo.
Call for the release of human rights lawyer Peter Erlinder by the Africa Faith and Justice Network
On May 27, the Rwandan government arrested Professor Peter Erlinder and falsely charged him with genocide ideology. Mr. Erlinder, an international human rights lawyer, traveled to Rwanda to represent his client, Mrs. Victore Ingabire, a presidential candidate also accused of genocide ideology for daring to call on the Rwandan government to remember all victims of the Rwandan war.
Erlinder’s arrest is the latest of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s actions undermining free speech and rule of law, actions that have become more frequent in the run up to the August 2010 elections. Act now on behalf of free speech and human rights: Call for Erlinder’s release!
AFJN has long been concerned about the political climate in Rwanda and Kagame’s heavy-handed leadership. Our members have helped to sound the alarm on political repressions and violence in the run-up to the August 2010 elections, including the expulsion of a Human Rights Watch worker, the closure of independent newspapers and the harassment of opposition candidates like Ingabire.
Furthermore, Kagame’s invasion and ongoing destabilization of neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo has been a focal point of AFJN’s DRC campaign. This conflict has cost over 5.4 million lives, yet the world remains silent.
Instead, Rwanda has been considered a “success story” in the eyes of the U.S. Just last year over $178 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars were sent to President Kagame in aid. This level of support, nominally to promote democracy, healing and recovery after the genocide, has been consistent despite evidence of Kagame’s dictatorial behavior.
Now, by putting his hands on a human rights advocate, President Kagame has clearly shown to the world who he really is. The U.S. Department of State has only timidly asked for the release of Mr. Erlinder, acting as if he has done something wrong. Please join us in the call for Erlinder’s release!
Erlinder’s arrest is in part a retaliation by the President Paul Kagame for his extensive work at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Also, on April 30, 2010, Mr. Erlinder and his colleagues filed a lawsuit in a court in Oklahoma against President Paul Kagame regarding events surrounding the triggering of the 1994 genocide. President Paul Kagame wants to prevent Mr. Erlinder from representing his client, Mrs. Inagbire, who needs to be cleared of the charges to be able to campaign freely for the presidency of Rwanda in 2010.
Peter Erlinder’s wife, Masako Usui, writes in a press release: “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.”
Take action today for Mr. Erlinder’s immediate release. Call President Barack Obama at (202) 456-1111 and your Congressional representatives (look up their contact info here) and urge them to personally tell the Rwandan government that Mr. Erlinder’s release is long overdue!
Script:
Hello, my name is ______ and I am calling President Obama/Senator/Representative _____ to ask him/her personally get involved in the effort to bring Professor Peter Erlinder back home to his family. He has been in a Rwandan jail since May 28, falsely charged with genocide ideology while doing his duty as an international and human rights lawyer. Please ask that all his charges be dropped and he be set free. In addition, please do what you can to ensure that my tax dollars do not go to support the Rwandan regime.
To learn more, contact the Africa Faith and Justice Network, 125 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20017, (202) 884-9780, fax (202) 884-9774, afjn@afjn.org.
Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison introduced a House resolution today calling for Rwanda to free jailed St. Paul attorney Peter Erlinder.
The resolution urges President Kagame and the Rwandan government to immediately release Erlinder and allow him to return to the U.S.
In asking for Erlinder’s release, the resolution cites the country’s constitution, which states Rwanda’s rule of law is built on “tolerance and resolution of issues through dialogue.” The resolution also notes the “increasing pattern of restrictions of free expression in Rwanda ahead of the August presidential elections.”
Erlinder, the William Mitchell College of Law professor who was arrested May 28 in Rwanda and charged with denying the country’s 1994 genocide, was denied bail at a Monday hearing. He has pleaded not guilty.
Last week, the U.S. State Department has called for his release on compassionate grounds, and Tuesday Sen. Amy Klobuchar sent a letter to the Rwandan ambassador asking for his appeal to be expedited.
In the past couple of years, the US has become increasingly willing to call out President Paul Kagame for his authoritarian tendencies, albeit in mostly muted ways.
Three Rwandan opposition parties have asked the United States to use its influence to help resolve social and political tension in the country before the presidential election in August.
Rights groups say the government and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) have become increasingly intolerant of dissent and criticism in the run-up to the vote, which President Paul Kagame is widely expected to win.
In an open letter last week to the U.S. ambassador in Kigali, Stuart Symington, and seen by Reuters on Sunday, the three-party coalition said: "We strongly believe that your leverage as the ambassador of the United States of America in Rwanda can help diffuse tensions as the presidential elections loom and... (the) military crisis deepens."
...The coalition asked for U.S. assistance in opening up politics, changing anti-genocide legislation and guaranteeing the security forces remained outside politics, and sought a postponement of the ballot, due take place on Aug. 9, to allow more time to ensure it is transparent and free.
"Unless (development) efforts are underpinned by democracy, freedom and the rule of law, the achievements in that area will not be sustainable," the parties said.
US policy towards Rwanda since the genocide has always been a mixed bag.
On the one hand, diplomats are constrained by the fact that the Clinton Administration chose not to intervene in the genocide – and deliberately prevented others from doing so.
Add that guilt to the tension between the Rwandan government and the French and Belgians and in many ways it made strategic sense for the United States to support one of the few bastions of stability and economic growth in a volatile region.
On the other hand, American diplomats are not stupid.
By and large, they don't blindly support Kagame while ignoring his undemocratic tendencies.
Most Western diplomats in the region have tracked these issues for years, along with Kigali's role in fostering conflict in and stealing minerals from the DRC. But they tend to walk a fine line and are rarely vocal critics of the regime.
In the past couple of years, however, we've seen US administrations become increasingly willing to call Kagame out, albeit in mostly muted ways.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson's recent testimony before Congress about the tightening of political space in Rwanda is the clearest statement to date that the U.S. is not willing to let Rwanda get away with repression.
Let's hope that the follow-through - including the delegation of US observers who are to monitor the August 9 presidential elections - is appropriately forceful and sends a clear message that Rwanda's people are best served by a free, open, and fair political system. On a related note, Jason Stearns' recent post on Rwanda-DRC-Uganda relations is a must-read for anyone interested in the Great Lakes' regional political dynamics.
Updated: Tuesday, 08 Jun 2010, 9:23 PM CDT Published : Tuesday, 08 Jun 2010, 9:23 PM CDT
SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Supporters of detained U.S. Attorney Peter Erlinder marched for him on Tuesday in hopes of freeing him from the Rwandan prison.
Erlinder, a human rights attorney has represented unpopular causes and clients, including one FOX 9 interviewed in March of 2009. 20 years ago, Elsie Mayard met Professor Erlinder. She says Erlinder was there when nobody else would help her.
"He mean the whole world to me because of how much he cared what happened to me because he protected my constitutional rights," said Mayard.
Appearing weak in court on Monday, a Rwandan judge denied bail for Erlinder who is charged with denying Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Erlinder was in the country helping with the legal defense of an opposition leader, who wants to run for president.
Attorney Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyers Guild says Erlinder's prosecution threatens the ability of all attorneys to defend their clients.
"I’m afraid it looks like this is not something that's going to be over in the near term but is going to require our long term work and effort to bring peter back here to the twin cities," said Nestor.
In Minnesota, Senator Amy Klobuchar says they are working hard to bring him home.
"We have been pushing to have an expedited hearing so that he can at least be out on bail and at best be able to go home to his family. His wife and daughter and that's what we've been working on," said Klobuchar.
Professor Peter Erlinder, a Defence attorney at the ICTR, and Professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States , was arrested on 28 May in Kigali on the charge of "denying genocide".
Prior to his arrest, earlier on January 24, 2010, the Law Professor replied to Annie Garrison, San Francisco Bay View journal reporter on his disagreement with the onesided "victor's" history, in which the former Hutu government and military are said to have conspired to commit genocide against Tutsis, and in which only Tutsis, not Hutus, were mass murdered. The victorious, now ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front party has made this history not only sacrosanct, but also a legal requirement, by passing laws against "genocide ideology" ---meaning history that disagrees with their own.
He wrote:
"Ms. Garrison,
As Lead Defense Council at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) I have had a chance to closely examine the violence associated with the RPF takeover of Rwanda, and have concluded that the "victors" have told the story of the 4-year war, and its aftermath.
During the past 7 years the Prosecutor at the ICTR, with the help of the Kagame government, US and UK have been unable to marshall evidence that the former military or government planned or conspired to kill civilians, much less Tutsi civilians. In Feb 2009, the Judgement in the Military I (Bagosora) case found that NONE of the top four officers (including Bagosora) were guilty to conspiracy before or after the assassination of Habyarimana.
In Feb 2009, the former ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte admitted in her memoirs that she had been ordered to bury evidence of RPF crimes, including Kagame's assassination of Habyarimana which had been known to her office in 1997 by the U.S. State Dept.
'The Great Rwanda Genocide-Coverup' is beginning to unravel but US, as you note, is deeply invested in maintaining a Prussian-style military presence in Central Africa. I have posted several articles and the - Rwanda Documents Project - has many of the contemporaneous confirming documents. -Peter Erlinder"
The Rwanda Documents Project was started by Professor Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota as a result of his work as a defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The goal of the Project is to collect and make available primary source materials from international and national agencies, governments, and courts that relate to the political and social history of Rwanda from 1990 to the present.
"It's always been the guy that won the war who can tell the story," he said in a 2008 interview.
Peter Erlinder, lead defense counsel for former Major Aloys Ntabakuze in the Military 1 Trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and president of the UN-ICTR Defense Lawyers Association, says that recently-issued French and Spanish international war crimes warrants and new evidence at the UN Rwanda Tribunal have exposed current Rwandan President Paul Kagame as the man primarily responsible for the 1994 “Rwanda Genocide” and the beneficiary of a decades-long US-sponsored “cover-up” of Pentagon complicity in the massacres committed by his regime.
The damning “Gersony Report” included first-hand evidence of tens of thousands of civilians being massacred by Kagame’s troops in eastern Rwanda, later confirmed by similar reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The U.N. document (also in the ICTR record) says that Annan told the Foreign Minister that public knowledge of the Report would be “embarrassing to the UN” and the former U.S. Clinton administration diplomat, Brian Atwood, not only confirmed he was at the meeting, but explained that he had engaged Gersony, and that Gersony’s findings of war-crimes being committed by Kagame were “…an inconvenient truth” for both the United States and the UN.
According to Atwood, unbeknownst to the State Department, “the Pentagon had been supporting Kagame since before the 1990 invasion, when he was the head of Military Intelligence for the Museveni government of Uganda.” The “Gersony Report” tied the Pentagon to the crimes of Kagame’s invading, Pentagon-trained and funded forces. More UN documents in the ICTR record reveal that the State Department was negotiating for a peaceful settlement of the war at the same time the Pentagon was supporting Kagame’s invasion. The Clinton Administration sought to enlist Atwood and Kofi Annan in keeping evidence of Kagame’s crimes from ever seeing the light of day, to prevent Pentagon involvement in the “Rwandan Genocide” from ever coming to light.
The existence of a separate Pentagon foreign policy on Rwanda also tallies with the ICTR testimony of former Ambassador Robert Flaten, who testified that he seriously doubted that Habyarimana’s supporters planned to kill civilians on a massive scale because the CIA and other intelligence agencies would have reported it when he was in Rwanda from 1990 to late 93. He said that his requests for Pentagon-DIA spy satellite photographs showing the status of the war in the countryside were turned down because of “clouds over Rwanda,” during his entire 3-plus years in Rwanda.
Former Amb. Flaten also noted the obvious: Uganda’s military assistance for the 1990 Kagame invasion coincided with increased Ugandan military funding by the U.S./U.K. Most importantly, Flaten also testified that he personally warned Kagame that “he (Kagame) would be responsible for massacres like just happened in Burundi, if Kagame broke the cease-fire and re-started that war". Now the evidence in the ICTR record shows Kagame did exactly that!
In short, the evidence that is now in the public record shows that during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, the Pentagon could have stopped the carnage with a phone call, and the State Department apparently did not know enough about the Pentagon’s close ties to Kagame to ask them to do so, at least until USAID’s Atwood was informed of Pentagon panicked reaction to the “Gersony Report,” in the summer of 1994.
Other de-classified State Department documents show that it was the invading Kagame forces that were the aggressors, and were blocking the State Departments efforts to implement the Arusha Accords, peace agreement. The UN’s General Dallaire has testified that Kagame would not agree to a ceasefire to use troops to stop the massacres because “he was winning the war.” And, now we know what Dallaire may not have known, until later…Kagame was winning with the Pentagon’s help.
With U.S. and U.K. support, Kagame’s government is actively campaigning to have all ICTR matters transferred to Rwanda and has issued 40,000 warrants for Kagame’s Hutu and Tutsi opponents in the worldwide Rwandan diaspora (a movement that includes such figures as Paul Rusesabagina, the 'real hero' of Hotel Rwanda.
Erlinder had recently filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma against Rwandan president Paul Kagame, which likely angered the government in Rwanda.
Bar associations including the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) have condemned Erlinder's arrest. "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 NLG president David Gespass. "Government intimidation and interference with criminal defense lawyers is unacceptable in all its forms and it fundamentally undermines justice," according to an NACDL press release.
Erlinder should be released immediately. He should be given immediate access to counsel and the charges against him should be dismissed.
Tags: one_simple_thing, erlinder, kagame, rwanda, ictr Posted in Assignment: Know someone changing the world?
Rwandan law on "genocide ideology" impossibly vague by Robin Phillips June 4, 2010
Last week, as most Minnesotans set out to enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend, one Minnesotan embarked on a journey of a different sort. On Friday, St. Paul law professor Peter Erlinder was arrested by Rwandan police on charges under that country's "genocide ideology" law.
Erlinder went to Rwanda as part of the legal defense team of opposition political candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who faces charges under the genocide ideology law.
Throughout the past several years, Erlinder has represented people accused of genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda. In the course of this work, he has developed an argument that questions whether the violence in Rwanda was, technically speaking, genocide. Erlinder hasn't been shy about putting forth his theory; he helped organize and presented a paper at an international criminal defense conference on the subject in Brussels just days before entering Rwanda.
International law recognizes that genocide -- the killing, causing of serious bodily or mental harm, deliberate infliction of conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction, imposition of measures intended to prevent births, or forcible transfer of children to another group, with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group -- is among the most serious of crimes.
Is what happened in Rwanda "genocide?" Most international human rights experts think so. And if any country has an interest in ensuring that public safety is balanced against the right to free speech, arguably it's Rwanda. Radio broadcasts deliberately inciting ethnic violence fueled much of the brutality that killed upwards of 800,000 people in just 100 days in 1994.
International human rights law recognizes freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. That right is not without limits. Governments can and must limit dangerous speech. But those limits must themselves be narrowly tailored and carefully applied.
The Rwandan genocide ideology law falls far short of what international human rights law requires. It has been characterized by one human rights organization as "a very broad, imprecise and even confusing array of activities and expression" which includes "terms which are widely open for abusive interpretation -- such as 'marginalising,' 'laughing,' 'mocking,' 'boasting,' and 'creating confusion aiming at negating the genocide which occurred' and 'stirring up ill feelings' -- or which very obviously have no place in any law -- such as 'propounding wickedness.'"
The evidence suggests that potential abuses of this vaguely worded crime have come to pass. Human rights organizations and the U.S. government alike have denounced the law for having been used to silence those who oppose the government. Erlinder himself went to Rwanda to defend a political opposition leader accused of genocide ideology. Amnesty International reports that at last count there were 912 people in prison, either awaiting trial or serving sentences, on genocide ideology charges.
The government of Rwanda today is under the control of Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front. Exploiting the tragedy of the genocide for political purposes is apparently just one part of Kagame's strategy to continue to hold power. A glance through the U.S. State Department's most recent assessment of human rights in Rwanda reveals that its record of ensuring freedom of speech, assembly, association, and the right of citizens to change their government is abysmal.
In addition to politically motivated use of the genocide ideology law to keep government opponents quiet, Amnesty International reports substantial restriction of press freedom, active restriction of opposition political parties, and widespread impunity for members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army and Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Erlinder's arrest gives us a glimpse of what Rwandans and millions of others living under repressive governments around the world face every day. In the United States, Memorial Day is an opportunity to remember those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. This incident serves as a poignant reminder of what those human rights really mean.
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Robin Phillips is executive director of The Advocates for Human Rights, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights.
WASHINGTON — The State Department is calling on the government of Rwanda to release a jailed U.S. law professor on the grounds of compassion.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Thursday that the United States is pressing for the release of Peter Erlinder, of St. Paul, Minn., who was arrested on Friday after being accused of denying the central African country's 1994 genocide.
Erlinder was hospitalized on Wednesday after what Rwandan officials said was an apparent suicide attempt. However, the 62-year-old Erlinder told consular officials that he took an oversdose of his prescription medication so that he would be sent from a squalid jail to the hospital.
That message was conveyed from the consulate in Rwanda to his family, who said Thursday they understood his actions to be part of an effort to escape a jail cell where he feared for his safety and was staying with seven or eight other inmates.Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
