Truth To Tell (2010-07-05)
Still recovering from three weeks in a Kigali, Rwanda, prison, attorney Peter Erlinder has been on a whirlwind series of public appearances speaking out less about his prison misery than on the politics behind his arrest and chares of denying genocide, a crime under current Rwandan law within the regime of Tutsi President Paul Kagami. Erlinder is out on bail for medical and humanitarian reasons and will undergo checks for excessive blood pressure and other ailments in Rochester’s Mayo Clinic sometime in the coming week.
Assisting Erlinder’s release were his two Kenyan lawyers, Kennedy Ogetto and Gershom Otachi. The conversation actually challenges some of Peter Erlinder’s assumptions about the role of the US in African development and the current administrations support for the Kigali regime.
Generally, TruthToTell focuses its coverages on local issues, but occasionally examines national and international matters when they have a local impact or key individual engaged. Erlinder is such an animal and his duress in the Rwandan capital makes his issues our issues.
• PETER ERLINDER – Attorney; Professor of Constitutional Law, Wm. Mitchell College of Law; President of Defence Attorneys association within the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
• TOM O’CONNELL – Professor of Political Science, Metropolitan State University