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We used to have very few homosexuals traditionally,' he said
By: John Howard

Yowery Museveni

Uganda's president: European gays recruiting in Africa

Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has said that he had received reports that "European homosexuals" are "recruiting" in Africa, and urged the country's youth to reject their advances.

According to Uganda's Daily Monitor, Museveni, addressing an audience of mainly youth at the Kampala Serena Hotel on November 14, said: "I hear European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa. We used to have very few homosexuals traditionally. They were not persecuted but were not encouraged either because it was clear that is not how God arranged things to be."

Museveni's comments follow the condemnation by the embassies of France and the United States of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposed by Ndorwa West MP David Baharti last month. Presently, Uganda punishes male homosexuality with life imprisonment (in 2000 lesbianism was criminalised as well), and according to Jessica Stern of Human Rights Watch, Museveni's government "routinely threatens and vilifies lesbians and gays, and subjects sexual rights activists to harassment".

Under Baharti's bill, now going through parliament, anyone repeatedly "caught" having sex with someone of the same sex faces the death penalty, while people who touch each other in a "gay way" could be jailed.

It would create a new offence of "aggravated homosexuality", with those convicted of having homosexual relations with disabled people or those under the age of 18 also facing the death penalty. It would also criminalise any public discussion of homosexuality and penalise any individual who rented property to a homosexual.

A clause in the bill punishes anyone who fails to report an offence within 24 hours of witnessing or finding out about it.

"You should discourage your colleagues [involved in homosexuality] because God was not foolish to do the way he arranged," Museveni continued, adding: "Mr and Mrs, but now you have to say Mr and Mr? What is that now?"