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We have received a report from Uganda that another member of the LGBTI community has been brutally beaten with a threat “we will kill you all.” The number of beatings and murders of gay people in Uganda has been on the rise since recent hateful rhetoric delivered by Ugandan Government officials, including the threat to bring back to Parliament the reintroduction of ‘The Kill the Gays Bill.’

We are not releasing the name of the person who was found beaten apparently near death this morning in Kampala outside the offices of Angels Refugee Support Group. The organization director has noted that a member of Angels was killed. We have yet to verify this as a death.  We will update as we receive more information.

The message from the organization reads:

today in the morning our member of the organization was beaten to death in front of our office of the Angels. our hung out was called by phone. as a word launched by BD aggressors. we will kill you all. We are in the image in critical condition. please help us with this homophobia.

This month the Minister of Security in Uganda, Minister Elly Tumwine, said on National TV that LGBTI in Uganda are part of the agenda of a global terrorist cabal.  Soon thereafter a gay man was bludgeoned to death and we reported that the attack on 24 year old Wasswa, John (Brian) was motivated by homophobia. Read here.

Uganda criminalizes LGBTI people under the old Colonial Penal Codes. The 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, otherwise known as the “Kill the Gays Bill”, signed into Law by President Yoweri Museveni, was held to be invalid by the Ugandan Courts based on the technicality that Parliament failed to have a quorum at the time of passage. This past week an Ugandan official said the Bill was being reintroduced into Parliament and then other officials retracted this statement. However, as in the past, what this ping pong ball politicking does, in an attempt for popularity, is ignite extreme anti-homosexuality fervor, and can be directly attributed to the violence that is bound to follow. (read here.)

At this time many Uganda LGBTI people have fled to neighboring country Kenya to seek resettlement abroad due to the persecution of gays and lesbians and trans people in Uganda. There is no effective safe passage for most LGBTI people seeking exile from the violence against gays, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and intersex people, or those perceived as such in Uganda.

At the same time LGBTI people from neighboring East African countries such as Burundi and Rwanda seek refugee with UNHCR in Uganda, but unfortunately do not receive the security and resettlement rights as they ought to, due to the hostility of the Ugandan Government and it’s participation in their persecution. This has created a desperate need for organizations such as Angels. At this time UNHCR seems unable to work effectively with the Ugandan Government to register refugee cases for LGBTQI people who cross over from these countries. People are afraid to attend Ugandan government offices and police stations for registrations due to the government hostility through criminalization. Ugandans seeking exile cross over into Kenya to register in the hope of being resettled through UNHCR.

MELANIE NATHAN
Commissionermnathan@gmail.com

Advocacy: African Human Rights Coalition
Speaker: Melnathan
Mediation: Private Courts
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