Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Blackmail, Extortion: Cleanse Uganda Style



With a twist. I believe the reason why this letter was sent to one who was presumed gay was to farther the aim of ‘cleansing’ Uganda.
The email address names were those of Peter Karamaga on Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 10:32 AM -, He sent it from an email address cleanseuganda@yahoo.com The language and composition are fair, and the detail of the supposed recipient is breathtaking. To protect the person’s identity, I am changing all the personal details of the one who is being coerced. I am not extending such a courtesy to the person who is doing the blackmailing.
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Dear Mr. Semakula Zilaba,
 
You will understandably be surprised both about the content of this e-mail and by the its having finally arrived into your inbox. I will not go into any niceties because I dont have time for anything like that and I think people like you do not deserve them.
You will get to know who we work for ,what I do and what we want from you during the course of this e-mail.
 
You are well aware of the recent developments in Uganda regarding the issue of homosexuality, Gays, lesbians and anything that people like you would like to call yourselves. I am part of an organisation that has been formed to not only respond to the threat posed by people of whom you are a part but also to see to it that people like you are dealt with a way that prevents your numbers from multiplying to stain this beautiful country.
 
We recently got your contacts from some of our people working from the inside of the organisations that you homosexuals have set up and we have decided that we will make you and offer . We would like to let you know that .....we know you very well, and we know a lot about you! So do not try to play any silly tricks as we are very serious with this assignment and any time wasting and attempts to be smart by you will be severely punished.
 
What do we know about you?
You are about 34 years old, studied in King’s college then Namilyango college. You have a woman with whom you have a child. This woman is called Namubiru Siyada working with State House.
Your father is a one Mr Serugoti Michael who used to work with Bakharesa Company limited in Kampala but he disappeared off our radar . We shall find him though.
 
You work for an organisation within Makerere University called the Computer Institute and you also do part time work as at Synoviate at Nakasero. Most friday evenings you are seen heading to that place at around 9 pm.
 
We could tell you more about where you live and what your lifestyle is like but we trust that you dont doubt we know all that too and so for now we shall go straight to why we have written this letter to you.
 
We have been tasked with the job of stopping the spread of homosexuality and identifying and dealing with all stubborn homosexuals and sexual deviants in Uganda.
We work with many organisations to identify people like you and have contacts even within organisations like yours (SMUG) that inform us of your acitivities.
 
We have zeroed in on you as one of those hard core homosexuals (your family status not withstanding) that we could use as an example to the rest and this is our offer to you.
 
1)You should provide us with a list of all the homosexuals you know who are within kampala and Jinja districts whom you have come into contact with. We are aware you have not been very actively involved in sex with fellow men over the past three years but we know you are aware of those who engage in these acts.
 
2)You should also write a letter denouncing homosexulaity just as one of your colleagues (George Oundo) recently did, this we shall use as evidence that we are making headway in our fight against homosexuality in this country.
 
By the way you should be aware that people like George Oundo who have renounced that practice are some of those with whom we are working to tackle this cancer and we are making great progress.
Some of your friends as you might or might not know are already in our custody and what will determine whether they will ever be seen again will be there "cooperation " with our boys.
You are still out there because we are aware of some of the loose but significant connections you have to General Kale Kayihura and to some army elements too.
However you should know that in due time, these will not stop us from achieving our aims too.
 
For now that is all we require of you.
Failure to cooperate with us......
 
1)We shall expose you first to your employers then to your family and all your friends too.
 
2)we shall make sure (your employer) ,knows about your horrible habits and you know what has happened to fellow homosexuals who were working at your place of work. You are aware of the case of Mr. Lutakoome ....do you know why he was sacked from Makerere and now he cannot get any job as within Kampala? It is because he refused to cooperate with us.
We shall give you the same treatment if you too dont cooperate fully with us.
 
3)You will be exposed to all those in your neighbourhood and whereever else you attempt to move too we shall do the same again.
You already know that most of your neighbours are suspicious of you anyway since they hardly ever see you with a woman and yet your are a well off man!
 
That is just the tip of the iceberg for what we plan for you in case you dont cooperate.
 
We have your celphone contcat and we shall get in touch with you soon .
 
So think about our offer to you and get back to us within 1 month.
 
 
Peter .
National Anti- Homosexual Taskforce.
Kampala branch.

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So, why am I doing this? Why publish the email with all of those details?
This kind of vileness thrives best in darkness. It is the fear of exposure which they hold over our heads. So? Let me see how well they thrive in the glare of light. Have a feeling that is not something that they would like….!

And, of course I will remember Peter Karamaga, the National Anti-Homosexual Taskforce, and cleanseuganda@yahoo.com 

gug

13 comments:

Leonard said...

Vile creatures stay hidden because they are breaking the laws of nature and society...they are the same insane/terrified thugs and exploiters who have always taken people for rides, endless rides, endless murdering...endless and pointless as they dig their own graves over and over again...remember Hitler and his buddies and their demented cleansing campaign? There is no place to hide from insanity...watch. Meantime what does Morals Minister Buturo have to say about this deplorable method of enforcing the fear and hate that he´s initiated against LGBT in Uganda? Too stupid to know the harm he has done, no doubt.

The 27th Comrade said...

The method of essentially saying "We know everything about you" is a very effective scare tactic. Usually, though, you can trust that they do not know more than they revealed (because the tactic works best when you reserve no shocks).
The guy must be gripped by fear now. But, again, scare tactics are usually from those who are otherwise impotent. That thing about the barking dogs.

Anyway, while I understand (even excuse, even defend) the attitudes of guys like cleanseuganda, I don't quite understand what it is that would make this homosexuality thing that much of an issue. Actually, maybe I do understand, but it does strike me as rather overkill (no pun intended). Obviously this homosexual guy isn't marching down the streets in pink underwear screaming "Gay Pride!"; so I don't see what provocation would have roused this guy like this.

Oh, well.

Anengiyefa said...

And this person expected to be taken seriously? Talk about "hot air"! The email is too wordy for its own good and even if I feared exposure, I would not feel threatened by this.

I suppose the author expected the recipient to be terrified and fall to pieces, whereas the reality is that all Karamaga has achieved here is to display a worryingly lowly intellect.

AfroGay said...

Martin Ssempa! Only he could pretend that George Oundo is still on the ex-gay anti-gay side despite all the evidence that Oundo is now back again living an openly gay life. Ssempa wrote this.

LKT said...

The thing that gets to me in this letter is that being closeted is not enough; being married to a woman is not enough; not engaging in homosexual sex is not enough. Only the complete destruction of a person--of ALL gay people, actually--will provide satisfaction. It's truly despicable. Thank you, and the person being blackmailed, for bringing this to light

ASTRA REED said...

This is very bad too break the rules and regulatins of nature and society we all should obey rules.. he is homosexual person ..

Lynn David said...

Has anyone reported this attempt at blackmail to Yahoo?

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/abuse.html

spiralx said...

@"Astra" - you clearly don't know what you are talking about. Sexual orientation - of ALL kinds -is clearly part of nature, otherwise it wouldn't exist. Sexual minorities have always existed, in all human cultures, and will continue to do so. They pose no threat whatsoever to anyone.

As for "27th Comrade" - understand, yes. Vile vicious bigotry is always understandable. Excuse, no. Defend - never. You shame yourself as a human being with that statement. Go visit the Rwandan Holocaust museums and then tell me mass murder is defensible. Because that's where this letter is headed.

The 27th Comrade said...

@spiralx: I can defend mass murder. Whether I should is another matter. But to defend mass murder? Cummon:
It is evolutionarily-fit to mass-murder competitors, and I want to be evolutionarily-fit. Et cetera, et cetera.
I don't know if I shame myself as a human being; all I know is that there is nothing about defending mass murder that is not human (since this, and homophobia, are quite solidly human engagements).
I excuse vile, vicious bigotry because I see where those vile, vicious bigots are coming from. (It's not fun to be segregated against, but the segregators are not being irrational, generally-speaking. You can debate this, of course.) I am not going to jump on a self-righteous pedestal and be, excuse the wording, a homophobephobe.

spiralx said...

"It is evolutionarily fit to mass-murder competitors"? You knowledge of evolution is obviously as threadbare as your knowledge of sexual orientation.

To be blunt, you're talking nonsense...

And I also see where they're coming from. It doesn't make it, or them, one single iota more acceptable. Let alone excusable. It's based on ignorance, stupidity, lack of intelligence, and emotional bad behaviour.

We teach children to be better than that. So reverting to it when adult doesn't excuse anything - rather, the reverse.

Gay Nairobi Man said...

This is copy of a tactic used in kenya 6 years ago where I received an email like this. I also received a call with threats of exposure but in this case, I was asked to pay them...after they realized I cant give them names.

I told them to go publish what they could and expose me if they wanted to. That was the last time I heard from them.

Gug, please tell the recipients of these emails to refuse to negotiate with these unseen people and tell them to go jump in the lake!

The 27th Comrade said...

@Lynn David:
If they report the address, it will become harder to track this guy. Especially if he resorts to using one-off addresses, it makes tracking him more-difficult. Don't push him to further sophistication. :o)

@spiralx:
You say: "You[r] knowledge of evolution is obviously as threadbare as your knowledge of sexual orientation. To be blunt, you're talking nonsense..."

Back that up, O evo-devo guru. Don't just stop at dismissing it, O evo-devo guru. Nonsense should generally be easy to refute. In particular, show why a common behavioural phenotype is not evolutionarily-fit.
Plus, "sexual orientation" is not some topic about which knowledge may be had (thread-bare or otherwise).

You say: "And I also see where they're coming from. It doesn't make it, or them, one single iota more acceptable. Let alone excusable."

You may not find them acceptable (just as they do not find homosexuality acceptable), but there is a reason we don't make laws based on what you think. Is bad spelling acceptable, for example?

You say: "It's based on ignorance, stupidity, lack of intelligence, and emotional bad behaviour."

Your disagreeing with a verdict doesn't make it ignorant, stupid, and un-intelligent (even though it may be). Do you know that you sound like the homophobes do, except that you are facing the opposite direction? This is why people like me are at least necessary: so that we may chant - again, excuse the wording - "Let's Unite Against Homophobephobia!"

You say: "We teach children to be better than that. So reverting to it when adult doesn't excuse anything - rather, the reverse."

You teach your children wrong. Anyway, homosexuals don't have children, so the chances are good that if there are children being taught by their parents, their parents are going to be teaching them to be other than raving homosexuals. For that, for teaching children to be raving homosexuals, you need a society that thinks that wanting to fuck X makes fucking X a good thing. We are, thankfully, not yet such a society. I don't want my fetish for fucking running trucks legalised. "It's my orientation!" Yes, but so is mass-murder.
Of course, the people on this side are usually quite scary (like that cleanseuganda guy), but still: their being against you doesn't make them wrong.

Cheers, spiralx.

Jean-Paul, Canada said...

Utter crap.

And this while the ICC Conference is unfolding in Kampala.

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