USA-Rwanda: Hillary Clinton publicly pleads for Peter Erlinder

By Fred Mwasa
African Great Lakes News Repository
June 15, 2010

Kigali: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has personally come out for the first time to urge Rwanda to release embattled American attorney Peter Erlinder – a day after the High Court received a parcel of medical documents directly from her, RNA reports.

Speaking at a foreign policy round-table on Africa at the State Department, Clinton was asked if she was concerned whether recent moves by the Rwandan government, including Erlinder’s arrest, indicate the country is backtracking on democracy. She answered that the U.S. has made its concerns known to Kigali.

“We really don’t want to see Rwanda undermine its own remarkable progress by beginning to move away from a lot of the very positive actions that undergirded its development so effectively,” Clinton said Monday.

Mrs. Clinton said she understood “the anxiety of the Rwandan leadership over what they view as genocide denial or genocide rejectionism.”

“But I think there are ways of dealing with that legitimate concern other than politically acting against opposition figures or lawyers and others,” she said, according to transcripts of the event.

On Monday, Erlinder’s defence team handed the High Court judge documents, forwarded by Secretary Clinton, from three American medical clinics outlining his health conditions and recommending he return to the United States for medical monitoring.

However, prosecuting attorney Jean Bosco Mutangana dismissed the parcel as irrelevant since the Rwandan embassy in the US was not involved. He suggested the documents could be forged.

Presiding High Court Judge Johnson Busingye said he will rule Thursday on whether Erlinder should be freed on bail for health reasons.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued a diplomatic note to the Rwanda Foreign Ministry and case prosecutors Tuesday, requesting Erlinder’s immediate release, according to The Associated Press.

The note said Erlinder enjoys immunity because it appears the allegations against him stem partly from his statements before the tribunal, said AP.

The head of the Tanzania-based tribunal, Presiding Judge Dennis Byron, is to deliver a progress report to the Security Council on Friday.

Erlinder revealed to Judge Busingye that he had indeed tried to kill himself, as he has struggled with depression for 25 years and has felt suicidal before.

“Your honor, I lost all hope to live,” said Erlinder, who appeared in court clad in a pink jail smock and shorts and sporting a freshly-buzzed head and beard. “When I was in the detention facility not knowing what was going to happen, not being able to talk to lawyers, family, not knowing if I was going to live or die, I had a breakdown,” he said.

But his family is not convinced. Erlinder’s daughter, Sarah Erlinder, said her father’s statements may have been part of a strategy to put his psychological concerns before the court.

The U.S. embassy in Kigali is bringing Peter Erlinder meals in the Kigali Central Prison at the family’s expense. His daughter told AP they want to make sure his food is safe and remove his stress over concerns it might be poisoned.

Peter Erlinder’s wife, Masako Usui, of St. Paul, is in New York this week to meet with U.N. Security Council members. Usui had appointments with Austrian and British diplomats Tuesday and was trying to set up others, said the family.

At Monday’s hearing, Erlinder also alluded to a connection with the Obama family, saying that he was once First Lady Michelle Obama’s “garbage man.” Erlinder’s family says it appears to be a reference to his early days working at his father’s truck hauling business on the South Side of Chicago, according to the Star Tribune.

Erlinder specifically appealed to the White House through his reference to family connection to Michelle Obama in Chicago.

“I would hope my neighbors on the South Side of Chicago would remember the garbage man,” Erlinder told Judge Busingye, “and help explain to the Rwandan government that my prosecution is not doing the Rwandan government any good.”