Conditions of homosexuals in UgandaCompilation of citations on the condition of homosexuals in Uganda:
1. Legal representatives may find the following compilation useful in appeals against refusal of asylum to gay Ugandans, and in other claims, for instance of compensation against assets held by Ugandan officials, in European and common-law jurisdictions. The compilation in no way of itself constitutes however an opinion, expert or otherwise, on the risks to which any individual may be exposed by her or his removal from to Uganda.
2. Citations are arranged under the following headings:
A. Law and policy: Risk of Arrest and Imprisonment of homosexuals;
B. Security services: reported connections between gay activism and subversion;
C. Risk of torture and extra-judicial killing of homosexuals:
The torture of homosexuals;
Risk of rape in prison;
Patterns of torture;
D. Risk of HIV-infection in prison;
E. Implications for public health of the Ugandan Government’s criminalisation of homosexuality
F. Risk of extra-judicial killing:
Mob violence against Ugandan homosexuals;
Mob violence in Uganda;
Relocation;
G. References to the persecution of Ugandan homosexuals;
H. Support of the Ugandan churches and State for violence against homosexuals:
State support for violence against homosexuals;
Ugandan churches’ support for government and societal discrimination against homosexuals;
Covert church support for homosexuals;
I. Imprisonment of those deported to Uganda.
A. Law and policy: Risk of arrest and imprisonment of homosexuals
3. “One example of continuing discrimination came from Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to locate and arrest homosexuals in that nation.”[1]
4. “Same-sex relationships are criminalized in Uganda and many other African countries, says Amnesty International. Being found ‘guilty’ in Uganda of homosexual acts can mean life in prison.”[2]
5. "According to an article dated 30 November 2004, by 365Gay.com published on the Sodomy Laws website...The government has recently called on police to crack down on homosexual activity.”[3]
6. “On July 5, [2005,] by a vote of 111 to 17 with three abstentions, the Ugandan parliament approved a proposed constitutional amendment stating that ‘marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman,’ and that ‘it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry.’…A parliamentary spokesman said that specific criminal penalties will be enacted later when the Ugandan penal code is revised.
“’Uganda already imposes draconian prison sentences on people who engage in homosexual conduct,’ said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. ‘New criminal penalties against people who dare to marry can only have one purpose: to codify prejudice against same-sex couples.’
Same-sex sexual relations are criminalized in Uganda under a sodomy laws inherited from British colonial rule. Punishments were substantially strengthened in 1990. Section 140 of the Ugandan penal code criminalizes ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Section 141 punishes ‘attempts’ at carnal knowledge with a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment. Section 143 punishes acts of ‘gross indecency’ with up to five years in prison. Both in Britain and Uganda, these terms were long understood to describe consensual homosexual conduct.
”The proposed constitutional change follows months of state-promoted controversy about homosexuality in Uganda. In October [2004], the country’s information minister, James Nsaba Buturo, ordered police to investigate and ‘take appropriate action against’ a gay association allegedly organized at Uganda’s Makerere University…
“In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found, in the case of Toonen v. Australia, that discrimination based on sexual orientation is barred by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Uganda is a party. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has held that arrests for consensual homosexual conduct are, by definition, human rights violations.”[4]
7. “The house considered and passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3, 2005. The day spelt doom and gloom for the gay and lesbian community as the legislation making body effectively outlawed homosexuality. Parliament overwhelmingly approved an amendment to Article 31, providing for complete rejection and criminalisation of same sex marriages.”[5]
8. “To further afflict its homosexual community, one parliamentarian said specific jail terms for offenders are to be laid out in revisions to the Ugandan penal code at a later date.”[6]
9. ”Fifteen homosexuals arrested from the western part of Uganda, Masindi, have been given life prison sentences. Homosexuality in Uganda is illegal and punishable with a maximum sentence of life in prison. The homosexuals where rounded up after long surveillance operation in Masindi town. When asked why they were given a life sentence without a court trial .The investigating officer Mr Mark Ruhinda said “no one could sit in court and listen to these sick people explaining why they like fellow men, this was a decision that came from the top. If I were you, I would stop this investigation.”
”Authorities have confirmed that this is part of their on going investigation to crack down on homosexuals. Two weeks ago on 13th April 2006, the Government spokesman Dr James Nsaba Buturo [Minister of Information] has promised to arrest gay Ugandans known to be operating [a] church. Its obvious from the recent crack down that the government is making good of there promise. Doctor Nsaba Buturo said “This is should send a loud and clear message to all they gay people in Uganda, we will find them and lock them up for life” This is the first time the government publicly confirmed that they are cracking down on homosexuality and handing down sentences. “I do not think we have seen the end of this complete disregard for human rights” said James Mutamba a United Nations social worker.”[7]
10. “Uganda: Intimidation of lesbian and gay activists: Amnesty International is concerned about the on-going intimidation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activists in Uganda. The latest incident follows steps taken by Ugandan law-makers in July 2005, who voted for a constitutional amendment to criminalize marriage between persons of the same sex.
“Activist Victor Juliet Mukasa, Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), fears for her safety after her house was raided on the night of 20 July 2005. Local government officials in a suburb of the capital city, Kampala, entered her house in her absence and seized documents and other material, apparently looking for “incriminating evidence” relating to the activities of SMUG. No search warrant was produced on demand. The organization advocates for the promotion and respect of all rights contained in the Uganda constitution and in international human rights treaties for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, including the right not to be discriminated against.
“Another lesbian activist, who was in Juliet’s house on the night of the raid, was arbitrarily arrested and detained by local government officials and then taken to the police station. She was subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment, in breach of her right to liberty, security and inviolability of person and to privacy. No charges were pressed against her and she was released, on the condition that she reported back to the police in the company of the chairperson of SMUG the following morning of 21 July.
”Amnesty International is concerned that the above incidents add to a pattern of abuse of their right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation, the right to freedom, security and inviolability of the human person…”[8]
11. “Ugandan president Museveni announced on September 28 [1999] a nationwide sweep for gays, following a media frenzy about two men getting married…Lwabaayi and friends were arrested October 6. Ugandan police also raided their newsletter offices and seized subscription record which list addresses for 167 other gay Ugandan men. Lwabaayi is now back in Vancouver after enduring imprisonment and torture.”[9]
B. Security services: reported connections between gay activism and subversion
12. The minister of information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo, yesterday said …he was aware of a letter reportedly written by the minister of internal affairs, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, to the police, urging them to crack down on gay groups.”[10]
13. The State Minister for Information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo, has urged the East African governments to harmonise the Information Technology industry. He said for a meaningful regional integration, the member states must have harmonised policy, regulatory and legal framework in various sectors that span all the member states… “We need to come up with a joint policy to counter the evils of technology like homosexuality and pornographic trade that are morally repugnant to the majority of our peoples,” said Buturo.”[11]
14. “Police in the United Kingdom arrested two Ugandan gay activists on the weekend of May 6 at a gay gathering in East London. Lubowa Richard and Kizza Musinguzi had organised a party to launch the Gay Rights Uganda UK branch. Police got a tip off from the neighbours who at first complained of the very loud music from the party only to find a bloody fierce fight between two men fighting for another man. Musinguzi is the coordinator of Gay Rights Uganda while Lubowa a.k.a. Kido, is the spokesman. The couple was later released without charge but with a caution. Our services say that Gay Rights Uganda, which also has branches in Boston and Sweden, is planning to open up a branch here very soon. We don’t want to be the one to remind them that homosexuality in an offence punishable by law in Uganda. At least Police Spokesman Patrick Onyango said so and that, ‘Musinguzi and Lubowa’s activities are not welcome here and they will be crashed [sic for ‘crushed’] if they go ahead with their campaign.’…Not our words.”[12]
C. Risk of Torture
The torture of homosexuals
15. “Francesco Mascini…the first secretary at the royal Netherlands embassy, said they had received information that some gays were being tortured in some detention centres. He was speaking at the launch of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) annual report.”[13]
16. “The Government yesterday blasted the Netherlands embassy First Secretary, Francesco Mascini, over his call to debate homosexuality. The internal affairs minister is to meet diplomats to “remind them about diplomatic behaviour”, state minister for information Dr Nsaba Buturo said yesterday at he weekly Government press briefing at Nakasero….Buturo said diplomats accredited to Uganda had made it a habit to make public statements of a political and moral nature on matters that were a preserve of Ugandans. He said donating money did not justify their attempts to force Ugandans to accept practices offensive to their culture…”Lecturing Ugandans through the press is an affront to our sovereignty,” he added.”[14]
17. “Activists also point to illegal detentions, convictions without trials, rape to ‘remedy’ lesbianism and cases of torture…MUSLA’s[15] president, 28-year old student Christopher Kalima, says he has been arrested 11 times – not including the times the police ‘called him up for a chat’. He says that when he was first arrested, at age 18 [in 1994], he was blindfolded and carted off to a secret location. ‘Sometimes, they flogged us,’ Kalima says mater-of-factly, sipping on a beer. ‘We were made to sleep with dead bodies because sometimes they torture people and they die. You sleep in there with them, to torture you emotionally, you understand?’ The authorities made sure Kalima did. ‘I was released with serious warnings – that if you ever get in here again, you’re going to die. I was given strict orders not to say anything that happened to me’. Some MUSLA members might not have been so lucky. Kalima says that, despite being warned off by authorities, MUSLA is looking for six colleagues who have ‘disappeared’” [16]
18. “Amnesty International has taken up the cause of three Christian homosexuals jailed and beaten in Uganda for their sexual orientation, who have been finding refuge in an East Vancouver Anglican church…The three homosexual Ugandan Christians…were arrested, beaten and verbally abused in a September 1999 crackdown on homosexuals by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, according to Amnesty International. One of the women was raped while in prison…A summary of the case of the Ugandan homosexuals who were jailed in Africa is recounted on an Amnesty International web site devoted to stopping arrest and torture based on gender or sexual orientation (http://www.amnesty.ca/stoptorture/acttorturelaws.htm).”2
19. “In September 1999 President Yoweri Museveni publicly ordered the police to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them. The following month, five people were arrested at a meeting in Kampala by army and police officers. They were accused of being homosexual and held in illegal detention centres, army barracks and police stations for up to two weeks before being released without charge. All five were tortured. One of those arrested said ‘they tortured me by kicking me on my stomach and slapping my face until it bled. I was made to sleep in a small toilet that was so dirty as it was the only toilet used by all the inmates. The next day I was told to clean the toilet for one week, twice a day, using my bare hands.’”[17]
20. ”In September 1999, in the wake of publicity in the Ugandan media about an alleged ‘gay marriage’ in Kampala, President Yoweri Museveni announced to the press that he had ordered the Criminal Investigations Department "to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them". The effect of this statement on the lives of the five activists was devastating.
”Following the President’s announcement, the five friends met at Christine’s home in early October 1999 to discuss strategy. Somehow, the military found out about their meeting. At around 10pm, eight armed men burst into the room and arrested the five friends. Christine recalled, ‘No one could speak. We were all shocked... They tied black cloths on our heads and led us to the cars.’…
”Rodney was taken to a military barracks. He recalled, ‘I was kicked in the chest four times. I was slapped. I was also shown electric cable that could be used on me if I did not tell them about our organisation...’ He was held with a large number of military prisoners. ‘Learning that I was not a soldier and I was a gay activist they tortured me by kicking me on my stomach and slapping my face until I bled. I was made to sleep in a small toilet. The next day I was told to clean the toilet for one week, twice a day using my bare hands... I lost my trust in God. I came to believe that it is true that God hates those who are gay, as the local church claims and preaches.’”[18]
21. “Fear has been a constant factor in John’s life ever since he was detained and tortured in October 1999. ‘I was living with another guy. The police received a tip-off that we were gay. Officials from the Directorate of Military Intelligence came to our house at 2am. They arrested us and took us to one of their safe houses. They kept on urinating on us. They didn’t give us any food and didn’t light the room. Then they put two dead rotting bodies in our small cell. Later they separated us and started interrogating us. They thought we were being funded by a foreign organization and they wanted the information. I protested. I grabbed one of the guys by the collar and started fighting with him. He called the other guys in. They hurt me so much. They flogged me, and then they poured a chemical solution on me. My skin started rotting after we were moved out of the detention house. I had to take medication and antibiotics for sex months. But I was left with scars on my back and my arms.”[19]
Risk of rape in prison
22. “Screams of a young man – a prisoner – on a mid-October night ended abruptly at Luzira Prison in Kampala. Fellow inmates of 23-year-old Benjamin Buloba thought he had finally fallen asleep after suffering an agonising stomach upset. Yet when day broke on October 15, Buloba was dead – just days after entering prison…Luzira’s Upper Prison, where Buloba spent his last night, was designed to hold 600 people but today it holds more than 3,000.
Dark shadow: The fate of Buloba has refocused the spotlight on the poor state of Uganda’s prisons, especially following claims in the press that he was gang raped by fellow inmates before he died…
“Ms Mary Kaddu, the assistant commissioner of prisons of charge of public relations, said by the time he was committed to prison, Buloba was already ill. ‘Fellow prisoners said he kept putting toilet paper in his anus,’ Kaddu told 93.3 KFM recently. ‘On the day he died, he did not eat and had diarrhoea. A prisoner who went to the toilet found he had collapsed with faeces all over. His friends picked him up and cleaned him but he kept crying ‘oh my stomach, oh my stomach.’ The prison authorities, however, have not presented evidence that the prisoner had complained of a stomach illness or whether his complaints had been registered at the prison’s sick bay. Their report records that Buloba was ‘reported well but died suddenly’. The cause of death was said to be respiratory failure secondary to tuberculosis. ‘He was found with water in his lungs – about one litre,’ said Dr Johnson Byabushaija, the deputy commissioner general of prisons, speaking on the same KFM programme as Kaddu. He hastened to add that the mortality rate in prisons has reduced (now at between 1 and 1.2 percent annually) but that most deaths are due to ‘immuno-suppression syndrome related to HIV/Aids’.
“In Buloba’s case, a lot more has been written about his condition. Sources at Mulago hospital say at the time his body was received, there was evidence of ‘trauma of the rectum’ possibly due to sexual rape. Ex-prisoners, some of whom called into the radio talk show, say that homosexuality – consensual or not – is common in the jails but authorities are reluctant to address it. One such caller, Mr Peter Okodu, who said he served time in Luzira, claimed he witnessed sodomy. He blamed prison authorities for not doing enough to protect inmates from sexual violence from within the cells…Dr Byabashaija…admits that the prison system is resource strapped and lacks the personnel to properly ensure the rights of inmates especially from prisoner-on-prisoner violence. According to ex-prisoners, warders in charge of cells stand outside after final lock down leaving the prisons under the control of gangs inside.”15
23. “There have also been incidents where imprisonment jail rape has been used as punishment for those who publicly declared their homosexuality. Consequently, many still live in constant fear of being tortured [if] they were found out to be homosexual”6
24. “A summary of the case of the case of the Ugandan homosexuals who were jailed in Africa is recounted on an Amnesty International web site devoted to stopping arrest and torture based on gender or sexual orientation (http://www.amnesty.ca/stoptorture/acttorturelaws.htm). The web site quotes Christine, who now lives in Vancouver, describing what happened to [her] when she was interrogated (and later raped after being left alone in a prison with three male detainees).”2
25. "’Coming midnight, they said ‘we want to show you something’. They took my clothes off and raped me. I remember being raped by two of them, then I passed out.{2 Statement given to Amnesty International, March 2000}
“Christine {3 Not her real name. Pseudonyms have been used for all the Ugandan activists referred to in this chapter} was tortured in a secret detention centre in Uganda. She was raped after being left alone in a room with three male detainees. She was detained because she is a lesbian and in Uganda homosexuality is not just a social taboo, it is a criminal offence…
”When they took the blindfold off, Christine found herself in a secret detention centre. She was stripped naked, beaten and threatened with rape by the soldiers holding her. She was then taken to another detention centre where she was interrogated about the human rights group the friends had set up and about her sexuality. ‘They asked me why I was not married. I told them I was not interested in marriage. They asked me if I knew homosexuality was taboo in Africa. I kept quiet. They said it was a criminal offence and I could get a 10-year or life sentence. In the middle of that a policewoman came in and said ‘I heard there was a lesbian here, can you do [to me] what you do to women?’ I held my head high so she slapped me.’…
”Norah was taken to another military barracks. ‘I was kept in a small filthy room with bats in the ceiling. I was by myself in that room for about five hours, then three men came in and started interrogating me. These men were so cruel and intimidating, it was unbearable... I was also beaten, abused both sexually and physically. My clothes were ripped off. Nasty remarks were made that I should just be punished for denying men what is rightfully theirs, and that who do I think I am to do what the president feels to be wrong. They even suggested that they should show me what I am missing by taking turns on me.’{6 Statement given to Amnesty International, October 1999}”13
Patterns of torture
26. “A report by Human Rights Watch this year [2004] accuses the government of using detention centres for deliberate torture of what is described as political prisoners. ‘An informal survey at Kigo Prison near Kampala where ‘political’ prisoners are held, indicated in June 2003 that 90 percent of detainees/prisoners had been tortured during their prior detention by state military and security agencies’, HRW claimed. The rights group says that since political torture is illegal and therefore hidden, it provided an environment in which ‘other unlawful acts are carried out’ including sexual abuse and rape.”[20]
27. “Victims have been seriously beaten with rifle butts, sticks, electric cables and other objects. Other methods of torture include tying the hands and feet behind the victim (‘kandoya’), keeping detainees in pits in the ground; exposing the victim with mouth open to a water spigot, and inflicting injury to the penis and testicles. Withholding or denying necessary medical attention has resulted in more severe, or even permanent, injury…
“Among the agencies against which credible allegations of torture have been made are the following:
- the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Force (UPDF) and its military intelligence branch, Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI)
- Internal Security Organization (ISO)…
- Joint Anti Terrorism Task Force (JAT), a joint body of CMI, ISO, and other security agencies
- Violent Crime Crack Unit (VCCU), a special unit comprised of CMI, ISO, and other security agencies, replacing Operation Wembley, tasked with stopping crime
- the police and its Criminal Investigation Department [CID]
“The most serious abuses seem to occur when suspects are arrested and held by the army and its intelligence service, the CMI, as well as JAT [Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force] and the VCCU…
“Human Rights Watch and FHRI[21] have also found that the army, CMI, JAT and VCCU torture or ill-treat suspects frequently. As illustrated below, suspects are often detained by one of these agencies incommunicado in a safe house or barracks, and tortured or ill-treated to make a confession or to punish them for refusing to confess. Later, they are taken to a police station where they often suffer less abuse, and where the confession is taken again, sometimes in front of those who conducted the torture…
“Human rights observers have been denied access to unofficial place of detention. While the government readily allows independent observers to visit regular prisons and police stations, it is very difficult to get access to military barracks, CMI facilities, and other ‘ungazetted’ and thus illegal places of detention such as the JAT detention facility in Kololo, Kampala, where many victims claim to have been tortured.”
“Torture of alleged common criminals by the VCCU
“Suspected common criminals are frequently tortured, in particular when they are detained by the VCCU…In some cases, suspects were not only beaten, but subjected to other types of torture. In November 2003, John W., a twenty-two year-old man from Mengo, Kampala, was eating lunch when VCCU officers came to arrest the person sitting next to him. He told a FHRI researcher that he asked where they were taking the man, which angered the officers so that they arrested him as well. During his one week detention at VCCU headquarters, he had his right small finger chopped off by a VCCU officer. VCCU agents also beat him with wires on the chest, and he still has scars from the beatings. Later John W. was transferred to the Central Police Station in Kampala, where he had been held for four months at the time of the interview.”[22]
28. “’Torture persists in Uganda because no one is investigated or punished for it. If the government were serious about stopping torture, it would end this state of impunity.’”[23]
D. Risk of HIV infection in prison
29. “According to the Prisons Department, 230 inmates died in custody between January and October [2004]. Approximately 60 percent of these deaths were due to HIV/AIDS-related diseases”[24]
30. “Dr Johnson Byabushaija, the deputy commissioner general of prisons…hastened to add that the mortality rate in prisons has reduced (now at between 1 and 1.2 percent annually) but that most deaths are due to ‘immuno-suppression syndrome related to HIV/Aids’.”15
31. The acting director of the prisons health service, Dr Alex Kakoraki, on Monday said…homosexuality was high in prison and yet condoms cannot be supplied to inmates. “Homosexuality is an unacceptable in our communities and shouldn’t be practised,” he said.”[25]
E. Implications for public health of the Ugandan Government’s criminalisation of homosexuality
32. “The minister of information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo, yesterday said he had written to UNAIDS and the Uganda Aids Commission to protest the inclusion of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups because they are illegal under Uganda’s laws. The Uganda AIDS Commission has denied they are developing such a policy but the government position is very clear, homosexuality is illegal. Buturo said he was aware of a letter reportedly written by the minister of internal affairs, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, to the police, urging them to crack down on gay groups.”[26]
33. “A deadly consequence of denying that homosexuality exists in Uganda is that the national HIV/AIDS programme makes no provision for sexual minorities, despite scientific evidence that gay men are more susceptible to HIV transmission than any other group…
“The politics of pretence: Nobody knows how prevalent the HI[V] virus is among gay Ugandan men – there are no statistics, as sexual minorities have never had a place in the government’s fight against HIV/AIDS…
“”There’s no mention of gays and lesbians in the national strategic framework, because the practice of homosexuality is illegal,” said James Kigozi, spokesman for the Uganda AIDS Commission. “These two groups (gays and lesbians) are marginal; their numbers are negligible.”
“The Minister of State for Health, Jim Muhwezi, recently insisted that Uganda’s ABC [Abstain, Be Faithful, Condoms] approach adequately catered for all groups in Uganda, including homosexuals. “The don’t deserve a special message. They shouldn’t exist, and we hope that they are not there. If they do exist they are covered by the three-pronged approach of ABC and should be content with that.”
“A Ugandan physician who has worked closely with sexual minorities for the last three years spoke to PlusNews on the condition of anonymity, rejected the notion that the national average of six percent held true among homosexuals. “In Uganda, when someone is discovered to be HIV positive we do not ask about their sexual behaviour, so we get a statistic that is assumed to relate to heterosexuals,” he said, commenting that although there were no statistics, he was certain the prevalence of HIC among homosexuals was several times the national average. Many gay men in Uganda remain unaware of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections through unprotected sex. The physician maintained that this ignorance was due to a deliberate ‘policy of pretence’ regarding the existence of homosexuals, and to incorporate them into Uganda’s HIV/AIDS framework would be tantamount to admitting their existence in society. “There are gay men – the fact is they are a more vulnerable grouping than anyone else, so they need to be targeted, they need to be educated,” he stressed….
“Few alternatives for HIV/AIDS Activists: The UNAIDS report called on governments to eliminate pre-existing prejudices and encouraged a non-discriminatory approach to secual minorities, but Beatrice Were, an HIV/AIDS research and policy analyst at ActionAid Uganda, said no such approach had been adopted in Uganda. “Our hands are tied behind our backs because we are bound by the law,” she said. Indeed, in 2005, the Ugandan parliament endorsed an amendment to the constitution outlawing homosexual marriage. She conceded that prejudice in the NGO community meant they, too, were failing sexual minorities. “Many of us don’t walk the talk. We have not yet dealt with our own fears and stigmas and therefore we are biased in our preventions,” she said. The result was that gays and lesbians were denied access to HIV education, treatment and counselling. “We now have to be honest with ourselves and talk about sexual minorities,” she said. “Otherwise, by the time you accept it (HIV among sexual minorities) the scale will be too big to deal with.”
(This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations)”[27]
34. “Quoting a Ford Foundation-funded study in Kampala, Uganda, a member of the panel [of the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa (ICASA) in Abuja, Nigeria] noted women who have sex with women (WSW) “were convinced that they could not get STIs or be infected with HIV…It is essential that WSW do not consider themselves immune to AIDS.” Specific programmes for MSM [men who have sex with men] and WSW have to be devised and implemented that take account of their separate realities, and both communities should have access to proper care and support, the activists said.”[28]
35. “”The more confused young people are, the more they put themselves at risk,” said [Edith] Mukisa [who heads Kampala’s Naguru Teenage Center]…She sees an increase in homosexual behaviour, oral sex and anal sex among young people who tell her, in anonymous surveys, that they’ve turned to such practises in an effort to “stay virgins.”
“It’s too early to determine the effect of these changes on AIDS prevalence rates. Earlier this year, the Health Ministry reported that a study had found the national rate of 7%, up from the previous estimate of 6.2%. Officials attributed the increase to differences in date-collection methods, not changes in behaviour.
“Many AIDS officials blame the abstinence push on pressure from U.S. conservative groups, such as the Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family, and on the Bush administration program the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR. The five-year, $15-billion program has dramatically increased U.S. funding for AIDS work in Africa, but it included a hefty earmark from probrams that deal exclusively with abstinence and faithfulness. Two thirds of its AIDS-prevention budget must be spent on the A-B [Abstinence – Be Faithful] of A-B-C [Abstinence – Be Faithful – Use Condoms].” One casualty so far is condom-distributor Population Services International, which lost its funding recently after being attacked by [fundamentalist preacher Martin] Ssempa and U.S.-based Focus on the Family. Last month, the United Nations’ special envoy on fighting AIDS in Africa attacked the U.S. influence. “The condom crisis in Uganda is being driven and exacerbated by PEPFAR and by the extreme policies that the administration in the United States is now pursuing in the emphasis on abstinence,” said Stephen Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the U.N.”[29]
F. Risk of extra-judicial killing:
Mob violence against Ugandan homosexuals
36. “Latest: gay activist murdered in Kampala: Ugandan police is covering up the murder of a member of Lesgabix, a lesbian and gay grouping in Kampala, in June 2000. The organisation's Management Committee reports.
“The post-mortem report showed that Paul died due to internal bleeding in the brain. It is evident that he was hammered on the head by a heavy metal bar. The extents of the injuries in his headwall and the brain were all noticeably severe for him to survive the attack. There was blood oozing from his nose, ear and the mouth. Apart from the head injuries the rest of the body was intact. This suggests that the murder was committed by a group of professional murderers. It was not a gang of robbers. All his personal belongings were not taken from him, he was having Uganda Shillings 40,000 (about $ 30) in his pocket, before the murder.
“The Lesgabix's Management Committee deliberated on the following: 1. That the statement of the murder be read by his Doctor of six years, in close consultation with the govt. pathologist who performed the post-mortem. 2. Paul was not an unknown personality in the town, apart from being a young successful business man, he was very active in organisation of the GBL human rights activities organised by LESGABIX in the town, he had no serious enemies that can go to the extent of planning and the ultimate brutal murder of this magnitude. 3. The regional Police's statement that Paul must have been murdered by his business rival/associates is therefore null and void, since so far no one has been arrested to date yet their report also indicate murder. 4. This is understatement (murder by a business rival) with the main aim of confusing the people and his immediate family members and friends. 5. The police's disruption of the funeral planning committee's meeting, with the main excuse being that there have been a lot of people politicking instead of actual funeral organising, is a strong indicator that the police are not interested in arresting the perpetrators of this evil act. They are up to do the cover up of this murder. 6. That the police have not arrested any suspect, more than one week after the murder. 7. Weeks ago, Lesgabix held several meetings of which Paul took part actively and that one aspirant for a political post who happen to have known this warned Paul to stop this. The politician's niece happen to be our member and for this, he feels politically embarrassed. He wanted Paul to force the niece to leave this open campaign. This member refused and there was no way Paul could assist over this because it’s a human choice. Our member also shares the same sentiment. We are still demanding full investigations and prosecution.”[30]
37. “’They may chase him or her from the school,’ says 29-year old Andrew Milton, one of the MUSLA pastors. ‘If you’re working-class, you may lose your job. If family members realize you are doing such a thing, they get you as outcast. The community may stone you.’”10
38. “I can't imagine that the constitutional amendment can be anything but dangerous for LGBT Ugandans and contributes to an atmosphere of impunity. Mob violence is a real threat.”[31].
39. “Witch hunt threatened: Ugandan weekly publication The Xtreme has this week revealed the names of people who they claim are homosexuals and has threatened to reveal more names, claiming that their list includes high profile business men and religious leaders. The move, which could seriously affect people’s livelihoods and perhaps even their lives, is being roundly condemned by activists in the country…’The Xtreme, Volume 1 Issue 2 Thursday, 14 October – 20 October 2004[,] Homos Racket[:] MPs, Pastors, Universities and Expatriates implicated…Homosexuals have infested Kampala by a storm just like the underground wealth searching expedition. A list of homos that was availed to The Xtreme last week implicates several institutions and persons of high dignity. The details are so incredible that one could take a long time to internalize the country. Nile Breweries, Makerere University, Kampala International University, Pastors, politicians, including members of parliament and students are all among the homosexuals that have invaded the country. Homosexuality in Uganda is illegal according to the laws governing the country. For fear of causing a stampede, The Xtreme will reveal the names regularly but [at] intervals. Homosexuality, which is sex between people of the same sex, men, demands a man playing sex in another’s anus. Those named include staff of Nile Breweries. They are:…”[32]
40. “The state minister for information, Nsaba Buturo, has said Uganda is under a moral attack and called on Christians to heighten their moral and social responsibility. Butoro said several immoral practices such as pornography, homosexuality, witchcraft, defilement and rape were increasingly becoming acceptable norms in society. “Unless we rise up and condemn these evils, those behind them are lobbying for their acceptance as rights,” he said.”[33]B
41. “Lesbianism and homosexuality are just habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, drug abuse, etc – all highly addictive habits…It is reported that new pupils in these schools are forced into same-sex orgies by way of bullying, only to get addicted after repeated unabated exploitation…Religious leaders should…take part by repeatedly condemning, in churches and mosques, the evil of homosexuality and lesbianism….The Police should visit the holes mentioned in the press, spy on the perverts, arrest and prosecute them…The fight against this perversion must be relentless and a continuous process. It is clear that the First World is heavily rooting for this evil as our women who attended the Beijing conference can attest. The motives are as satanic as the acts themselves. Africa (and Uganda in particular) should not allow the destruction of cultural values simply because the West orders us around under the guise of innumerable ‘rights’.”[34]
42. “The questions that remain to be answered are whether homosexuals constitute a particular social group in Uganda and if so, whether there is a real chance that the applicant will be persecuted as a result of his membership of this group...
“According to the evidence before me homosexuality is unacceptable to most Ugandans and those who are known to be homosexuals face social ostracism and in some cases serious harassment, discrimination and even violence…
“The Applicant has also provided a number of newspaper articles which report on anti-homosexual statement[s] of those in power and incidents of harassment against gays. A website called ‘Gay Uganda’ states that there are many gays in Uganda, but of necessity they must remain quiet about their sexual orientation as most straight Ugandans are ‘violently and actively homophobic’…
“From the information set out above, it is clear that homosexuals are seen as people united and set apart from society by their sexual[it]y in Uganda and I accept that homosexual men in Uganda form a particular social group.
“It is also clear from the information set out above that those known to be homosexuals face at least some harassment and possibly detention, serious discrimination in areas such as employment and possibly physical harm. As the applicant’s sexuality is known to the authorities and others in Uganda, I accept that there is a real chance that he may face detention or other forms of serious harm amounting to persecution if he returns home.
“Conclusion: The Tribunal is satisfied that the applicant is a person to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Refugee Convention as amended by the Refugees Protocol….
“Decision: The Tribunal remits the matter for reconsideration with the direction that that the applicant is a person to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Refugees Convention.”[35]
Mob violence in Uganda
43. “Incidents of vigilante justice were reported frequently during the year. There were numerous instances in which mobs beat, stoned, or burned to death individuals suspected of petty theft, witchcraft, or infidelity. For example, on June 11 [2004], residents of Kinoni Village near Mukono burned a suspected thief to death. On July 14, a mob of motorcyclists smashed the head of a passenger, poured gasoline on his body, and set him on fire for not paying the transport fee in Mbarara town.
“There were numerous instances in which mobs attacked suspected thieves and other persons known or suspected to have committed crimes…Motivated in part by distrust or misunderstanding of the formal judicial system, these mobs engaged in stonings, beatings and other forms of mistreatment. Such mistreatment included tying suspects’ wrists and ankles together behind their backs, stripping suspects of their clothes, parading them through the streets, and other forms of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.”16
G. References to the persecution of Ugandan homosexuals
44. “As the applicant’s sexuality is known to the authorities and others in Uganda, I accept that there is a real chance that he may face detention or other forms of serious harm amounting to persecution if he returns home.”20
45. “The Ugandan refugee claimants illustrate the claim made by Vancouver’s Anglican bishop this week that some persecuted homosexual Christians in other parts of the world see Canada’s West Coast as a welcoming haven…Bishop Michael Ingham, who this summer provoked an international controversy by agreeing to bless same-sex relationships, on Wednesday told a Hong Long gathering of the Anglican church’s top leaders he wants to show the many persecuted gays and lesbians who come to B[ritish]C[olumbia] that the Christian church loves and accepts them.”2
46. “Anti-gay sentiment is deeply entrenched in Ugandan society. And persecution is sanctioned right from the top.”10
H. Support of the Ugandan churches and State for violence against homosexuals
State support for violence against homosexuals
47. “The president said that Ankole region has always had small numbers of homosexuals. “I told them that these few individuals were either ignored or speared and killed by their parents. They wouldn’t just go and wed another man publicly,” Museveni said, attracting prolonged laughter.”[36]
Ugandan churches’ support for government and societal discrimination against homosexuals
48. “The three homosexual Ugandan Christians…were arrested, beaten and verbally abused in a September 1999 crackdown on homosexuals by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, according to Amnesty International. One of the women was raped while in prison. A month later, the Anglican Archbishop for Uganda publicly supported the president’s attitude towards African gays and lesbians. A news article in the New Vision, a mainstream newspaper in Kampala, quotes Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo backing the president’s condemnation of homosexuality, saying it is a sin and his church is adamantly ‘opposed to inhuman sex between men.’ The top Anglican leader doesn’t comment directly in the article on whether he supports jailing gays and lesbians, who are routinely discriminated against in Africa.2
49. “When faith, state and state-inspired homosexuality clash, by Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan fundamental pastor. June 3, 2005: Kampala…Ugandan converts were thrown headlong into the ‘issue of the 21st century’. How do Christians respond to state-sanctioned homosexuality in light of its apparent contradictions with culture, faith and nature? For the early church, it was a literal ‘baptism by fire’ experience. Mwanga’s homosexuality is an issue we tip-toed about for fear of offending the Buganda monarchy which abhors homosexuality. But all historical accounts of the martyrs agree that Mwanga was a deviant homosexual who used his demigod status to appease his voracious appetite for sodomy by engaging in these unmentionable acts with his pages at court. ‘In the 1880s, Charles Lwanga and his companions had met their brutal deaths, burnt and speared to death, at the hands of Mwanga, head of the Buganda state. Their only offence was to practise the Christian faith and refuse to take part in the homosexual activities of the court of Mwanga’, Joanna Bogle writes in her book, The Martyrs of Uganda. Mwanga was ‘intolerant’ once his pages became Christians and their new faith told them not to bend over one more time! The passion for his ‘lovers’ became the flames on which these very young ones were beheaded, and burned at Namugongo. It was genocide, and one the entire gay community should remorsefully reflect not unlike Hitler’s murders of the Jews. If another Mwanga were to rise again, how would the Christians in Uganda react today? Even more pressingly, how are we reacting to the gradual global Mwanga who daily increases his legal machinery over the whole world? Using the agencies of media, education and global state, out-of-control judges, homosexual activists Trojan horsing as human rights, stigma and AIDS/HIV rights?”[37]
50. “‘Learning that I was not a soldier and I was a gay activist they tortured me by kicking me on my stomach and slapping my face until I bled. I was made to sleep in a small toilet. The next day I was told to clean the toilet for one week, twice a day using my bare hands... I lost my trust in God. I came to believe that it is true that God hates those who are gay, as the local church claims and preaches.’”
I. Imprisonment of those deported to Uganda
51. “Independent sources told [the United Nations’] I[ntegrated] R[egional] I[nformation] N[etwork] on Thursday that [Gideon] Kibonge was a member of the ex-FAZ (former Zairean army)…who trained at military schools in Belgium, Israel and Egypt…He has reportedly been deported to Uganda and is being detained at Kasese.”[38]
52. “Maj Mike Ssali Salambwa, a former UPDF soldier, and three others, were yesterday charged with treason and failure to report it. Frank Byaruhanga, 36, Rosette Bagata, 22 of Tanzanian origin and John Katunwensi, a resident of Kanungu[,] appeared before the Buganda Road Court Grade One Magistrate, Lydia Mugambe. She did not allow them to say anything as her court does not have power to hear the case. She advised them to apply for bail in the High Court. The 46-year old Salambwa and Byaruhanga were deported to Uganda by Tanzania on allegations of recruiting rebels to overthrow the Government…They were remanded in Kigo Prison until November 30.”[39]
53. “The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Richard Buteera, has said witchcraft is a serious problem in Uganda and called for urgent review of the Witchcraft Act. “Witchcraft is a very big problem in our societies. It has led to murders in families and mob justice in places like Mbale. Suspected witches have been killed and their property destroyed,” he said.”[40]
[1]Mark E. Wojcik, Cris Revaz, Lois A. Gochnauer, in The International Lawyer (American Bar Association), Summer 2000, 34 International Law, 761. International Developments in Review: 1999: Public International Law, International Human Rights, C. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, n129.
[2]The Vancouver Sun, September 21, 2002, Saturday Final Edition, News, Page A1, Douglas Todd: Three persecuted Ugandan gays find refuge in city church.
[3] New Paragraph 6.74 in CIPU Country Report on Uganda (April 2005).
[4] Human Rights Watch, New York, July 12, 2005: Uganda: Colonial-Era Sodomy Law Already Mandates Life in Prison, www.hrw.org.
[5] Musa Ngubane: Ugandan lawmakers pull the plug on homosexual activities on Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za, July 7, 2005.
[6] Musa Ngubane: SMUG vows to fight the new anti-gay amendments on Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za, July 11, 2005.
[7] Muhumuza Gerald in The News Watch, 27rd April 2006, at http://www.topix.net/forum/news/gay/TGKFN1U3C4CB2VPAN#lastPost apparently quoting the main Kampala daily The New Vision. The author of the “loud and clear message to all they gay people in Uganda” that “we will find them and lock them up for life” is the Ugandan Minister of Information, Dr Nsaba Buturo. Muhumuza Gerald comments in his blog of May 3, 2006: “This incident [the sentencing to life in prison] happened in the western part of Uganda. That is a very poor part of the country and there’s only one newspaper. This incident did not get the coverage it deserved. People are being killed in villages because everyone believes gay people are bad luck and evil. Most villages will blame all the evils of there societies on homosexuals and their ‘evil practices'. This story was printed in The New Vision for a day and then removed, I wonder why. “
[8] Amnesty International Index: AFR 59/003/2005 (Public), News Service No: 208, 2 August 2005.
[9] Tom Yeun from Toronto-based Extra! on Q website in April 2000, cited on Behind the Mask: Uganda, Media Mirror, www.mask.org.za.
[10] Izama Angelo: Government warns UNAIDS over gays on The Monitor web site, 29th November , 2004, reported by Financial Times Information, Global News Wire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire.
[11] Africa News, May 1st, 2006: East Africa: We Need to Regulate IT Laws in East Africa, Says Buturo.
[12] The Weekly Observer, 18th May, 2006, UK arrests Ugandan gays, http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/ent/ent20060051811.php; the purported events in East London are entirely fabricated, presumably by the Ugandan security services (hence The Weekly Observer’s final disclaimer “not our words”), and the photograph accompanying the article does not represent Kizza Musinguzi. Gay Rights Uganda is a website (www.gayrightsuganda.org) not an organisation with branches, and neither individual named has any connection with Boston or Sweden (both substantial centres of opposition to the Ugandan regime). Kizza Musinguzi’s only contact with the Metropolitan Police has been to report a death threat in London -- from which city he moved several weeks before the article -- by an unidentified caller who warned him to desist from publishing details of Ugandan violence towards his fellow Ugandans who are gay. The Home Office and the High Court are to consider at the end of May 2006 details of the police investigation of the death threat submitted. This may result in further enquiries into the activities of the Ugandan regime among Ugandan exiles -- including those who are now citizens of the US and the UK, the two nations upon whose assistance the regime substantially depends, and within whose jurisdictions (or those of their allies) it.holds most of its overseas assets.
[13] Ugandans urged to debate homosexuality, published by Kampala daily The New Vision web site on 20 October, Financial Times Information/BBC Monitoring International Reports, October 20, 2004.
[14] The New Vision, 22nd October, 2004: Buturo Blasts Envoy Over Gays.
[15] Makerere University Students’ Lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender Association, an underground group.
[16] The Toronto Star, August 29, 2004, Business, Page FO2, Andrea Huncar: A subtle struggle in Africa, Dateline: Kampala.
[17] Amnesty International, ACT 40/011/2001, Discrimination: Fertile Ground for Torture: Torture and sexual identity, 10th May, 2001.
[18]Amnesty International at www.ai-lgbt.org/ai_report_torture.htm.
[19] Eric Beauchemin: John’s story, Radio Netherlands, www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/humanrights/Uganda_ john.html, 12 January, 2004.
[20] The Monitor, Kampala, December 5, 2004, Financial Times Information, All Africa Global Media, Diseases, overcrowding raging in jailhouses, The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report cited is Abducted and Abused: Renewed Conflict in Northern Uganda, July 2003, vol. 15, no. 12 (A), www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ uganda/0703/ index.htm.
[21] Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives, Kampala.
[22] Human Rights Watch: Uganda: Concerns regarding Torture: Patterns and cases of torture, May 2005, http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/uganda0505.
[23] Livingstone Sewanyana, director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Kampala, quoted in Human Rights Watch, Uganda: Government Must Prosecute Torture, Detainees Must Not Be Held in Clandestine ‘Safe Houses’ (London and Kampala, May 17, 2005).
[24] United States Department of State: Country Reports on Human Rights Practises 2004: Uganda, www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41632.htm, released February 28, 2005.
[25] The New Vision, Saturday, November 19, 2005: Inmates With HIV Deserve Better Food. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/18/466613.
[26] Izama Angelo: Government warns UNAIDS over gays on The Monitor web site, 29th November , 2004, reported by Financial Times Information, Global News Wire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire.
[27] United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, Friday, March 17, 2006, reported by Africa News, AllAfrica Inc.: Uganda; Stuck in the Closet – Gays Left Out of HIV/Aids Strategy.
[28] United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, Thursday, December 8, 2005, reported by Africa News, AllAfrica Inc.: Gays Call on Govts Not to Ignore Them.
[29] Edmund Sanders in The Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 31, 2005, Home Edition, Main News, Foreign Desk, Part A, Page 8: Uganda Takes Up Abstinence Campaign: Activists say the nation’s shift away from encouraging condom use threatens one of the world’s most successful anti-AIDS programs. For an opposing (official) point of view, see Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc., State Department: December 1, 2005: News from the Washington file, White House press releases, Office of the Press Secretary: “And in Uganda, PEPFAR funds helped Dr Peter Mugyenyi expand from one site serving AIDS patients to 25 sites in a single year. Today, Dr Mugyenyi’s program has 35 sites – many of them in remote rural areas – that provide therapy to 35,000 Ugandans.”
The Ugandan Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi however provided the most authoritative and detailed explanation of the relation between U.S. funding and the deterioration of public health policy in controlling HIV transmission, in his statement to Human Rights Watch in September 2005 under the title: Release the Condoms: Fund Effective Prevention Strategies: Save Lives Now. Major General Muhwezi was removed from office eight months later on 11th May, 2006. His statement on AIDS prevention to Human Rights Watch does not refer to homosexual transmission, and he is reported by the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks in March 2006 to have noted of homosexuals “They shouldn’t exist, and we hope that they are not there.” He stated to HRW: “As Ugandans infected, affected by or at immediate risk of HIV infection, we have watched with increasing disbelief as the governments of Uganda and the United States have undermined the comprehensive prevention strategies responsible for reducing the spread of HIV in Uganda since the first case was detected in 1982, seeking instead to replace these with ideologically-driven and scientifically discredited abstinence-only programs…
“the historical record of Uganda’s success in reducing HIV is being distorted to further ideological agendas. Since 2003, we have watched as the Ugandan government downplay its own proven track record in an obvious attempt to please international donors such as the United States. We have watched as our own leaders rewrite history and misleadingly attribute reduced HIV prevalence to adoption of sexual abstinence. We have watched as the U.S. government pours millions of dollars into HIV-prevention programs that provide misleading information about the effectiveness of condoms that fail to equip people – particularly women – with the essential skills needed to negotiate safer sex. We have seen billboards throughout the city of Kampala, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Office of the First Lady of Uganda and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, that exaggerate the failure rates of condoms and present ‘abstinence-until-marriage’ as a complete HIV-prevention strategy, despite the fact that a large share of women are getting infected within marriage. We have seen Ugandan organizations stop supplying condoms either to gain or avoid losing U.S. funding.
“Over the past year, access to condoms in Uganda has been reduced dramatically. In late 2004, the government of Uganda issued a nationwide recall of Engabu condoms claiming these were defective, and causing a catastrophic shortage of the only condoms previously made freely available in government health clinics. At the same time, the government placed onerous new taxes and quality-testing requirements on all condoms imported for social marketing and sale on the private market. This in turn led to price increases of more than 500 per cent for condoms imported for these purposes, effectively eliminating the only other sources of affordable condoms in the country.
“Today condoms are largely absent from public clinics, and the government has undermined public confidence in the effectiveness of condoms against HIV. Ath this writing, an estimated 34 million condoms have passed post-shipment quality tests but remain impounded in warehouses in Uganda because of the government’s failure to bring them to market. We are struck by the sudden shortage of free government and other subsidized condoms at a time when the government is collaborating with the United States to expand abstinence-only programs throughout Uganda. We do not believe this is coincidental.
“We believe that the mismanagement of the Engabu recall, the ongoing delay in re-supplying public health facilities with free condoms, and the failure of the Ugandan government to launch an educational campaign to restore confidence in both the Engabu brand of condoms and condoms generally represent clear evidence of the government’s involvement in campaigning against condom use.
“We condemn the diversion of valuable HIV/AIDS funds away from programs that provide a full range of HIV-prevention options and towards those that focus exclusively on abstinence and fidelity for HIV-prevention. We believe such approaches are not only unrealistic and scientifically unsupportable, but also threaten the lives of millions of sexually active adults and young people, including married people, sero-discordant couples, and women in polygamous marriages…
“We further condemn the false morality under which these shifts are being made. At a time when public rhetoric about faith, religion and morality is at fever pitch, the dramatic shift towards abstinence-only programs needlessly threatens the lives of millions of Ugandans now at risk of HIV infection and re-infection.”
[30] Behind the Mask, Archive, 2001, accessible by Google search by ‘Lesgabix, Uganda’.
[31] Unpublished e-mail of 31st July, 2005, from Cary Johnson, Senior Program Specialist for Africa, Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, New York, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to Ewen Macmillan, Ph.D., in the wake of the IGLHRC’s fact-finding mission to Uganda in July 2005.
[32] Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za, October 18, 2004.
[33] Fred Ouma in The New Vision, 9th April, 2004, reported by Financial Times Information, Global News Wire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire: Vice Rate Worries Buturo.
[34] James Wasula in The New Vision, Kampala, 21st June, 2005, reported on Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za.
[35] Refugee Review Tribunal, Sydney, RRT Reference: N01/39528, Tribunal Member (Adjudicator): Roslyn Smidt, Date decision made: 19 December 2002.
[36] The Monitor, Kampala, carried by Africa News, November 24, 1999, Africa News Online, Henry Ochieng: Museveni still tough on homosexuals.
[37] Behind the Mask, www.mask.org.za, June 3, 2005.
[38] UN IRIN reported in Africa News, 14th June, 2001.
[39] The New Vision website, Kampala, 17th November, 2001, reported by BBC Monitoring Africa – Political.
[40] New Vision, Kampala, Tuesday, July 5, 2005, Uganda; DPP Warns On Witchcraft.
