Erlinder v. Kagame and Victor's History

Rwanda Genocide, 1994.

KPFA Weekend News Anchor David Rosenberg: April 6th was the 17th anniversary of events that triggered the massacres that the world came to know as the Rwanda Genocide.   The history of the 1994 genocide and the ensuing war in Rwanda's resource rich neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, are fiercely disputed by a growing number of scholars, journalists, and human rights investigators, and by Rwandan and Congolese opposition leaders, genocide survivors, exiles, and refugees.   Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Rwanda's 43-year-old opposition leader, and mother of three, remains in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security prison, charged with terrorism and disputing the official Rwanda Genocide history.  And, William Mitchell Law Professor and former National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder has now published an 80-page, footnoted and documented report, in the DePaul University Law School's Journal of Justice, in which he argues that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front regime bear responsibility for the Rwanda Genocide and Congo Wars.   

Professor Peter Erlinder in handcuffs in a
Kigali courtroom, with Kennedy Ogetto, the
Kenyan ICTR lawyer who flew to Kigali to
defend him when he was arrested after
flying there to defend Victoire Ingabire
Umuhoza.

Last year Kagame arrested and imprisoned Erlinder in Rwanda, after he had traveled there to defend Ingabire, and last week the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda came close to sanctioning him for refusing to return to Arusha, Tanzania, to defend another client.  Erlinder had said that he would not return because Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front agents might well assassinate, kidnap, or disappear him if he did.  The court did not acknowledge Erlinder's claim that his life would be in danger in Arusha, but they did excuse him after his doctor reported that he suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome as a consequence of his arrest and imprisonment in Rwanda last year.

KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to Professor Erlinder by phone from his office at William Mitchell College of Law, in St. Paul, Minneapolis:

Ann Garrison:   Peter Erlinder, this story is still obscure to many KPFA listeners.  Could you explain why Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, would conceivably want to assassinate, kidnap, or disappear you?

Rwandan opposition leader
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza remains
in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security
prison charged with terrorism and
genocide ideology, i.e., disagreeing with
the official history of the Rwanda
Genocide. 

Peter Erlinder:  Well, during my work at the UN Tribunal, I had an opportunity to have access to the previously secret United Nations files that were kept by UN personnel in Rwanda during the time that's known as the genocide.   And those documents tell a completely different story than the story the world has heard about what happened in Rwanda during that time.  Also I was able to link that to US documents from the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon and the documents from other countries. 


And I used those documents to defend my client and he and other military officers were acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to commit genocide, which means there was no plan on the part of the previous government and military.  

Ann Garrison:  And do the documents that you've assembled demonstrate that President Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front regime are most responsible for the mass slaughter of 1994 which came to be the principle justification of the Kagame regime?  

Peter Erlinder:  Yeah, what the documents show is that the RPF were the dominant military power in Rwanda.  They were responsible for assassinating the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents, which touched off the mass violence.  They were in a position to stop the mass violence and didn't do so because of their desire to win the war.  And then once they did seize power continued carrying out violence against civilians.

AfrobeatRadio

Ann Garrison:  And what do those documents that you've assembled say about the ensuing Congo War?  


Peter Erlinder:  Well, the documents make clear that the RPF went on to carry out an invasion of the eastern Congo along with Uganda and then essentially to control the eastern Congo, which they do to this day.  And that was accomplished because of ongoing support from the Pentagon, and then, unfortunately, it becomes clear that this support was covered up as the ICTR began to develop.   


Ann Garrison:  Links to Professor Erlinder's report on the Rwanda Genocide and Congo War can be found on the websites of the San Francisco Bay View and AfrobeatRadio.net. 


For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.


(SF Bay View link for press release and download link Erlinder's report, The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR-TPIR): International justice or judicially-constructed victors’ impunity?)

Erlinder on Tour: Documents Prove U.S. Complicity in Rwanda Genocide and Congo Wars

KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:  American Law Professor Peter Erlinder is set to begin a speaking tour to present his 70-page compilation of original UN documents and evidence, as well as his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda between 1993 and 1995. Erlinder says that the U.S., its allies, and the Rwandan government are collaborators in an ongoing coverup of the truth at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.  KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.

Law Professor Peter Erlinder speaking
to the National Lawyers Guild, holding
a duplicate of the pink prison garb
he wore while incarcerated in Rwanda,
after traveling there in May of 2010
to defend opposition leader
Victoire  Ingabire Umuhoza,
who is now in prison herself. 

KPFA/Ann Garrison:  Peter Erlinder, international criminal defense attorney, and law professor at Minnesota's William Mitchell College of Law, will begin his speaking tour at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. on January 24th, then visit Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Law Schools, then, Fordham University Law Shool and the Brecht Forum in New York City, and the University of Pittsburgh. The tour will coincide with DePaul University's Journal of Social Justice's publication of his original UN documents and evidence, and his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda, at the time of the epic massacres now known as the Rwanda Genocide. Professor Erlinder spoke to KPFA from his home in St. Paul Minnesota:

KPFA:  What do you think Americans most need to understand about what happened in Rwanda, and then in Congo?  What does this have to do with us?

Peter Erlinder:  Well, I think that what this has to do with us I'd like to answer first.  The United States has played an active role in destabilizing the Great Lakes Region of Africa for the last 25 years.  It's a role that the American people, however, do not understand, and because they don't understand it, they're not able to take action to change it.  But with respect to Rwanda, what the evidence in the files show, that have been kept secret until I was able to get them, is that actually it was the Pentagon that created the RPF, grew them from 2500 to 25,000 troops in a period of two years, provided the material and the support necessary for them to take over the country, that at the same time the State Department was attempting to get the RPF to agree to give up its power and to enter into a minority position in the government, the Pentagon was continuing to support them and make them an even larger military force, so there was no incentive for them to give up their militarily superior position.

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Rwandan opposition leader
that Professor Peter Erlinder traveled to Rwanda to defend
was taken, head shaven, handcuffed, and in pink prison garb,
to a Kigali court in handcuffs, where she was again denied
bail, on January 20, 2011. 

And the American people should also know that the UN documents and US government documents from FOIA disclosures that we have show that a U.S. engineered cover-up of RPF crimes began in August of 1994 because the State Department found out that the Pentagon was actually behind the RPF and therefore was responsible fundamentally for the Rwanda Genocide.  And that it's that connection to the United States that the American people don't know and is not acknowledged.  That's also the reason that the Rwanda Tribunal has had to prosecute only one side, because if Kagame ever is prosecuted, it's quite sure that he will explain the role of the United States in making him who he is.

It's also true that in 1996 and 1998, Rwanda and Uganda, both with the support of the US and UK, invaded the eastern Congo and have occupied the eastern Congo since that time.   Reports to the UN Security Council from experts that were engaged by the Security Council have reported repeatedly, 2001, 2, 3, 2008, 2010, that the armies of Uganda and Rwanda are occupying the eastern Congo, killing millions of people, at least six million, and raping the resources of the Congo.   But unfortunately, because both of these are proxy armies that are convenient for the United States, we don't hear about those crimes, and the perpetrators of the crimes are not called before the International Criminal Court, and the American people are in a position where they don't realize that their country is actually responsible for the massive crimes in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and we should care about that greatly because these crimes are being done in our name.

KPFA:  Peter Erlinder, thank you for speaking to KPFA.  For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.

Audio link:
http://www.anngarrison.com/images/mp3s/erlindertour.mp3.

Erlinder on Tour: U.S. Is Responsible for Rwanda Genocide and Congo Wars

 

Law Professor Peter Erlinder
speaking to the National Lawyers Guild
last year, holding the pink prison garb
he wore while incarcerated in Rwanda,
after traveling there to defend Victoire
Ingabire Umuhoza, the Rwandan opposition leader who
is now in prison herself.

KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones:  American Law Professor Peter Erlinder is set to begin a speaking tour to present his 70-page compilation of original UN documents and evidence, as well as his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda between 1993 and 1995. Erlinder says that the U.S., its allies, and the Rwandan government are collaborators in an ongoing coverup of the truth at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.  KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.  

KPFA/Ann Garrison:  Peter Erlinder, international criminal defense attorney, and law professor at Minnesota's William Mitchell College of Law, will begin his speaking tour at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. on January 24th, then visit Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Law Schools, then, Fordham University Law Shool and the Brecht Forum in New York City, and the University of Pittsburgh. The tour will coincide with DePaul University's Journal of Social Justice's publication of his original UN documents and evidence, and his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda, at the time of the epic massacres now known as the Rwanda Genocide. Professor Erlinder spoke to KPFA from his home in St. Paul Minnesota:

KPFA:  What do you think Americans most need to understand about what happened in Rwanda, and then in Congo?  What does this have to do with us?

Peter Erlinder:  Well, I think that what this has to do with us I'd like to answer first.  The United States has played an active role in destabilizing the Great Lakes Region of Africa for the last 25 years.  It's a role that the American people, however, do not understand, and because they don't understand it, they're not able to take action to change it.  But with respect to Rwanda, what the evidence in the files show, that have been kept secret until I was able to get them, is that actually it was the Pentagon that created the RPF, grew them from 2500 to 25,000 troops in a period of two years, provided the material and the support necessary for them to take over the country, that at the same time the State Department was attempting to get the RPF to agree to give up its power and to enter into a minority position in the government, the Pentagon was continuing to support them and make them an even larger military force, so there was no incentive for them to give up their militarily superior position.

And the American people should also know that the UN documents and US government documents from FOIA disclosures that we have show that a U.S. engineered cover-up of RPF crimes began in August of 1994 because the State Department found out that the Pentagon was actually behind the RPF and therefore was responsible fundamentally for the Rwanda Genocide.  And that it's that connection to the United States that the American people don't know and is not acknowledged.  That's also the reason that the Rwanda Tribunal has had to prosecute only one side, because if Kagame ever is prosecuted, it's quite sure that he will explain the role of the United States in making him who he is.

Rwandan opposition leaderVictoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
in pink prison garb, and with her head shaved was
led to court where she was again denied bail,
on January 20th, 2011.   

It's also true that in 1996 and 1998, Rwanda and Uganda, both with the support of the US and UK,  invaded the eastern Congo and have occupied the eastern Congo since that time.   Reports to the UN Security Council from experts that were engaged by the Security Council have reported repeatedly, 2001, 2, 3, 2008, 2010, that the armies of Uganda and Rwanda are occupying the eastern Congo, killing millions of people, at least six million, and raping the resources of the Congo.   But unfortunately, because both of these are proxy armies that are convenient for the United States, we don't hear about those crimes, and the perpetrators of the crimes are not called before the International Criminal Court, and the American people are in a position where they don't realize that their country is actually responsible for the massive crimes in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and we should care about that greatly because these crimes are being done in our name.  

KPFA:  Peter Erlinder, thank you for speaking to KPFA.  For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison. 

Audio link:

http://www.anngarrison.com/images/mp3s/erlindertour.mp3.

AfrobeatRadio, WBAI-NYC, on Rwanda, 12.11.2010

Link:  http://goo.gl/56J9o.

Alice Muhirwa, Treasurer of
Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Coalition of Parties.

On 12.11.2010, I was honored to stand in for Alice Muhirwa of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, on WBAI-NYC AfrobeatRadio.  Wuyi Jacobs and I worried because Alice hadn't answered the phone, but later learned, in a round of phone calls and e-mails, after the show, that she had twisted her ankle and a doctor had set it in a cast, leaving her unable to come to the phone.  Not good, but, better than being in Rwanda's max security 1930 prison, where Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda, two of the three presidential candidates who attempted to contest Rwanda's 2010 elections remain behind bars.

Dutch citizens angered by police raid on Ingabire's Netherlands' family home

Phone call to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's daughter Raissa Ujeneza, in the Netherlands, after Netherlands police raided her parents' family home in Zevenhuizen, the Netherlands, on Monday, 12.13.2010.

Ingabire police raid sparks angry reactions
Published on : 14 December 2010 - 3:27pm | By Sophie van Leeuwen (Photo: RNW)


Report posted to Radio Netherlands, 12.14.2010.

Kagame’s prisons, courts and killing spots: Ingabire, the Netherlands and the West

by Ann Garrison, Didas Gasana and Charles Kabonero

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, her head shaved and wearing her pink prison uniform, makes an appearance in court. In jail since Oct. 14 and reportedly tortured, she was recently denied bail. She had returned to Rwanda last January to challenge Paul Kagame for the presidency but was not allowed to run. Many commentators predicted she would have won a free and fair election.

The argument over who has been most to blame for the bloodshed in recent East Central African history intensified even further this month with testimony further challenging the history of what we know as the 1994 Rwanda Genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s former bodyguard, Aloys Ruyenzi, testified at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda that the president of the Interahamwe, the militia said to have massacred the Rwandan Tutsi population in 1994, was himself a Tutsi and Rwandan Patriotic Front agent.

Ruyenzi, in an interview in the Newsline East Africa, also described what he called “killing spots” where, he says, the Kagame regime continues to sort, classify and then systematically execute those it perceives as enemies with bayonets or, if they resist or run, with pistols.

Read more at the San Francisco Bay Newspaper, http://goo.gl/J8ANy.

KPFA News: Kagame wants Professor Peter Erlinder "dead or alive"

Law Professor Peter Erlinder, with his Kenyan lawyer Kennedy Ogetto, who is also one of his fellow criminal defense attorneys at the Interational Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.  Erlinder wears the pink prison garb of Rwandan prisoners that Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, whom he had traveled to Rwanda to defend, wears now.  

                                                   Audio link: http://goo.gl/hToVb.

Transcript:

KPFA Weekend News Host Cameron Jones:
Minnesota William and Mitchell Law Professor and International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda Defense lawyer Peter Erlinder has issued a press release stating that, according to high-level Rwandan officials present at a meeting in Rwanda's capitol Kigali in mid-October, Rwandan President Paul Kagame ordered that he, Erlinder, be brought back to Rwanda “dead or alive.”  KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.

KPFA/Ann Garrison:
Law Professor Peter Erlinder says that former members of the Rwandan government, now in exile, report that Rwandan President Kagame said “Erlinder’s release was a mistake” and that he and Paul Rusesabagina, the author of "An Ordinary Man," the book that the film Hotel Rwanda was based on, were responsible for drawing worldwide attention to the detailed 600-page UN report released Oct. 1, that exposes the role of Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front and its army in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and massacres of Hutu civilians.

Erlinder says that he has notified federal and local law enforcement officials and the U.S. State Department of the danger, and requested protection both for himself and for his confidential source.   Speaking to KPFA today, from his home in St. Paul-Minneapolis, he explained why he will not be returning to Rwanda:

Law Professor Peter Erlinder:

On Oct. 6, the UN Tribunal for Rwanda issued a decision in which it said that the prosecution against me was illegal under UN immunity rules.  As a result I have no obligation to answer to an illegal prosecution in Rwanda.  And since that time, UN reports of the mass murders by the Kagame regime in Rwanda and in the Congo make it clear that returning to Rwanda would be suicide for anyone that Kagame considers a threat to his absolute power, and my returning to Rwanda is out of the question at this point."

KPFA/Ann Garrison:

What do you think about Kagame's growing enemy list?  

Peter Erlinder:
Well, within the last several months, of course, nearly all of Kagame's opponents and journalists in the independent press have either been arrested or killed.  The government newspaper has reported that Paul Rusesabagina of Hotel Rwanda's foundation is part of an Obama Administration/UN conspiracy to discredit the Kagame regime.  And Rwanda's Ambassador to the U.S. has actually accused the former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda,  Robert Flatten, of being a gun runner.  And as the enemies' list grows, this desperation only makes the regime more dangerous anywhere in the world, and I must take seriously the death threats that have been reported to me.  


UN documents that are in evidence at the UN Tribunal, which of course are the reason for the charges against me in Rwanda, show that Kagame is responsible for the Rwanda Genocide already.  And RPF culpability for the six million deaths in the Congo, reported in the UN Report that was made public October 1st, is in the public record too.

And a regime capable of these crimes is capable of eliminating its opponents anywhere it can reach them.


KPFA/Ann Garrison:
Has anyone from the State Department responded to the information that you gave them?

Peter Erlinder:
I haven't heard back from the State Department in any official way.

For more coverage of Peter Erlinder's case and related news reported from East/Central Africa, Europe, and the U.S., see the website of the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, www.sfbayview.com.

For Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.

KPFA News: Rwanda, Congo, Ingabire, and the Netherlands

Audio link: http://goo.gl/gm5QE

KPFA Weekend News Host Anthony Fest:
And turning now to news from Africa, the dispute over who is responsible for the bloodshed in East/Central Africa over the past 16 years intensified this month when, on November 9th, Rwandan President Paul Kagame's former bodyguard testified at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.  Following that testimony he told a newspaper and website that Kagame summarily executes political enemies.  On November 12 Rwanda's High Court sent an opposition leader back to prison.  Now a new Dutch Parliament seems close to confirming that it will no longer support Kagame's government.   KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.

KPFA/Ann Garrison:
Rwandan President Paul Kagame's former bodyguard Aloys Ruyenzi testified, at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, that the President of the Interahamwe, the militia said to have massacred the Rwandan Tutsi population in 1994, was himself a Tutsi and Rwandan Patriotic Front and Army agent.  Ruyenzi, in an interview with The Newsline East Africa, also described what he called "killing spots," where, he says, the Kagame regime continues to sort, classify, and then systematically execute those it perceives as enemies.

The Kagame regime's High Court in turn denied opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's bail appeal, and sent her back to prison to await trial for conspiring with terrorists and genocide ideology, which means disagreeing with the official history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

Rwandan exiles and supporters have demonstrated in Brussels, the Hague, and London since Ingabire's arrest, and the new Dutch Parliament seems to be moving toward a vote to sustain a 2008 decision to cut economic aid to Kagame's Rwandan regime because of its human rights abuses in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and because of Ingabire's imprisonment.

Vincent Harris is a Dutch new media consultant and writer.  Harris says that the Dutch Parliament's decision could raise the question of why other European nations and the U.S. continue to provide economic and military aid to Rwanda:

Colored Opinions Blogger/Writer/New Media Consultant Vincent Harris:  
In December the final decision concerning budget support, whether the Netherlands will resume budget support  to Rwanda, will be made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Kigali's reputation is at stake.  Once the Dutch government freezes budget support again, it's a strong signal to all European partners, and also to, for instance, the US and the UK  to explain why they think they should keep supporting this regime.

KPFA/Ann:
Harris says that Ingabire was a respectable, working, lawabiding, resident of the Netherlands, where her family still resides, for 16 years, before her return to Rwanda, and that church groups with significant influence are collecting petition signatures, to be addressed to the Dutch Parliament, asking the legislative body to lobby for her safety and human rights.

Harris reports that the Dutch Parliament has already asked its embassy staff to attend her trial as witnesses, though they do not believe that she can receive a fair trial in Rwanda.

For Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.

KPFA News on Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's October arrest

KPFA News, 10.16.2010:

Link to KPFA Radio News: http://goo.gl/hNc8.

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza arrested in Rwanda

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, leader of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi coalition of opposition parties. 

Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been arrested in Rwanda, according to members of her FDU-Inkingi Coalition of Rwandan political parties, who also report that authorities have taken her to an undisclosed location.

In a press release sent at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, FDU-Inkingi Executive Secretary Sylvain Sibomana wrote: “After a week of siege without any explanation whatsoever, the police has just drifted in the house and arrested Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Chair of FDU-Inkingi. She was taken immediately to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for unknown reasons. This arrest comes amid a climate of heavy political tension marked by wanton attacks against the democratic opposition.”

Read more at San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper, http://sfbayview.com/2010/rwandan-opposition-leader-victoire-ingabire-arrested/.

ICTR Lawyers: No International Justice for Congo

Human rights activists around the world have called for international justice and an end to impunity in the wake of the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but  defense lawyers for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda say that there is no reason to expect justice from an international criminal tribunal.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/298764#ixzz11zrvO6b3.

KPFA News: Protestors from 3 continents converge on NYC to protest Kagame at the UN

Audio link: http://goo.gl/mYYV.

Victoire Ingabire on the UN report on Congo genocide

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza spoke to Womens International News Gathering Service about "the Pucinella secret that so many knew but pretended not to know" in July 2010, a month before the UN confirmed it.

by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was widely considered the leading opposition candidate in this year’s presidential election, likely to win had the election been fair, but instead of being free to run, she was jailed briefly and is still not permitted to leave Kigali.

The U.N. report on human rights abuse, including genocide, in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been explosive in the international community, but it simply confirms what has long been a “Pucinella” secret that many knew but pretended not to know. So many atrocities were committed, some during broad daylight, in both Rwanda and Congo, during this time that they could not be concealed forever.

What happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the subject of the report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), was just a continuation of a pattern of atrocities that Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) committed after seizing power in Rwanda, encouraged by the silence and complacency of the international community.

Read more at San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper, http://sfbayview.com/2010/on-the-u-n-report-on-congo-genocide/.

KPFA News, 7.24.2010 on Kagame, Rwanda, Congo, and the Great Lakes Region of Africa

Voices of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Aimable Mugara, and Maurice Carney.

Voice of the Cape Drive Time/South Africa Interview on Rwanda, Congo, and AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command

On July 6th, I spoke to Shanaaz Ebrahim on Voice of the Cape Drive Time about Rwanda, eastern Congo, and AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, and why I, as an American, feel compelled to study, write, and speak out about this:






--Ann Garrison

Kagame tortures opposition, arrests Ingabire's Rwandan lawyer

Rwandan President Paul Kagame 

Rwandan opposition leaders Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Frank Habineza report ongoing torture of opposition party members arrested in Kigali on June 24th, 2010, as they attempted to protest exclusion from this year's presidential election.  Ingabire is the presidential candidate of Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party, Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.

Ingabire also reports that her new lawyer, Mr. Theogene Muhayeyezu, has been arrested, tortured, and detained incommunicado. Yesterday her former U.S. lawyer, Peter Erlinder, and his Kenyan lawyers Kennedy Ogeto and Otachi Gershom, addressed the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild, about the meaning of his three weeks incarceration in Rwanda after traveling there to defend Ingabire against charges of "genocide ideology," which he called "trumped up charges" and "thought crime." Rwanda's genocide ideology statutes ban disagreement with the official version of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, or, many say, disagreement with sitting President Paul Kagame.

Read more at Digital Journal, http://www.digitaljournal.com/user/515407/news.

Erlinder released as Kagame cracks down on his own

Rwandan Umuvugizi journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage was assassinated in Kigali Rwanda on June 24, 2010, after publishing a report that Rwandan President Paul Kagame had ordered the attempted assassination of General Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa.

As U.S. Law Professor Peter Erlinder was released, after three weeks incarceration in Rwanda, Kagame cracked down hard on his own.   Read at San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper, http://goo.gl/CSdo.

Rwanda: arrests, assassinations, and Pentagon intervention

Saturday, June 26th, 2010, memorial service for Rwandan journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage, assassinated in Kigali, Rwanda on Thursday, June 24th.

KPFA News on Rwanda and Africa, 06.26.2010: 

Peter Erlinder's release and Victoire Ingabire's appeal

U.S. Law Professor Peter Erlinder's lawyer Otachi Gershom and presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza left a Kigali, Rwanda courtroom, on Jun 17th, where a Rwandan judge had just handed down a decision to release Erlinder on medical grounds. 

On June 17, a Rwanda judge released U.S. Law Professor and international criminal defense attorney Peter Erlinder from a Rwandan Prison, on medical grounds.

Erlinder has been imprisoned since May 28th, several days after traveling to Rwanda to defend presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza against the same "genocide ideology" charges he now faces in Rwanda. Erlinder, however, will be allowed to return to the United States, unlike Ingabire, who remains under house arrest in Rwanda.

Ingabire appealed to the international community to stand, now, with Rwanda, as they have with Professor Peter Erlinder.

Read at Digital Journal:

Kagame releases Professor Erlinder on medical grounds

Ingabire's appeal: Stand with Rwanda, as with Professor Peter Erlinder

Ogetto warns of dangerous international legal precedent in Rwanda

Kenyan Lawyer Kennedy Ogetto with his client American Law Professor Peter Erlinder on June 14th, outside a Rwandan courtroom, where Erlinder appealed a Rwandan judge's decision denying him bail on June 7th.

Kennedy Ogetto, Kenyan lawyer and Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda warned that Rwanda's arrest of American Law Professor Peter Erlinder sets a very dangerous international legal precedent.

Ogetto, is now in Rwanda's capitol, Kigali, defending Erlinder, who was arrested on May 28th, for speech crime, in Rwanda. He said that the prosecution's use of statements Erlinder made as a defense lawyer at the ICTR as evidence against him will make it impossible for defense lawyers to safely defend anyone in international courts, and called on the international community to insist more adamantly on Erlinder's release.

Read/listen at Digital Journal, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/293386.