In a country where homosexual conduct can be punished with life imprisonment, the Ugandan government's latest call for arrests based on sexual orientation is a grave threat to basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Yoweri Museveni. The letter urged the government to repeal its colonial-era sodomy law and end a long record of harassing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
On August 21, Uganda's Radio One announced that Deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi had called for the criminal law to be used against lesbians and gays in Uganda. "I call upon the relevant agencies to take appropriate action because homosexuality is an offense under the laws of Uganda," he reportedly said. "The penal code in no uncertain terms punishes homosexuality and other unnatural offenses."
...