Defense lawyers condemn assassination of ICTR lawyer Mwaikusa
by Ann Garrison
Professor Mwaikusa had recently prevented the transfer of ICTR defendants to Rwanda on “lack of fair trial” grounds and announced the appeal of his client, Yusuf Munyakazi’s July 3 conviction.
They said that the murder was not an isolated incident, that within the past month:
1) a prominent Rwandan opposition journalist, Jean Leonard Rugambage, had been shot to death in front of his home in Kigali, Rwanda;
2) a former Rwandan general survived an apparent assassination attempt in South Africa, where he is seeking asylum;
4) the Rwanda Green Party’s president has been publicly threatened with assassination;
5) hundreds of Rwanda’s potential opposition supporters have been arrested or disappeared;
6) Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire was arrested on “genocide denial” charges for suggesting that both Tutsi and Hutu were victims during the 1990-94 civil war and genocide, as were her Dutch, U.S. and Rwandan lawyers.
They also said that Professor Mwaikusa’s assassination follows the illegal arrest of other lawyers representing alleged opponents of the Rwandan government and that the Rwandan government continues to refuse to recognize U.N.-granted immunity for ICTR defense lawyers.
ICTR defense lawyer Peter Robinson, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, has notified the court that meaningful defense of ICTR clients is not possible and has asked to withdraw. Other ICTR defense attorneys are considering similar measures.
I spoke to ICTR lawyer and William Mitchell Law Professor Peter Erlinder on the phone from his home in Minneapolis-St. Paul:
Ann Garrison: Who was Professor Mwaikusa?
Peter Erlinder: Professor Mwaikusa was the lawyer for Yusuf Munyakazi, one of the defendant detainees that Rwanda was trying to have transferred from the ICTR to Rwanda. The Rwandan government has been regularly filing documents at the ICTR trying to transfer the cases of the defendant detainees at the ICTR to Rwanda. And the ICTR and the human rights world has said no, that they’re not going to get fair trials there. There was a big legal battle, with Professor Mwaikusa arguing against the transfer, about a year ago and he won.
But the situation now is that the lawyers at the ICTR have legitimate reason to be fearful of being in Africa – anywhere in Africa, especially East Africa.
Ann Garrison: Because they might be arrested, maybe arrested and extradited or assassinated?
Peter Erlinder: Professor Mwaikusa’s assassination in Tanzania after my arrest in Rwanda, then the arrest of Ingabire’s Rwandan lawyer and a previous arrest of a Rwandan lawyer at the Tribunal – it’s really creating a problem for defense lawyers trying to continue to do their work at the ICTR and it’s probably going to have to result in the ICTR stopping. It’s probably at that point now. I think that’s likely to happen in the next four or five days. Probably by Monday we’ll know a lot more.
Ann Garrison: And what does that mean?
Peter Erlinder: It means that the Security Council Tribunal is not functioning. It means that the legitimacy of the prosecution of the guys who lost the war [Rwandan Civil War, 1990-1994] is diminishing. It means that the legitimacy of the guys who won the war is diminishing.
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 first appeared in Digital Journal.
KPFA News for Sunday, July 18
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Oh Please
This is gating very ugly and personal! What kind of journalism is this one? Oh I Think tomorrow you will write that Berlusconi was biten by RPF in Italy, Ugandan General Kazini was killed by RPF in Kampala Luck Dube was Killed by RPF in Johannesburg, Eugene Tereblanche was assassinated by RPF in Pretoria and so many on your fake list??????????????? What A journalism of activism, hatred and negative propaganda.
Ms Ann Garrison! Whoever is paying you to write such bursheet is making you look very ridiculous and unprofessional in the eye of the very many Rwandan and international Honest citizen who knows the truth about Rwanda, because they leave they every day life there unless you who seat in the other side of the sea and write whatever can earn you the bloody bread even if it is helping to destroy a country that is recovering from the world worst calamity. What did you do to make it recover? Oh the media you talked however stopped what? Lost how relatives, endured which kind of trauma? Is that Rwanda, your bosses , and those vultures of lawyers wish to see? Good luck because you need one. go to http://www.mykagame.org and see the real image of Rwanda that you love to tarnish.
Give your sound of story, it sounds like you know better! who killed them Mr colombo?
Mr Eric, if this is your real name, I assume you find a problem when RPF is uncovered in its criminal activities. Coming out insulting any one who points to the evidence of your government's crimes does not erase them from being what they are. Maybe you are against this journalist because she is a foreigner and you want to conceal the truth and let everybody believes in the lies RPF spread around. But this has come to an end. Even Paul Kagame himself is acknowledging that nobody is swallowing his lies (truth). The reason is because RPF has so much lived lieing that even when it will be telling the truth, nobody will believe it.
Good luck with your lies about the real Rwanda. The real Rwanda is discriminated against in its every aspect of life. It lives in prisons, has been deprived of its properties, does not access employment or education, is absent from military hierarchy which is dominated by your tribe I presume. The real Rwanda Kagame has denied it a future. That's the real Rwanda, which once uncovered makes you feel insulted because you are in denial of its existence though it is in front of you to see.