Peltier: Write to General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann

Forwarded on behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee

If you haven't written to the parole commission yet, please do so before the July 14 deadline (address below). For those of you that have written, also please write to General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann and ask for his personal support and that of the UN General Assembly. D'Escoto is an activistt priest and former Foreign Minister in the Sandinista goverrnment, which was victimized by a U.S.-backed covert war in the 1980s. In all likelihood, he has some familiarity with the case and is a probable supporter. Let's bring Leonard's case before the world!

United Nations General Assembly
(212) 963 2486,
fax (212) 963 3301
email form: http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/contactus.asp

Dear President Miguel d'Escoto Brockman,

With all due respect for your courageous efforts to restore democracy in Honduras, we plead with you for your support and attention to the urgent matter of indigenous U.S. political prisoner Leonard Peltier, who is in poor health, was recently assaulted, and is up for possible release this month after serving more than three decades in federal prisons. We urgently request your public support for Mr. Peltier's release as he goes before the U.S. Parole Commission on July 28.

Peltier, America’s most prominent political prisoner and a symbol of indigenous resistance, is up for parole this month. Having served more than 33 years in federal prisons, he is subject to mandatory Parole Commission regulations stipulating that federal prisoners are presumed eligible for parole after 30 years, at least in the absence of severe prison infractions or threats to reoffend.

Of course, as anyone who has followed the case can testify, Peltier has no assurances that the federal government will comply with its own laws.

A member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), Peltier was wrongfully convicted in 1977 in connection with the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in a shootout at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. During the 1970s, the FBI armed and trained BIA police and death squads known as GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) to suppress an internal movement supported by AIM against a U.S.-backed dictatorship.

For 33 years, Peltier has languished in prison, despite revelations of coerced testimonies, fabricated and suppressed evidence, and federal officials’ statements that it is not known who fired the shots, nor what role Peltier may have played. Peltier is now 64 and suffers from diabetes.

Despite multiple attempts on his life and a recent assault in prison, Peltier has carried on the struggle for Native rights, for his own freedom, and for an end to racist oppression and repression at the hands of successive U.S. administrations. The only threat Peltier’s release poses is that he will remain a vocal advocate for Native rights, as well as an eloquent spokesman for political prisoners and others victimized by the criminal justice system, especially Native inmates.

If possible, we would greatly appreciate your support for bringing this issue to the consideration of the United Nations General Assembly on or before the July 28 Parole Commission hearing date.

Thank you,


Betty Solano-Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
701-235-2206

Please write

United States Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Blvd., Ste. 420
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286
Re: LEONARD PELTIER #89637-132