Det Hvide Hus har udsendt en meddelelse, hvori præsident Obama i stærke vendinger ‘modsætter sig tiltag så som lovforslaget i Uganda, der kriminaliserer homoseksualitet og bevæger sig imod historiens bevægelse’. De canadiske og britiske regeringer har ligeledes modsat sig den foreslåede lov, mens Sverige har truet med at skære i udviklingsbistanden til Uganda, skriver Daily Monitor onsdag.
KAMPALA: International opposition against Ndorwa West MP David Bahati’s proposed anti-gay law continued to grow steadily, drawing support from such unlikely quarters as the White House.
The pressure from these and other sources was being felt in Kampala, with Ethics Minister Nsaba Buturo now saying he would remain silent about the proposed law until it has been passed or defeated.
“Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can’t see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades,” Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was quoted as saying in a recent edition of the Daily Telegraph. “Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers.”
In the US, senators Russ Feingold and John Kerry spoke out against the law, saying it had the potential to hurt Uganda-US relations, while Secretary of State Clinton said in a recent speech that she opposed it. “Law should not become an instrument of oppression,” the top US diplomat said in a speech at Georgetown University on Monday.
The Sunday Times, of South Africa, says in a current editorial that the proposed law would “legalise the murder of citizens merely for being who they are. It will encourage hatred and intolerance. It will drive wedges through families by inducing members to spy on each other”. The proposed law, the editorial says, could drag Uganda “back to the dark and evil days of Idi Amin”.
By yesterday, however, the official stance was that the government had not yet reached a position on the proposed law.
– Daily Monitor writes on Sunday
