Please contribute to support my independent reporting on Africa's Great Lakes region, and my advocacy for an end to Pentagon intervention

Please click on the "Donate" button in the upper right corner of this blog if you value my reporting on Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda, and my advocacy for an end to U.S.-Pentagon interventions there and everywhere.   Could you give $5, $10, $25 or more?   The first, and still the greatest number of those contributing to my work have been Rwandan, Congolese, and Burundian people making small contributions, though several Westerners have since contributed as well. 

I have been reporting on the Great Lakes region for Digital Journal, Global Research, the San Francisco Bay View, the OpEdNews, Colored Opinions, and KPFA and KMEC Radio, and posting video elaborations of my radio reports to my Youtube Channel. On Sunday, 03.21.2010, I recorded Law Professor Peter Erlinder, Lead Defense Counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) for this KPFA Radio News report, then posted the result to my channel with a video overlay, after which it appeared on the Global Research and Digital Journal websites.


Two days later I called Peter to say that I was ready to read and study the entire Rwanda Documents Project, if I can find some funding.  He said it would take me at least two months, with his regular guidance, and also told me, with considerable urgency, that he needs help writing a book explaining his years of research.


No one else has studied or reported on all the evidence which has led Peter to say, as a criminal lawyer, with evidence at hand, that the US and the UK financed the ongoing Central African War, first in Uganda, then Rwanda, and now D.R. Congo, and, that eight million African people have died. 

I've also spoken to Kevin Alexander Gray, African American writer and activist, Counterpunch and Progressive contributor, and author of Waiting for Lightning to Strike, the Fundamentals of Black Politics, who has offered to contact those he knows in the office of Senator Russ Feingold, Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs.  And, to contact Reverend Jesse Jackson, and other leaders in the Black community, about urging African Americans to call on President Obama and their legislators to heed the Feingold Statement on the Fragility of Democracy in Africa.


We agreed that:


1)  Peace in the Great Lakes region depends on the end of UK and U.S. military, financial, and media support for the ruthless, highly militarized autocracy of Paul Kagame's Rwanda, especially now, during this critical election year, in which Rwandans should have the power to choose the president who will lead them for the next seven years.  This goal is consistent with the liberal democratic values that the U.S. government claims to represent and defend.   America's liberals, including President Obama, need encouragement to be good liberals.

Senator Feingold read the Feingold Statement on the Fragility of Democracy in Africa into the Congressional Record on March 2nd.  I came across it, barely noticed, on an Ethiopian website, then wrote the news for Digital Journal, Global Research, and the Black Star News. 


2)  Senator Feingold needs encouragement to meet with Dr. Peter Erlinder, who so feels the urgency of the Rwandan situation that he is willing to drive from St. Paul to Madison, WI, or fly to Washington D.C. immediately if an appointment can be arranged.


3)  I need to continue reporting, every week, on Rwanda's opposition parties ongoing efforts to enter the election, and need to keep asking Senator Feingold, and other members of the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs to respond.


Unlike Rwandan President Paul Kagame, I have no "donor nation" support and don't expect any, so I greatly appreciate the help of anyone who thinks this work needs to be done.    


Thanks.  --Ann Garrison