Sep 26, 2006Articles: Gay Protest At Ugandan Embassy in London
By VZ
(London) Two dozen people demonstrated in front of the Ugandan High Commission in London on Monday to protest at the persecution gays and lesbians in the African nation. Uganda outlaws male homosexuality, under laws originally imposed by the British colonizers in the nineteenth century. Offenders can face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Lesbians and gays are subjected to vigilante violence by homophobic mobs, especially in rural areas where most of the population live. Civil rights groups, including Amnesty International, have been critical of the Ugandan government for allowing the abuses to go on.
(London) Two dozen people demonstrated in front of the Ugandan High Commission in London on Monday to protest at the persecution gays and lesbians in the African nation. Uganda outlaws male homosexuality, under laws originally imposed by the British colonizers in the nineteenth century. Offenders can face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Lesbians and gays are subjected to vigilante violence by homophobic mobs, especially in rural areas where most of the population live. Civil rights groups, including Amnesty International, have been critical of the Ugandan government for allowing the abuses to go on.
President Museveni has ignored the growing international outcry and has urged police to hunt down and arrest gays and lesbians.
In August Amnesty released a report saying that people named as gay by a Ugandan magazine, the Red Pepper, suffered harassment and were ostracized by colleagues and families. The publication is owned by Museveni's half-brother. Some 52 people have been named by the Red Pepper.
The government has banned same-sex marriage and has threatened to arrest any gay Ugandans who go outside the country to marry.
State-funded HIV campaigns stress abstinence and ignore gay and bisexual men. The government refuses to promote safer sex and condoms to same-sex partners and expelled the director of the UN AIDS agency after he met with gays in the capital.
Monday's protest included members of the National Union of Students LGBT campaign and gay rights group Outrage.
"Uganda is the new Zimbabwe. President Yoweri Museveni is the Robert Mugabe of Uganda - a homophobic tyrant who tramples on democracy and human rights," said Outrage leader Peter Tatchell of OutRage.
The group handed in a letter to the Ugandan High Commissioner, urging respect for the human rights of LGBT Ugandans
"We handed a letter of protest to the Ugandan High Commissioner calling on his government to respect the provisions enshrined in the Ugandan constitution giving citizens rights to equality and freedom, and to respect the clauses of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) monitored by the UN, which allow the right to privacy, free from discrimination," said, Claire Anderson of the National Union of Students.
The group, however, conceded it was likely the protest letter would have any effect on the government.
