Uganda president signs anti-gay laws
Yoweri Museveni defies US warning
and signs law toughening already strict legislation against homosexuals
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Yoweri Museveni defies US warning and signs bill toughening already strict legislation against homosexuals
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has signed off a bill introducing anti-gay laws. Photograph: Carl Court/AP
Uganda's
president has signed a controversial anti-gay bill that has harsh
penalties for homosexual sex, saying the bill is necessary because
"arrogant and careless western groups" had tried to "recruit" Ugandan
children into homosexuality.
President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill at his official residence in an event witnessed by government officials, journalists and a team of Ugandan scientists. The scientists had produced a report saying there was no genetic basis for homosexuality – something cited by Museveni as his reason for backing the bill.
"We Africans never seek to impose our view on others. If only they could let us alone," he said, talking of western pressure not to sign.
Government officials applauded after he signed the bill, which was influenced by the preachings of some conservative American evangelicals. In its original form the legislation called for the death penalty for some homosexual acts. That was removed after an international outcry.
The new law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for a category of offences called "aggravated homosexuality," defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
The bill is popular in Uganda, but international rights groups have condemned it as draconian in a country where homosexuality is already criminalised. Some European countries threatened to cut aid to Uganda if the measure was enacted, and the US president, Barack Obama, warned that signing the bill would "complicate" the country's relationship with Washington.
Museveni said he had previously thought homosexuality was merely "abnormal" sexual behaviour that some people were born with and this was why he once was opposed to harsh penalties against gay people. Now, he said, he was convinced that it was a choice made by individuals who might try to influence others. Africans are "flabbergasted" by homosexual behaviour, he said.
The bill was introduced in 2009 by an MP with the ruling party who said it was necessary to deter western homosexuals from "recruiting" Ugandan children. Ugandan activists challenged this account, saying the country's political and religious leaders were influenced by conservative US evangelicals who spread their anti-gay agenda in Africa.
Pepe Julian Onziema, a prominent Ugandan gay activist, said he was disappointed that Museveni signed the bill without taking time to talk to the people targeted by the law.
"The president is making this decision because he has never met an openly gay person. That disappoints me," he said.
Some in Uganda's gay community had repeatedly tried and failed to meet Museveni, he said.
The president, whose popularity has been fading amid criticism that he wants to rule for life, has faced pressure from the ruling party to sign the measure.
Some critics believe he has signed in hopes of galvanising political support within his party, the National Resistance Movement, before a meeting that is expected to endorse him as its sole choice in the next presidential election in 2016, when he will have been in power for 30 years.
Copy http://www.theguardian.comPresident Yoweri Museveni signed the bill at his official residence in an event witnessed by government officials, journalists and a team of Ugandan scientists. The scientists had produced a report saying there was no genetic basis for homosexuality – something cited by Museveni as his reason for backing the bill.
"We Africans never seek to impose our view on others. If only they could let us alone," he said, talking of western pressure not to sign.
Government officials applauded after he signed the bill, which was influenced by the preachings of some conservative American evangelicals. In its original form the legislation called for the death penalty for some homosexual acts. That was removed after an international outcry.
The new law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for a category of offences called "aggravated homosexuality," defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
The bill is popular in Uganda, but international rights groups have condemned it as draconian in a country where homosexuality is already criminalised. Some European countries threatened to cut aid to Uganda if the measure was enacted, and the US president, Barack Obama, warned that signing the bill would "complicate" the country's relationship with Washington.
Museveni said he had previously thought homosexuality was merely "abnormal" sexual behaviour that some people were born with and this was why he once was opposed to harsh penalties against gay people. Now, he said, he was convinced that it was a choice made by individuals who might try to influence others. Africans are "flabbergasted" by homosexual behaviour, he said.
The bill was introduced in 2009 by an MP with the ruling party who said it was necessary to deter western homosexuals from "recruiting" Ugandan children. Ugandan activists challenged this account, saying the country's political and religious leaders were influenced by conservative US evangelicals who spread their anti-gay agenda in Africa.
Pepe Julian Onziema, a prominent Ugandan gay activist, said he was disappointed that Museveni signed the bill without taking time to talk to the people targeted by the law.
"The president is making this decision because he has never met an openly gay person. That disappoints me," he said.
Some in Uganda's gay community had repeatedly tried and failed to meet Museveni, he said.
The president, whose popularity has been fading amid criticism that he wants to rule for life, has faced pressure from the ruling party to sign the measure.
Some critics believe he has signed in hopes of galvanising political support within his party, the National Resistance Movement, before a meeting that is expected to endorse him as its sole choice in the next presidential election in 2016, when he will have been in power for 30 years.
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