Activist pleads Leonard Peltier's case

Page 11

American Indian Leonard Peltier is a prisoner of the State, the Non-Governmental Organization Forum of the United Nations' World Conference on Human Rights was told.

"There has been 500 years of oppression," said Ben Carnes, national spokesman for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. "Peltier is one man, representing many people. The next 500 years, we will go on the offensive. We must regain our sovereignty."

American natives need to have a voice in the United Nations to celebrate the year, Carnes said, but he could not say what that voice should be.

"They must recognize us as a nation. But we won't get anything unless we fight for it. Being party to the UN would give us accessibility more power than what we can

do now. With a bit more, it would be better than nothing for the time being. Later, we will ask for more."

Carnes, 33, is a recognized advocate of religious rights for Native prisoners and an organizer for the American Indian Movement. The full blood of the Chahta Nation was at the conference to speak on Peltier's behalf during the Survivors of Government Violence workshop.

The U.S. Government denied that Peltier is a political prisoner," he said.

Peltier is currently serving two concurrent life sentences for the murder of federal agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, who were shot dead during a fire fight on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

Peltier first went to the reservation in 1975 with the American Indian Movement to protect the reservation's "full-bloods", those who supported traditional ways, from tribal council chairman Dick Wilson and his "goon" squads.

"They were basically death squads," Carnes said. "The traditionals asked AIM for help. They had nowhere else to turn. So AIM came."

AIM members Rob Robidau and Dino Butler were also tried for the murder of the two FBI agents but were found not guilty by reason of self-defense. Judge Fred McManus ruled any offensive actions taken by the two men were justified because a state of civil war had existed on the reservation for several years.

Peltier, who had fled to Canada, was extradited back to the U.S., and tried at a later date by a different judge, Carnes said. A new ruling on the possibility of a new trial for Peltier is expected some time this month in St. Paul, Minn.

"It's in the appeal court's hands now," said Carnes. "The Court of Appeals will ask the Supreme Court to make a ruling on either holding a hearing on Peltier's original trial by Judge Bensen or ordering a new trial for Peltier.