Christian Science Monitor: Rwanda takes a strict line on genocide denial. The US should support that.

Arrogance, ignorance, and indifference to African victims of genocide have long been hallmarks of Western treatment of Rwanda. The US government should take care not to perpetuate this unfortunate tradition in the run-up to Rwanda’s presidential election in August and fan ethnic tensions in Rwanda. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton admonished the Rwandan government on June 14 for its legal prosecution of “opposition figures” and “lawyers,” which she called political actions that should be reversed. Whoever drafted and vetted the secretary’s comments did her, and Rwanda, a disservice.

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Harvard Law Record: Not up for debate: Rwanda cannot excuse Peter Erlinder's genocide denial

On June 20, 1994, the BBC’s Marc Doyle sent a stern memo to his London-based editors. Writing from the streets of Rwanda, where defenseless men, women, and children were being slaughtered at the rate of 10,000 a day; the journalist cautioned that “It is a very serious misrepresentation of the situation in Rwanda to describe the killings simply as 'the slaughter of civilians' or 'the mass killings,' without explaining who is killing whom […T]he government militia and the government armed forces are responsible for the bodies being found in mass graves in Rwanda and floating in rivers.”

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Guardian letters: Genocide law on trial

Peter Erlinder, the US defence lawyer at the international court for Rwanda (ICTR), was arrested for breaking the law on genocide denial in Rwanda. This is not a matter of "repression" of freedom of expression by the government in Kigali (Rwanda genocide tribunal under threat after US lawyer's detention, 9 June). Mr Erlinder has made clear in speeches defending key genocide perpetrators at the ICTR, and at conference events such as that held in Belgium two weeks ago which welcomed wanted Rwandan genocide suspects alongside him as speakers, that he believes there was no organised genocide in 1994.

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STATEMENT ON THE ARREST OF C. PETER ERLINDER

US Attorney, C. Peter Erlinder, claiming to be a lawyer representing Victoire Ingabire, entered Rwanda on 27 May 2010, and was arrested by authorities under the country´s genocide ideology laws the following day, on 28 May. Ingabire stands accused of having ties to FDLR, a UN-listed terrorist group that advocates the resumption of the Rwandan genocide that was brought to an end in 1994. According to Rwanda´s Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, "Mr. Erlinder´s unapologetic violation of these laws is self-evident. He has continually engaged in conspiracy theories and denial surrounding the circumstances of the genocide. He has promulgated this dangerous and distorted fiction over many years. Entering Rwanda was a brazen act of provocation, since Erlinder must clearly understand he is in breach of the laws of our country."

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