From: Herrn Edward Mulindwa <mulindwa@look.ca>
Date: Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Subject: [Mwananchi] THAT IS THE FACE OF THE IRISH MINISTER, LOOK AT IT AND NEVER EVER FORGET IT
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Irish Minister slammed over 'sex with Africans' remark
Northern Ireland's Edwin Poots refuses to back down over controversial views
28/07/2012 04:00 PM
CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS: Northern Ireland health minister Edwin Poots
AFRICAN COMMUNITY campaigners in Nor-thern Ireland are demanding the resignation of the country's health minister Edwin Poots after he said that people who have sex with Africans should be banned from donating blood.
Poots caused controversy last month when he said he wanted to see a ban on blood donations from gay people.
However, he prompted fresh criticism after telling Northern Irish media that the ban should be extended to people who have sex "with somebody in Africa or sex with prostitutes."
Poots, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party told BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Politics programme he believed that people who engaged in what he called "high-risk sexual behaviour" should be excluded from giving blood.
"And so someone who has sex with somebody in Africa or sex with prostitutes, I am very reluctant about those people being able to give blood," Poots said.
The African Caribbean Community Support Organi-sation in Northern Ireland (ACSONI) has written to Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness expressing their concerns about the impact of the health minister's comments and demanding his resignation.
Outraged
ACSONI's Alfred Abolarin said that the country's Black community were outraged that a senior government minister was publicly expressing such "backdated" views.
He told The Voice: "It's shocking that such a statement can come from someone who plays such a very important role in the affairs of Northern Ireland. There is a ministerial code in Northern Ireland and you would expect comments like these violate that code. We have 12 African association groups in Northern Ireland and we've held a meeting with all the chairpersons. They have been equally critical about Mr Poots' comments."
Abolarin added: "His comments definitely have an impact because he is in a position of leadership and what he says will be taken seriously. In terms of promoting good relations between the African community and the rest of Northern Ireland I think he's made it more difficult because there are people of African descent who are in relationships with those from the indigenous community and him making statements like that creates problems for those relationships. It also reinforces some of the negative perceptions that people here have about Africans. It's unhelpful and you can't make such a blanket statement about a continent."
Ezekiel Johnson, chair of the Ghana Association in Northern Ireland agreed, describing Poots' comments as "appalling and discriminatory to a very high degree".
He said: "It is unimaginable that, in this day and age, a government minister will put forward a proposition that everyone having sex with people in Africa is engaging in high risk sexual behaviour."
Earlier this month ACSONI held a protest outside the BBC offices in Belfast where his comments were broadcast.
Criticism
However Poots denied that his comments were racist, and said that there "have been measures in place for decades that prohibit blood being given by people who have had sex in Africa, with a 12 month deferral.
This is not something new. In many African countries we have high levels of HIV and therefore it is incumbent on us to protect the safety of individuals receiving blood."
Abolarin said ACSONI was hoping firm action would be taken following their letter to First Minister Peter Robinson.
He said: "African community groups have been quite vocal on this issue. We're hoping that the powers that be will pay heed and listen to what we're saying and get him to retract what was said."
Posted on: 28/07/2012 04:00 PM
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