[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Ugandan LGBT activists arrested last week

[Patrick Bond]

(Hein, is this typical of Ugandan bureaucratic/political attitudes? How 
do they get applause for AIDS education - e.g. in Helen Bernstein's book 
- and ABCs with an approach like this?)

Human Rights Watch

Uganda: Drop Charges Against Sexual Rights Activists
Censorship, Silence Around HIV/AIDS Can Kill

(New York, June 11, 2008) -The arrest of three sexual rights activists 
during a peaceful demonstration to raise awareness about lesbian, gay, 
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues shows the Ugandan government’s 
determination to enforce silence around sexuality and HIV/AIDS, Human 
Rights Watch said in a letter to Minister of Justice and Attorney 
General Edward Kiddu Makubuya.

Although the activists were released on June 6, Human Rights Watch urged 
the government to drop all charges against the three and to stop future 
arrests and prosecution of activists working on issues of sexual 
orientation and gender identity.

On June 3, 2008, police in Kampala detained Onziema Patience, Valentine 
Kalende, and Usaam Mukwaaya while demonstrating during the HIV/AIDS 
Implementers Meeting – a conference aimed at sharing lessons learned and 
best practices for HIV/AIDS programs. The three activists were 
protesting remarks made the day before by the chair of the Uganda AIDS 
Commission, Kihumuro Apuuli. He had declared that “gays are one of the 
drivers of HIV in Uganda,” and that the government could not afford 
direct prevention and care.

“Silence around HIV/AIDS kills,” said Juliana Cano Nieto, researcher of 
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human 
Rights Watch. “LGBT people do not ‘drive’ HIV in Uganda, but they have 
driven many community-based responses. They deserve recognition and 
inclusion, not repression and jail.”

The three activists face charges of “criminal trespass” under article 
302 of the Uganda Criminal Code. Even though cosponsors of the 
Implementers Meeting later provided the activists with appropriate 
accreditation, the police detained one of the activists for over four 
hours and charged him with “forgery of documents.” All three face a 
court hearing on June 20, 2008.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly drawn Ugandan authorities’ attention 
to patterns of abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 
an August 2007 letter, Human Rights Watch wrote to President Museveni 
concerning threatening statements made by government officials against 
LGBT people in Uganda. In an October 2007 letter, Human Rights Watch 
expressed alarm over authorities’ call to tighten enforcement of the 
country’s draconian sodomy law, which punishes homosexual conduct with 
up to life imprisonment.

”When police silence voices defending public health, the only winner is 
the virus,” said Cano Nieto. “Uganda’s once-praised HIV prevention 
efforts are giving way to prejudice and fear.”