NAIROBI (Reuters):An international human rights group has accused President Yoweri Museveni's government of promoting "state homophobia" in Uganda and urged the repeal of a colonial-era law against sodomy.
Human Rights Watch's attack added to a fierce social debate in the east African nation, where gays and lesbians have been increasingly vocal in demanding rights while Christian groups have taken to the streets to denounce them.
The government rejected the accusation and said it never persecuted gays despite homosexuality being illegal. Homosexuality is proscribed in many African countries, and gays and lesbians often live secret lives to avoid prejudice.
New York-based HRW sent a letter to Museveni calling for legislative reform and an end to his "long record of harassing" lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
"For years, President Museveni's government has drummed up homophobia and denied the basic rights of LGBT people for his own political advantage," said HRW researcher Juliana Cano Nieto in a statement sent to the media on Friday. "If lesbians and gays can be punished simply for speaking up for their rights, the freedoms of all Ugandans are endangered."
Ruling party spokesman Ofwono Opondo rejected the statement: "Our constitution criminalises homosexuality ... Even so, the government has never gone out to look for homosexuals," he told Reuters by telephone from Kampala.
The issue came to the fore in Uganda this month when an advocacy group, the Sexual Minorities Groups in Uganda, took the unprecedented step of holding a news conference to demand recognition. Even so, most hid their faces behind masks.
That prompted demonstrators from the Inter-faith Coalition of church groups to rally in Kampala demanding a crackdown. They waved placards like 'Arrest all homos' and railed against a U.S. newspaper intern who had written on homosexuals in Uganda.
"If some church groups come together and say we want a peaceful demonstration against them, that is their right," said Opondo. Uganda's conservative parliamentarians would be unlikely to change its laws, he added.
