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Nathan GoettingCall for theRwandan Governmentto Drop Charges AgainstProf. C. Peter ErlinderIn an obvious act of political repression, on May 28, 2010 past GuildPresident Prof. C. Peter Erlinder was arrested by the government of Rwanda,a long-troubled nation that in 1994 was ravaged by monstrous acts of ethnicgenocide by Hutus against Tutsis and dissenting fellow Hutus. Its currentpresident, Paul Kagame, a U.S.–trained soldier and leader of the RwandesePatriotic Front, a Tutsi-led guerrilla fighting force during the genocide thathas since come to dominate the nation’s government, has been accused byesteemed international groups such as Human Rights Watch of serious actsof illegal state violence, including the pre-trial murder of crime suspects. 3The U.S. State Department has criticized Kagame’s “strong presidency,” 4 aswell, acknowledging in its annual 2009 Human Rights Report that “securityforces arrested and detained persons arbitrarily and without due process.” 5Professor Erlinder is the attorney for Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, a humanrights advocate and reformer who lived in The Netherlands during the genocideand is now competing for the presidency against Kagame. Ms. Umuhozahas been arrested for violating the “genocide ideology law,” a speech crimeadopted by the Rwandan parliament in 2008 that is being used as a pretext forsilencing government critics. For representing Ms. Umuhoza and challengingthe Rwandan government with his activism and in print, Mr. Erlinder, too,has been charged with violating this law. Internal Rwandan politics aside,the National Lawyers Guild opposes attempts by any nation to discouragefree and spirited political speech and believes that every person charged witha crime is entitled to a vigorous defense. That vigor should never be chilledby prosecuting attorneys merely for expressing themselves and working toensure that due process of law is afforded their clients. The time has cometo end this vicious and pathetic tactic, indelibly written in the handbook ofscared and bullying regimes. Our thoughts and, more importantly, our actionsare united in support for Prof. Erlinder.____________NOTES1. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, Rwanda: Police Killings Tarnish Rule of Law(July 24, 2007), at http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/23/rwanda16455.htm.2. U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2009 Human Rights Report:Rwanda (Mar. 11, 2010), at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/af/135971.htm.3. Id.