One of the three Ugandan LGBTI activists who was arrested at the
HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting in Kampala on the 4th of June 2008, was
re-arrested and held for an additional four and a half hours today.
In response to demands for his release from his lawyer, the
Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), and UNAIDS, Usaam
Mukwaaya was released this afternoon on the condition that he returns
to the police on 10 June 2008.

Despite the fact that accredited cards for attendance at the 2008
HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting were given to all three of the LGBTI
activists by the sponsors of the international meeting, the police
have refused to drop the charge of criminal trespass against the three
activists and have added a charge of forgery against Mukwaaya today,
claiming that he did not have a valid permit for attending the 2008
HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting.

After the release of the three LGBTI AIDS activists yesterday, a
collective decision was made by the co-sponsors of the 2008 HIV/AIDS
Implementers meeting to accredit Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) to
attend the meeting. An official letter accompanied by three
accredited official cards for attending the conference was awarded to
the LGBTI AIDS activists.

Despite this fact, the police have refused to drop the charges of
criminal trespass and forgery. UNAIDS has submitted a statement to
the Ugandan Police indicating that the card was not forged and was
issued officially by the sponsors of the meeting.

NOTE: The charges against the three LGBT AIDS activists HAVE NOT BEEN
DROPPED and their case is still scheduled to be heard on the 20th of
June 2008. Please continue contacting the following people to request
them to drop all charges against the activists:

Via Smug - Sexual Minorities Uganda
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SMUG
LGBTI
Uganda

Three Ugandan LGBT activists have been arrested in Uganda whilst attending the HIV/AIDS Implementers Conference in Kampala. The LGBT and HIV / AIDS activists were protesting against comments made by the head of the Ugandan AIDS Commission that no funds would be given to AIDS programmes working with men who have sex with men. The meeting is part funded by PEPFAR which ties HIV funding to abstinence only programmes and anti-prostitution clauses.

On 2 May 2008, Kihumuro Apuuli, Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, stated that “gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time.” The SMUG activists staged a peaceful protest at the HIV Implementers meeting to protest the Minister’s statements and gross neglect on the part of the Ugandan government in responding to a growing HIV epidemic among the country’s LGBT community. They were arrested and detained at the Jinja Road Police Station immediately after taking the stage at the meeting, distributing leaflets and holding up small placards demanding attention to HIV vulnerability among LGBT.

Ugandan LGBT activists have been at the forefront of the struggle for human rights amongst the LGBT communities of Africa.

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SMUG
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Uganda

This Monday, 2nd June, 2008 the Director General of Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), was widely quoted by international media saying “Gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time,”

We would like to point out:

* 26 years since the epidemic of HIV started there has not been a single government led prevention programme amongst gay Ugandans.
* That from the very beginning of the world wide epidemic it was known that gay men are a vulnerable group.

The statement by the Director General is particularly sad, following statements of other Ugandan leaders that gay people should be marooned on an island to die2, and from an advisor to the UAC that “Our previous experience showed us that bringing homosexuals into campaigns against HIV only gives them a chance to propagate their illegal and unnatural acts.”3

We are Ugandans. We are gay Ugandans.

We have a right to life.

We have a right to health.

We have a right to be free of HIV.

We have a right to knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment. We have a right to protect our selves, our lovers, our families and our communities.

26 years since the HIV epidemic started, Gay Ugandans believe myths and lies about HIV because of biased and unscientific public education campaigns carried out by the government. Despite the lies we have been told, all people have the right to unbiased prevention, care, treatment, and support.

We are gay Ugandans, fellow human beings. We are your brothers and sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins and clans mates.

Please stop discriminating and stigmatizing Gay Ugandans in the fight against HIV. Gay Ugandans need to be included in HIV prevention programmes and to be ensured equal access to care, treatment, and support.

Press Release by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)

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SMUG
LGBTI
Uganda

So many years, so much faith, Hu,
and the sun shining through its lens
to etch truth into the books.

I hold a mirror to my face, looking at
my life from the world’s arched back.

Steel rods fill the mandala of my dreams,
bars that won’t let me leap over the Great Wall
to the place of gods on Mount Gephel,

where monks fire the streets of the town
I was born in, as I, Jamyang, wait for

somebody to bring a blanket
to this floor, some writing pads,
a pencil, so I can take poems home with me

when one day on the midnight train
bound for Lhasa I set foot again.
© Rethabile Masilo

Jamyang Kyi is a Tibetan singer, song-writer, journalist, who on the 1st of April was jailed by Chinese authorities. Protest poems is asking poets to write something against the action taken by China’s leaders, something for the release of Jamyang. Please visit protestpoems.org for more information. And if you haven’t already done so, bookmark them and visit regularly to see what unfairly treated journalist or artist the community is supporting.

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Two important events from the DRC - The one month campaign against sexual violence in the DRC took place between March 17-April 17th and coincided with a new law to ending the crimininalisation of children by accusing them of witchcraft. The campaign was funded by the UN Population Fund. However the question is in a country where tens of thousands of women have been raped and mutilated why did this campaign end after just one month. What happens now? The rapists remain free, and no one has been called to account for their crimes. Jacques Depelchin of the Otabenga Alliance raises two important questions -

Is it too harsh to ask oneself whether the campaign stopped after one month because that is what had been budgeted by the UN and other supporting NGOs, and agencies? Could it be that in a country like the DRC, moral and ethical values have been so badly eroded that nothing can be done unless one is paid for it–including getting rid of crimes like sexual violence against women and children,? The dominant mindset is not just one that is standing above us. It has taken root within ourselves. It has taken root within the minds of those who are the primary victims of its dominance.

If sexual violence were to be considered, like slavery, as a crime against humanity, would one be so nonchalant toward it? From 1791 through 1804, the Africans who had been enslaved in Haiti got rid of slavery. They did not achieve this through one month campaigns and fundraising exercises. They had no support from outside, no human rights organization

Then, the mindset of the enslavers accepted as normal that Africans were meant to be slaves. Step by step, over centuries, the mindset of the enslavers has enslaved parts of humanity to the notion that women and children are fair game for the abusive sexual behavior and pleasure of men.

The points raised by Jacques are equally applicable to the sexual violence and torture against women in South Africa of whom lesbians are a specific target. The stigma of rape is not on the rapist but on the women who are raped and this is the same mindset whether in the DRC, South Africa, the Niger Delta, Haiti or here in the UK. The UN has the resources to the maintain a continual campaign against sexual violence in the DRC as well as the resources to bring justice to the thousands of women survivors of some of the most horrific acts of sexual violence - Funding a one month campaign is pathetic and in fact could very well cause more harm against women who have come forth and spoken out about the crimes commited against them. What happens to them when the UN is gone and the campaign ended - the rapists remain free.

The second event is the continued assassination threat against Professor Wamba dia Wamba and Deputy Kiakwama of the Otabenga Alliance who has been actively protesting the continued brutality by the government of the DRC against the people of the “Bas-Congo (Lower Congo)–especially toward members of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK), a “movement for the cultural and spiritual emancipation of the Congo people” For more information on this see the Otabenga Alliance website.

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Wamba dia Wamba