I know it is hard to believe that Fox News has somehow confused the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda with the presidential elections in Rwanda, but somehow they have.
Meanwhile, Lawyers defending suspects at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda told the Guardian they fear for their safety, after a high profile defense lawyer remained in police custody. Experts say the incident undermines negotiations surrounding the international criminal court, under way in Kampala. "How can international criminal courts operate effectively if defense lawyers are at risk of being arrested for what they say on behalf of their clients?" said Amanda Pinto QC, Bar Council representative at the International Criminal Bar. "This affects all defense lawyers at the ICTR, but the issues are potentially the same for defense counsel
anywhere in the international forum."
The following is from The SF Bay View.
Fox News Confuses Rwanda's Presidential Election with the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda
by Ann GarrisonRwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is the client that Law Professor Peter Erlinder came to Rwanda to defend before his own arrest. Fox News reached new extremes of irresponsibility today by reporting that Professor Peter Erlinder is in Kigali, Rwanda, to defend “the alleged perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.” Professor Erlinder is in Rwanda to defend opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza against charges of genocide ideology, a speech crime unique to Rwanda which means challenging the received history of the Rwanda Genocide, a crime he himself was arrested for within days after arriving in Rwanda to defend Ingabire.
Fox News, in its own words:
“Erlinder, who has not spoken to friends or family since being detained, was in Rwanda defending alleged leaders of the country’s 1994 genocide, but Friday the judge charged him with denying genocide and with publishing articles threatening the country’s security” (emphasis added).
Fox seems to be confusing Rwanda’s 2010 presidential election, which his client, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, keeps trying to enter as an opposition candidate, with the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, where Erlinder has served as lead defense counsel for several of the accused.
Professor Erlinder’s evidence, the Rwanda Documents Project, gathered during his years of work as a defender at the ICTR, is the basis of his argument that the received history of the Rwanda Genocide is history written by the victors, as he said here, at the Second International Defense Lawyer’s Conference in Brussels, just before flying to Kigali to defend Ingabire.
San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Digital Journal, Examiner.com, OpEdNews, Global Research, Colored Opinions and her blog, Plutocracy Now. She can be reached at anniegarrison@gmail.com. This story originally appeared on Plutocracy Now.
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Human Rights groups are showing concern about brutality and bullying in the lead up to the pole but Salim Ahmed Salim, the chairman of the Commonwealth Observation Group praised the transparency of the elections. “Elections in Rwanda were conducted in a peaceful atmosphere,” Salim said. “The count in the polling stations was transparent and conducted fairly.”
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