Report from LPSG San Francisco, California

Today, February 6th, in San Francisco as well as internationally, people gathered to protest the illegal incarceration of Leonard Peltier. Despite the pouring rain, seventy-five people attended today’s demonstration which was opened by a prayer and the Leonard Peltier song.  The feeling of today’s event was one of solidarity and inspiration as the importance of networking and cooperation was stressed by the groups and individuals who attended.  The October 22 coalition to stop police brutality, the U.S. Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru, Food Not Bombs, Save Ward Valley,The National Peoples’ Campaign, and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee all stressed their solidarity with Leonard Peltier. This solidarity reflects what Leonard Peltier stands for and always has.

Also stressed was the importance of  the Jericho march in Washington DC on March 27,1998 to support all political prisoners. We were able to raise $275 in donations which is much needed to keep the LPDC office running.  This office is the life-line for Leonard’s struggle because it is located in Lawrence, Kansas which is near Leavenworth Prison where he is incarcerated.  Through this office, committee members and Leonard are
able to communicate what is happening both politically and technically with his case.

We also collected 60 letters to President Clinton requesting executive clemency for Leonard Peliter. We are asking for more of these letters to be sent to LPDC to be later dropped off at White House on June 27th 1998.

Leonard Peltier Support Group/
San Francisco

Gina Chiala

Article appeared in the Belgian daily national newspaper„De Morgen“ of Saturday,
7 Feb. 1998 Translation by KOLA (original article is in Dutch)
 

WORLDWIDE ACTION TO FREE LEONARD PELTIER
by Karl vanden Broeck
© De Morgen; 7 Feb. 1998
 
Indian Activist Has Been Imprisoned For 22 Years For A Crime He Did Not Commit.

Brussels---- Yesterday, all throughout the world actions were organized to encourage the American president Bill Clinton to grant executive clemency to Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist who has been imprisoned for 22 years."Unjustly so", say tens of action committees and they are supported by the European as well as the Belgian Parliament, who in the past have asked to release Peltier. During a media-trumpeted trial in the U.S.A., it was discovered that the F.B.I. had fabricated false evidence in an effort to frame Peltier for the death of two of their agents. Despite this discovery,Peltier remained in jail.
In Belgium, KOLA, the Leonard Peltier Support Group, and For Mother Earth had organized a sit-in demonstration in front of the American Embassy. Member of the House of Representatives, Lode Vanoost (green party Agalev) had a meeting withthe human rights officer of the embassy.

[KOLA note: in fact, I had asked for this meeting. MP Lode Vanoost, Danielle Vounckx of For Mother Earth, and Elsie Herten, KOLA & LPSG Belgium had a 45-minute meeting
with the U.S. Counselor for Political Affairs, Robyn Hinson- Jones, and the Embassy's 2nd Secretary, Lynne P. Skeirik.
See more about this meeting below.|

In France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and the U.S. - even at USP Leavenworth where Peltier is incarcerated - actions were held such as sit-ins,
demonstrations, poetry happenings, and fax campaigns.
Yesterday it was exactly 22 years ago, that Peltier was arrested in Canada (on 6 February 1976).  He was sentenced to two times life because he allegedly killed two FBI agents during a firefight in June 1975. At that time, the FBI had trespassed onto the sovereign OglalaLakota Nation, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to arrest a young Oglala who had allegedly stolen a pair of cowboy boots.  Later it was discovcered that this warrant of arrest did not exist and that the theft most likely never happened.  But the FBI opened fire on a tent camp erected by the American Indian Movement (AIM), of which Peltier is a member.  This organization was under surveillance of the FBI and CIA ever since the occupation of the the village of Wounded Knee in 1973.

When Peltier had spent four year in prison, masses of documents were released due to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, clearly proving that Peltier had become the victim of the FBI's Cointelpro program. During the numerous civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s and '70s, the FBI created Cointelpro, or Counter Intelligence Program, in an attempt to destroy all organizations which the US government, the FBI, or the CIA considered to be political or social "dissidents". The techniques used by the FBI included infiltration, intimidation, psychological warfare, and provocing violence between these organizations and law enforcement agencies. It is generally accepted that not only American Indian activists such as Peltier, but also quite some Black Panther Party
members and Dr. Martin Luther King became the victims of Cointelpro.

During a media-trumpeted trial it was proven that the arguments against Peltier cut no ice. The ballistic report, for example,clearly proved that the deadly bullets were not fired with Peltier's gun. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the FBI had clearly violated the investigative process. But still Peltier's appeal was denied on technical grounds. Judge Gerald Heaney, a judge who sat on both appeals, later asked the American President to grant Peltier executive clemency.

And that isn't all yet. Peltier - sometimes called the Indian Nelson Mandela - has received support from all corners ofthe world.  In 1994, the European Parliament adopted aresolution asking president Clinton to grant Peltier executive clemency.  It also urged for an investigation into the misconduct of the FBI.  In 1997, the Belgian Parliament adopted a similar resolution.
In 1995, Leonard Peltier himself filed for executive clemency. His file is still under consideration with the U.S. Attorney General, Janet Reno, who has to give her recommendations to president Clinton.  And that still hasn't happened today.
----end article----

KOLA Note:
Yesterday, twenty activists staged a sit-in in front of the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, capital of Europe.  They were representatives of KOLA, LPSG Belgium, For Mother Earth and KWIA. They blocked traffic for 2 hours, continuously shouting for executive clemency to the beat of a drum, given to them by Long Soldier, an Oglala presently incarcerated in MonroePrison, Washington.  One KOLA activist, Patricia Van Leuven, dressed in a striped prison outfit, was locked into a small cage. The cage was provided by GAIA, a Belgian animal rights organization, who by doing so offered logistic support to the action, and moral support to LeonardPeltier. The delegation inside the Embassy, provided Mrs. Hinson-Jones and Ms. Lynne Skeirik with copies of the FBI documents released under the FOIA lawsuit.  MP Vanoost read a short statement from the Belgian Parliament and presented a second  copy of the 1997 resolution.  Ms. Elsie Herten, director of LPSG  Belgium, said that the U.S. government showed quite unpolite behavior - to say the least - because it never bothered to reply to the Belgian Parliament.  Mrs. Hinson-Jones promised to look into this and to get back with MP Vanoost.  Both Embassy officers took extensive notes, had checked the many Peltier pages on Internet, and took letters from Belgian Peltier supporters which are now on their way to the Oval Office. All during the meeting, a giant picture of Leonard Peltier in his Leavenworth cell, was in the middle of the conference table.  Mrs. Hinson-Jones asked if she could keep the picture. A silent fan???
Ms. Herten and Ms. Danielle Vounckx (For Mother Earth) were also invited to provide the Embassy personnel with copies of Robert Redford's documentary "Incident at Oglala".
It was the first time KOLA and FME activists were allowed into a conference room at the Embassy. It was also thevery first time that Embassy officers representing the U.S. State Department, were well-informed, pronounced Peltier's name at several occasion (something they never did in the past), and did not object us using the term "political prisoner". We also briefly mentioned the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Fernando Eros Caro, and the forced relocation of the Dineh  elders at Big Mountain, AZ. MP Vanoost
expressed his concern about the treatment of Indigenous people in the United States and asked for a healing  period to commence.
We also mentioned the commemoration of Wounded Knee 1973, and again Mrs. Hinson-Jones seemed very interested, and asked to be kept updated. Outside, the twenty activists continued their shouting and drumming, which attracted quite some attention from the media.  The demonstration was covered by the RTL news crew (Luxembourg television); Radio 21 (national radio); the daily national newspapers De Morgen, De Standaard, Het Nieuwsblad,  and Het Volk (all four also sold in the Netherlands). Simultaneously with the demonstration in Belgium, Long Soldier and the Native Spiritual Circle at Monroe prison, WA, held a sacred Sweat Lodge ceremony in solidarity with Leonard Peltier.  These prisoners had also sent KOLA a medicine pouch to be placed near a tree during the Peltier sit-in.
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KOLA (International Campaign Office)
Van Boeckel St. 20
B-1140 Brussels
Belgium
Tel&Fax +32-2-241-8322
Email : kolahq@skynet.be
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