After a week of deafening silence, the US State Department finally condemned Rwanda for the unlawful detention of an American lawyer, Professor Peter Erlinder. In a press briefing on Thursday June 3, 2010, Assistant Secretary of State and  State Department spokesman Peter J. Crowley told reporters that the US Government is doing whatever it can to secure the release of the American lawyer.

"We want to be sure that he is accorded all of his rights... We are pressing the Rwandan government to resolve this case quickly and would like to see him released on compassionate grounds."

On Wednesday, Crowley had also faced questions by the press on the case that has raised widespread condemnation in the US and around the World.  He had following exchange with the press:

QUESTION: Do you have any update on the status of this American lawyer who was arrested in Rwanda? There are some reports that he tried to kill himself in prison this morning.

MR. CROWLEY: I can’t say.

QUESTION: And apparently, his wife or his family is trying to – is seeking a meeting here at the State Department.

MR. CROWLEY: All I can tell you is that we have visited and spoken with Peter Erlinder. He was taken to the hospital this morning and remained there overnight for observation. His U.S. and Rwandan attorneys have had access to him and we expect that due process will be accorded by the Rwandans in a timely and transparent way.

QUESTION: Do you know why he was taken to the hospital?

MR. CROWLEY: I do not.

Peter Erlinder's family had complained of the lack of determination of the US State Department in pressing for the release of the lawyer and had sought the help of Minnesota Congressmen and US Statement Department officials.

The Government of Rwanda, which survives yearly mostly on millions of US Tax dollars in aid  has been repressive towards its citizens for more than a decade. Recently,  ahead of August 2010 presidential elections, it has cracked down on the the opposition, Hutu ethnic majority and dissenters from ethnic Tutsi minority and started to target foreigners, accusing them of trumpeted up and vague crimes.  

Erlinder is a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota and leads a group of defense lawyers at the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.  He was in Rwanda as a defense counsel of an opposition candidate.

According to sources in Rwanda, he was detained in squalid conditions in a cell along with 6 or 8 violent criminals and undercover Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) agents who threatened his life. To get out of  the detention cell, Peter Erlinder allegedly swallowed an overdose of pills used for the treatment of hypertension. He was taken to the hospital, hence escaping for the time being an apparent attempt on his life.

© June 2010, AfroAmerica Network

[Photo: Sarah Erlinder, daughter of Peter Erlinder ans Masako Usui, wife at the National Press Club]