'Real and substantive' investigation urged after advocacy officer for
Sexual Minorities Uganda bludgeoned to death in Mukono
Xan Rice in Nairobi
Friday January 28 2011
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/ugandan-gay-rights-activist-murdered
One of Uganda's most prominent gay rights activists has been murdered
in his home weeks after winning a court victory over a tabloid that
called for homosexuals to be killed.
David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was
bludgeoned to death in Mukono, Kampala, yesterday afternoon. Witnesses
saw a man fleeing the scene in a car, and police are investigating.
Along with other Ugandan gay activists, Kato had reported increased
harassment since 3 January, when a high court judge granted a
permanent injunction against the Rolling Stone tabloid newspaper,
preventing it from identifying homosexuals in its pages.
Late last year, Kato had been pictured on the front page of an issue
carrying the headline "Hang Them" [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/
2010/oct/21/ugandan-paper-gay-people-hanged" title="">an issue
carrying the headline "Hang Them]. He was one of the three
complainants in the court case.
"Since the ruling, David said people had been harassing him, and
warning they would 'deal with him,'" Julian Pepe Onziema, a close
friend and fellow gay rights activist, said.
"We were due to meet yesterday [Wednesday] to discuss security
arrangements, but he said he did not have money to get to town. A few
hours after we spoke, his phone was off."
Human Rights Watch said it was too early to speculate why Kato had
been killed, but added that there were serious concerns about the
level of protection of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community in Kampala.
Maria Burnett, the Uganda researcher for Human Rights Watch, urged a
"real and substantive investigation" into the murder.
News of Kato's murder came after a lesbian due to be deported from
Britain to Uganda said she feared she would be killed if she was
returned.
Brenda Namigadde, 29 - who fled Uganda in 2003 after being threatened
over her relationship with her Canadian partner - is being held at
Yarl's Wood detention centre.
She told the Guardian: "I'll be tortured or killed if I'm sent back to
Uganda [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/brenda-namigadde-
deportation-fear-uganda?INTCMP=SRCH" title="]. They've put people like
me to death there. Most of my friends in Uganda have disappeared."
Her initial asylum claim was rejected, in part on the basis that there
was not sufficient evidence that she is a lesbian.
Ugandan society is, in general, homophobic ? but in recent years the
anti-gay feeling has been stoked by religious leaders, a group of US
evangelicals and politicians.
In 2009, MP David Bahati introduced the anti-homosexuality bill, which
calls for gay people to be imprisoned for life [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/29/uganda-death-sentence-gay-sex"
title="]. Repeat offenders would face the death penalty, while
Ugandans would be required to report any homosexual activity within 24
hours or face police action themselves.
Widely condemned internationally, the bill remains before parliament.
Kato was one of the leading voices against the legislation.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment