Uganda to fight donor pressure on gay rights: minister

4 hours ago

KAMPALA (AFP) — Uganda will resist pressures from donor countries to soften its stance on homosexuality and plans to pass a new law that significantly clamps down on gay rights, a minister said Wednesday.

"I have been receiving a number of friends from outside Uganda telling me that we should go slow on the rights of people who promote anal sex," Ethics Minister James Nsaba Buturo said.

"And I'm telling them, 'well, if you in your countries you've chosen to promote anal sex that is your business but leave us alone."

He said that donors have threatened to withhold financial support if Uganda does not alter its position.

The minister added that the government was finalising a draft law aimed at curbing the promotion of gay rights to be tabled in parliament.

Referring to a recent press conference by gay rights campaigners, Buturo said: "That will soon be impossible for them to do... It will impossible for them to issue literature that is aimed at mobilising support."

Buturo has in the past said homosexual sex threatens Ugandan civilization because it does not produce children and accused the United Nations of a secret plot to spread homosexuality.

He has also called for the banning of miniskirts because they can cause road accidents by distracting male drivers.

Minister Buturo was missing out on the headlines

Government will not yield to homosexual pressure - Buturo

ISMAIL MUSA LADU

Kampala

The government has issued a stern warning to homosexuals and their sympathisers, saying it will not accept practice of unnatural sex even if it means losing out on the much needed donor support.

The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr Nsaba Buturo, told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre yesterday that they are ready to forfeit any amount of donor funding that is tagged as a condition to accept homosexuality.

“I have been pressured by some donors to allow homosexuality, but I have told them they can keep their money and the homosexuality because it is not about charity at the expense of our moral destruction,” Mr Buturo said.

Mr Buturo said the homosexual forces are very powerful and operating through powerful governments to have their desire fulfilled but Uganda will not succumb to any pressure to legalise unnatural sex and homosexuality in particular.

According to Mr Buturo, the country is besieged with sodomy, pornography, prostitution, drug abuse, witchcraft and indirect embezzlement, something that makes Uganda lose its heart and identity.

“Nowadays, our country is welcoming and embracing all manners of social evil that are likely to render our society insecure and unproductive. We must do something,” Mr Buturo worriedly said.

He said the government is considering stringent measures with a view to close down makeshift video halls commonly known as “bibanda” and cinemas that he said perpetuate unacceptable behaviour like homosexuality and pornography.

Mr Buturo said whistle blowing, pornography, homosexuality and money laundering bills are all in the offing and will boost the country’s effort to rid the immoral and debilitating excesses that he said is eating the country.

He dismissed the idea that special places be designed for prostitutes to ply their trade saying it does not dignify the trade. He also said all government departments are corrupt save for a few that just show only a semblance of integrity.

And the same from New Vision

Anti-gay Bill to be tabled soon

By Joyce Namutebi

A stringent Bill against homosexuality is in the offing, the state minister for ethics and integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, has said.

Addressing a press conference at the Media Centre yesterday, Buturo said the country was besieged by homosexuality, pornography, prostitution, human sacrifice, drug abuse, embezzlement and witchcraft to the extent that it was “dangerously becoming a permissive society.”

He noted that once the Bill is passed into law, it will be an offence to publish and distribute literature on homosexuality or advocate for it.

He also stated that it would become impossible for homosexuals to address press conferences and attract people to their cause, once the Bill becomes law.

He, however, declined to reveal the penalties for offenders.

Buturo said he was under pressure from some development partners “to go slow on homosexuals”.

He disclosed that some donors were threatening to withdraw funding if Uganda becomes more hostile to homosexuals.

“I all the time tell them to leave us alone. I say (to them) that Uganda’s integrity is more than the money they give us. We are not going to be taken advantage of on account of financial support,” Buturo stated.

After all, he remarked, 70% of the aid that Uganda gets is repatriated.

The minister dismissed the notion that people are born homosexual.

“Ugandans who are choosing to promote illegality should not abuse the rights of the majority,” he warned.

Buturo urged religious institutions to fight immorality, arguing that they are “supremely mandated to address matters of the soul.”

He disclosed that he was looking after 60 former homosexuals, saying they are under threat from their former colleagues. He, however, did not name the place where they are being kept.

The minister stressed that the Government would not create special places for prostitutes to do their trade.