OUR LATEST ISSUE
Museveni makes commitment to US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni
Uganda's president will 'not sign' Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has assured US officials that he will endeavour to block the Anti-Homosexuality Bill now going through his country's parliament and, if necessary, veto it should it reach his desk for signing into law.
Jon Tollefson, a State Department spokesman, told the newspaper DC Agenda that Museveni made the commitment in person and by telephone to US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs Johnnie Carson on two occasions in late October and early December.
During Carson's meeting with Museveni, Tollefson said that "the president understood the concerns and said he would do what he could to make sure the bill was not passed. He would not sign the bill...He made a commitment to the secretary that he would work to make sure it wasn't signed into law". Museveni's pledge was reiterated in the December phone call, Tollefson said.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill as proposed by Ndorwa West MP David Baharti would make life imprisonment the minimum punishment for some homosexual acts, with the death penalty imposed for so-called "aggravated homosexuality" offences: when the accused is HIV positive, a serial offender, a "person of authority", or has sex with those under 18.
Tollefson's statement may be the last word on the bill, which has attracted international condemnation and threats of the withdrawal of development aid from the US, Sweden, the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the bill, calling on Uganda's parliament "not to approve the bill and to review their laws to decriminalise homosexuality".
