[GPCA Updates] RELEASE - Minnesota Greens condemn Rwanda's arrest of Minn. attorney Peter Erlinder

[Green Party of California Updates]

Distributed by the Green Party of the United States (http://www.gp.org). See
also a statement issued by the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda on the arrests
(http://rwandagreendemocrats.org/spip.php?article65).

Green Party of Minnesota
http://www.mngreens.org

For immediate release
Friday, June 4, 2010



Green Party Condemns Rwanda's Arrest of Minnesota Attorney Peter Erlinder


The Green Party of Minnesota joins human rights advocates and people of good
will across the world to call on the U.S. government, the United Nations, and
non-governmental organizations to prevail upon Rwanda to release Peter
Erlinder immediately. We applaud his defense of the human and civil rights of
Rwanda presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire, who was charged in April,
2010, with the same crime of which Erlinder is accused -- genocide denial.

Ingabire's party, the United Democratic Front (FDU), works closely with the
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, within the Consultative Council of
Opposition Parties. Both parties have suffered governmental persecution and
severe limitations on their ability to organize.

Rwandan president Paul Kagame seeks to silence Erlinder's efforts to expose
the facts surrounding the 1994 Rwandan genocide
(http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net). His arrest was politically motivated
and effectively punishes him for fulfilling his responsibilities as a vigorous
and conscientious legal advocate for his client. "For decades Professor
Erlinder has sought justice for his clients in the face of political
repression," says Gena Berglund, Associate Director, International
Humanitarian Law Institute of Minnesota and a member of the Green Party. "I am
very skeptical of a government that locks up lawyers for speech crimes."

Peter Erlinder is a professor of law at William Mitchell College in St. Paul.
In addition to his position as executive director of the Humanitarian Law
Institute of Minnesota, he is Lead Counsel for the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, past president of the
National Lawyers Guild, and a practicing attorney. In an email sent to
Berglund shortly before his arrest he wrote: "Victoire Ingabire, Rwandan
Presidential Candidate, is like Mandela and I am very honored to be defending
her."

"Rwanda remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance in
Africa," says Berglund. "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."


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