Attorney Ofelia Calderon Continues Six Year Fight to Stop Deportation to Death in Rwanda
Interview
Ofelia L. Calderon, attorney specializing in federal matters and removal cases, member of the Advisory Council of Legal Aid Justice Center, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and many other organizations.
Rwandan National, academic and lecturer Leopold Munyakazi, spent 5 years (1994-1999) in the Rwandan dungeons without being charged nor having a trial, before being released and traveling to the US in 2004. Muyakazi gave 2 speeches at American universities in 2006 arguing that the massacres in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 resulted from class conflict and were misidentified as genocide.
Munyakaziâs informed analysis presented in an academic setting prompted the Rwandan junta, which criminalizes all dissent, to quickly issue warrants for his arrest, renewing old claims that heâd participated in killings in 1994. Clearly it is his analysis that prompted the warrants and the U.S. government, which is Kagameâs closest ally, is putting due process at risk by uncritically accepting trumped up charges.
Audio and transcript of Ann Garrison interview on KPFA with Ofelia Calderon.