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Gay Rwanda News & Reports

Also see:
Gay Rwanda 2005 story
Gay Rwanda 2008 story
Behind the Mask LGBT African website
Gay Rwanda: Horizon Community Association of Rwanda (HOCA) reports

1 The tough life of being a transvestite in gay-hating Rwanda 9/03

2 Rwandan gay and lesbian people are short-changed due to a repressive environment 6/05

2a New Law Criminalizing Same-Sex Conduct Proposed in Rwanda 1/07

3 Africa, Offline: Waiting for the Web 7/07  (non-gay background story)

3a Gay Africans and Arabs come out online 2/08

4 African lesbian conference demands equal rights 2/08

5 Homosexuality in Rwanda? Yes, it lives 3/08 (Highly biased anti-gay report/diatribe from the Kigali newspaper)

6 Two Lesbian Rwandan Human Rights Activists Released on Bail 3/08

7 Rwandan priest gets life imprisonment for 1,500 dead  3/08  (non-gay background story)

The Mercury (South Africa),
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=284&fArticleId=236281

September 17, 2003

1
The tough life of being a transvestite in gay-hating Rwanda

by Declan Walsh Nairobi
At first glance, Tamara cuts the figure of a striking African woman. She is tall and slender with dark, ebony skin. Long black tresses fall to her shoulders, and a lipstick-coated cigarette dangles from fingers coated in violet nail varnish. Perched cross-legged on her seat, the 27-year-old flicks through a ragged copy of Hello! magazine and enthuses about clubbing, gossip and the merits of "strong men". But it is a deception. Under the made-up cheeks lies a pale shaving shadow. Her voice has a creaky, high pitch and there is a modest bulge in her jeans.

Because beneath the perfumed, feminine gloss, Tamara is a man. In many African societies, homosexuality is seen as a devilish aberration. If possible, transvestites are regarded as even worse.

Whereas in Britain she might be accepted as a transsexual, in Africa Tamara - not her real name - betrays her secret only to friends and lovers. Carelessness has a cost - being hounded down dark streets, stripped, shaved, beaten and jailed.

It is a tough life, but not one of her choosing, she says. As the son of Rwandan Tutsi refugees exiled in Burundi, childhood was confusing. The young boy found he preferred dolls to balls; later he attended matches only to sneak a peek at the players' muscular legs. When Tamara started experimenting with wigs and dresses in her teens, relatives were scandalised.

But her mother, after some pain, has accepted her. "She loves me so much," Tamara says with a smile. Not everyone else does, as she has discovered in subsequent travels around East Africa. At 20, she left home. In Zanzibar, policemen denounced her as "sick" and threw her in prison, where they shaved her head and confiscated her dress and jewellery.

Inside the grimy jail, her saviour was a sympathetic and "rather handsome" warden who saved her from beatings and shared his food. A month later she got out, after a Norwegian boyfriend greased the magistrate's palm with $200.

Returning to her parents' homeland, Rwanda, there was also trouble. Officials delayed her passport application for two years, scorning her as a "queer". Soldiers threatened to kill her. One night, police hauled her from a hotel bar and beat her to a pulp. As she languished in prison, her father died. They released her the day after his burial. Now she dresses as a man when she is in the capital, Kigali. "You don't play with the Rwandans," she says.

"For them, you are nothing." In contrast, the folk across the border in war-torn Burundi are more tolerant, she adds. White men make the best boyfriends, because they are more "civilised". For a time, Tamara lived with a French aid worker in Uganda. But Africans are bad news. "They are hypocrites," she says. "They can make love to you at night but the next day they won't look at you." A few times men have chatted her up, believing she was a woman. On discovering the truth, some have accepted her identity calmly, others with violence.

"Usually I tell them the truth at first. But not always," she says coyly. Tamara feels complete only when dressed as a woman. Every day she softens her skin with creams and almond oil. She shaves carefully, masking the shadow with foundation. The appearance of breasts comes from a special bra filled with water. She makes money from trading clothes and makeup, and from the men she dates. Wealthy businessmen pay for beach holidays, rent and food.

An elderly Englishman living in an upmarket Nairobi suburb is a current boyfriend. There are others, too. But more often than not, it is a lonely existence. A circle of friends offers support, but Tamara's happiest moments are alone. "I often feel closed in, not at peace in my heart. I love being on my own, with music. That's how I feel alive."

She wants to flee to Europe, where she feels she will find acceptance and perhaps that elusive sex-change operation. "I want to be a girl. I dream of it in my sleep," she says. A friend is helping her apply for a visa, but there are many complications. Yet Tamara is hopeful. "If I leave I'm never coming back here," she says. "I want to live in another world."

From: Behind the Mask
http://www.mask.org.za/SECTIONS/AfricaPerCountry/ABC/rwanda/rwanda_3.htm

June, 27, 2005

2
Rwandan gay and lesbian people are short-changed due to a repressive environment

by Jean-Luc, Johannesburg
It was a great opportunity to spend time with Eric, a gay man from Rwanda. I first met him in Johannesburg in early in 2005. He told me that he is gay. He lives in Kigali, is married to a woman and has one child. The information he offered about gay life in Rwanda covered a wide spectrum of topics ranging from gay life in Kigali, the constitution, and the concerns about HIV/AIDS.

" In my country there are a lot of gay people, but they have to live in hiding and they can't come out to embrace their sexual orientation, because they are afraid of rejection by their families, friends and the society. Being queer in my country is not an easy life. People call you names and, until now, there is no NGO or organization that supports the rights of gays in Rwanda."

Eric is very knowledgeable about the law. He said that the constitution doesn't say anything about whether it is illegal to be gay. "Many gays leave the country and go to Europe or America, where they will be far from their families and where they can feel free. Last year two women were arrested, but after three days they let them free, because there was no proof. But they were really abused verbally, until they left the country. Now the poor girls live somewhere in Europe. There are many gays abused verbally, because of their sexual orientation which is very bad."

Eric's decision to live a double life is not something that he is particularly proud of. " I discovered that I was gay at the age of 15, and until now I am still in the closet. I really don't enjoy my life, because I am living a lie, to myself and my wife. But I have the hope that one day I will live a normal life. I have to live as a gay man."

Eric is very optimistic that homosexuality will be legal, not only in his country but all over the world.

We turned our attention to HIV/Aids and he said the problem is that many people don't want to speak about it. Some NGOs are keen to avoid the subject at best of times.

" I know that many gays are engaged in risky sexual practices because they haven't been taught. We need health organisations who can teach people, because the more people don't speak about it the more people die. Many LGBT people are afraid to be tested, because of the automatic blame," said Eric.

Uncharacteristic of someone who is living in relative enclosure from homophobic attacks because of his marital status, Eric has a strategic plan for Rwandan LGBTI community. He cites lack of human rights groups, unbalanced media coverage, weak local NGOs (and those that deal with HIV/Aids) as the reasons why mobilization of the LGBTI sector in his country has not materialized.

Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director, IGLHRC
Phillip Braun & Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, Secretaries General, International Lesbian and Gay Association

January 23, 2007

2a
New Law Criminalizing Same-Sex Conduct Proposed in Rwanda

On 15 January 2007, IGLHRC and ILGA sent a letter to the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, asking him to reconsider plans to include of a provision that would penalize homosexuality as part of an overall revision to the Rwandan penal code currently being debated. The provision appears as Article 160 in the French version and article 158 in the English version of the draft penal code currently on the website of the Ministry of Justice.

Rwanda is moving to abolish the death penalty, mainly so that it may take custody of the overflow of Genocide-detainees whom the ICTR will be unable to prosecute before the expiration of its mandate. This is a positive and progressive move. Unfortunately, the opportunity is being used to introduce some new, equally oppressive legislation—particularly the criminalization for consensual same-sex acts, which had never been a crime in Rwanda, and heightened penalties for abortion.

Both Cape Verde and South Africa have repealed their sodomy laws and government officials in Kenya, Malawi, and Mauritius have begun discussions about the harmfulness of such laws. Commissioners of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights have also questioned the compatibility of anti-homosexuality laws with the African Charter in examining the state reports of Cameroon and Uganda at the 39th and 40th Ordinary Sessions of the Commission.

Rwanda has offered a strong response to AIDS and has been successful at stabilizing HIV transmission rates in the country. Criminalizing homosexuality will only hamper its efforts to fight HIV, by driving same-sex practicing Rwandese underground and making them even more afraid to discuss their sexual behavior with medical personnel, counselors, their husbands, wives and non-marital partners.

Rwanda has suffered so much pain as a result of social divisions and fictional cleavages in your society. Adding an anti-homosexuality law to the Rwandan penal code will serve no purpose other than to provide a legal platform on which to discriminate.

=============
15 January 2007
His Excellency Paul Kagame
President of the Republic of Rwanda
P.O. BOX 15, Kigali, Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda
Tel. (250) 08182000, 59062000

Your Excellency:
We are writing to you today on behalf of our two organizations—the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)—to ask your government to reconsider the promulgation of a new law that penalizes consensual relationships between adults of the same sex.

The provision appears as Article 160 in the French version and article 158 in the English version of the draft penal code currently on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
We salute the resolution of the government of Rwanda to abolish the death penalty, but find it unfortunate that as a result of the necessity of revising the penal code to reflect this decision, new, equally oppressive laws may be established—particularly the imposition of penalties for consensual same-sex acts.

Repeal of laws that criminalize same-sex conduct between adults is the trend throughout the world. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has held that laws that criminalize consensual, private homosexual conduct violate protections for privacy and non-discrimination in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that detention on the basis of sexual orientation constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty contrary to the ICCPR. The UN has called upon a number of countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Lesotho, to repeal these laws.

Both Cape Verde and South Africa have repealed their sodomy laws and government officials in Kenya, Malawi, and Mauritius have begun discussions about the harmfulness of such laws. Commissioners of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights have also questioned the compatibility of anti-homosexuality laws with the African Charter in examining the state reports of Cameroon and Uganda at the 39th and 40th Ordinary Sessions of the Commission.

Rwanda has been at the forefront of the response to HIV/AIDS in Africa and has been highly successful at stabilizing HIV transmission rates. Criminalizing homosexuality will only hamper your efforts to fight HIV, by driving gay and bisexual Rwandese underground and making them even more afraid than they already are to discuss their sexual behavior with medical personnel, counselors, their husbands, wives and partners.

Mr. Kagame, same-sex practicing people exist in Rwanda. They are good, everyday, patriotic Rwandese—farmers, teachers, lawyers, laborers, nurses— men and women who are committed to the peace, prosperity, and development your government is working to achieve. Your Excellency, adding an anti-homosexuality law to your penal code will serve no purpose other than to provide a legal platform on which to discriminate against these citizens. Sodomy laws offer impunity against violence and promote the targeting of unpopular groups of individuals.

Your Excellency, we are profoundly aware of the pain that Rwanda has suffered as a result of social divisions and fictional cleavages in your society. Whenever one group of people is marginalized—in policy or practice—they become fair game for oppression and violence. We ask you to please not let this happen again.

We would welcome a dialogue with you or other members of your government about this issue. IGLHRC’s Africa program can be contacted at cjohnson@iglhrc.org.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Ettelbrick
Executive Director
IGLHRC
Phillip Braun & Rosanna Flamer-Caldera
Secretaries General
International Lesbian and Gay Association

New York Times

July 22, 2007

3
Africa, Offline: Waiting for the Web

by Ron Nixon
On a muggy day in Kigali in 2003, some of the highest-ranking officials in the Rwandan government, including President Paul Kagame, flanked an American businessman, Greg Wyler, as he boldly described how he could help turn their small country into a hub of Internet activity. Mr. Wyler, an executive based in Boston who made his fortune during the tech boom, said he would lace Rwanda with fiber optic cables, connecting schools, government institutions and homes with low-cost, high-speed Internet service. Until that point, Mr. Wyler, 37, had never set foot in Africa — he was invited by a Rwandan government official he had met at a wedding. Mr. Wyler never expected to start a business there; he simply wanted to try to help the war-torn country.

Even so, Mr. Wyler’s company, Terracom, was granted a contract to connect 300 schools to the Internet. Later, the company would buy 99 percent of the shares in Rwandatel, the country’s national telecommunications company, for $20 million. But after nearly four years, most of the benefits hailed by him and his company have failed to materialize, Rwandan officials say. “The bottom line is that he promised many things and didn’t deliver,” said Albert Butare, the country’s telecommunications minister. Mr. Wyler says he sees things quite differently, and he and Rwandan officials will probably never agree on why their joint venture has been so slow to get off the ground. But Terracom’s tale is more than a story about a business dispute in Rwanda. It is also emblematic of what can happen when good intentions run into the technical, political and business realities of Africa.

Attempts to bring affordable high-speed Internet service to the masses have made little headway on the continent. Less than 4 percent of Africa’s population is connected to the Web; most subscribers are in North African countries and the republic of South Africa. A lack of infrastructure is the biggest problem. In many countries, communications networks were destroyed during years of civil conflict, and continuing political instability deters governments or companies from investing in new systems. E-mail messages and phone calls sent from some African countries have to be routed through Britain, or even the United States, increasing expenses and delivery times. About 75 percent of African Internet traffic is routed this way and costs African countries billions of extra dollars each year that they would not incur if their infrastructure was up to speed. “Most African governments haven’t paid much attention to their infrastructure,” said Vincent Oria, an associate professor of computer science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a native of the Ivory Coast. “In places where hunger, AIDS and poverty are rampant, they didn’t see it as critical until now.”

Africa’s only connection to the network of computers and fiber optic cables that are the Internet’s backbone is a $600 million undersea cable running from Portugal down the west coast of Africa. Built in 2002, the cable was supposed to provide cheaper and faster Web access, but so far that has not happened. Prices remain high because the national telecommunications linked to the cable maintain a monopoly over access, squeezing out potential competitors. And plans for a fiber optic cable along the East African coast have stalled over similar access issues. Most countries in Eastern Africa, like Rwanda, depend on slower satellite technology for Internet service. The result is that Africa remains the least connected region in the world, and the digital gap between it and the developed world is widening rapidly. “Unless you can offer Internet access that is the same as the rest of the world, Africa can’t be part of the global economy or academic environment,” said Lawrence H. Landweber, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was also part of an early effort to bring the Web to Africa in the mid-1990s. “The benefits of the Internet age will bypass the continent.”

Rwandan officials were especially interested in wiring primary and secondary schools, seeing information technology as crucial to modernizing the country’s rural economy. Some 90 percent of the country’s eight million people work in agriculture. But as of mid-July, only one-third of the 300 schools covered in Terracom’s contract had high-speed Internet service. All 300 were supposed to have been connected by 2006. Over all, less than 1 percent of the population is connected to the Internet. Rwandan officials say the company seems more interested in tapping the more lucrative cellphone market than in being an Internet service provider. (In November, Mr. Wyler stepped down as chief executive of Terracom, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family; he still serves on the board.) In a telephone interview from his home in Boston, Mr. Wyler said he would not address the government’s criticism, saying he did not want to be quoted as saying anything negative. But he said there were some things he had not anticipated, particularly the technical challenges of linking Rwanda’s Internet network to the rest of the world. The only way to do it is to buy bandwidth capacity on satellites, but there are not enough satellites to meet demand. Mr. Wyler also says he believes that Terracom suffers from unrealistic expectations. “Terracom has done everything it can, “ he said. “Because of the technical challenges, the Internet service is as good as it’s going to get. But given what we started from, I still think we have accomplished a lot. In the beginning there were a few people with Internet service; now there are thousands.”

The Rwandan government had hoped that the number of Web surfers would be much higher by now. Rwanda, which is about the size of Maryland, has little industry, and its infrastructure is still being rebuilt after being left in shambles by a 1994 genocide in which 800,000 to a million people were killed. “We have almost no natural resources and no seaports in Rwanda, which leaves us only with trying to become a knowledge-based society,” said Romain Murenzi, the minister of science, technology and scientific research. Officials saw Terracom’s investment as crucial to its transformation. Unlike many African governments, Rwanda’s was eager to privatize the national telecommunications company, which had outdated equipment, high prices and few subscribers. But from the start, government officials say, there were problems with Terracom. Mr. Butare, the telecommunications minister, said the government had trouble getting basic information from the company. Complicating the situation, Mr. Butare said, was that Mr. Wyler tried to run Terracom from the United States, visiting Rwanda just a few weeks at a time. He left day-to-day management to a poorly trained staff, Mr. Butare said.

“There were spots where they did some things here and there,” Mr. Butare said. “But over all they have failed to do what they promised.” Internet rates have been lowered, from about $1,000 a month when Terracom arrived in 2003, but most people still can’t afford it. The average Rwandan makes about $220 a year, and a fixed-line Internet hookup costs about $90 a month. Basic wireless Internet is about $63 a month. Those rich enough to pay the fees complain about poor service. Government officials say the company has spent more time marketing and signing up cellphone customers than on expanding Internet service. According to government figures, Terracom has 30,000 to 40,000 mobile phone subscribers and about 20,000 Internet customers. The situation came to a head late last year, when government officials contended that Terracom secretly tried to trade its shares in the Rwandan telecom to GV Telecom, a regional African telecommunications company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Rwandan officials were furious, saying this was a violation of the contract signed by the two parties. The plan was scrapped and Mr. Wyler was widely criticized. In June, the government fined Terracom nearly $400,000 for failing to comply with its licensing obligations, failing to provide information about its operations and failing to pay several fees.

“We decided to penalize Terracom after they failed to fulfill their obligations for a long time,” said Beatha Mukangabo, legal officer for the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency. Terracom said it has paid the fines and is working with the government to meet all of its obligations. Mr. Wyler said he has not been involved in Terracom for nearly 10 months and could not comment on its current operations. Christopher Lundh, Terracom’s new chief executive and a former executive of Gateway Communications in London, has worked in several African countries. He now lives and works full time in Rwanda, and many government officials say Terracom’s performance has improved under his leadership. Mr. Lundh acknowledged that there were problems with the company’s operations in the past. “The former management did make some promises that they were not able to keep,” he said. “That’s why I was brought in to professionalize things.” He also said that the company could have better handled the matter with GV Telecom but that he thinks the government overreacted. He said the Rwandan government is to blame for some of the delays. “We would get to schools that don’t even have electricity or computers,” he said. “That is not our fault.” In addition, he said that many of the complaints about the company concerned things beyond its ability to control. Getting adequate bandwidth remains a constant challenge.

Like most telecommunications companies in eastern Africa, Terracom depends on satellites for Internet service. Satellite service is much slower than cable because of delays in the signals. Satellites also provide less bandwidth than cable. Adding to the problem is that most of the satellites serving Africa were launched nearly 20 years ago and are aging or going out of commission. A satellite set to go into service last year blew up on the launching pad. Power is also an issue, as intermittent power failures in Rwanda hamper efforts to provide a steady electricity source.

Despite these limitations and earlier setbacks, Mr. Lundh says Terracom is moving ahead with plans to give Rwanda the most advanced Internet infrastructure in Africa. A nationwide wireless connection should begin operating near year-end, he said, about the time a nonprofit group, One Laptop Per Child, based in Boston, is to introduce a $100 laptop in the country. And Terracom is continuing to lay fiber optic cables to connect Rwanda to several other African countries, eliminating a need for phone calls and Internet traffic to be routed via European or American networks. The government, meanwhile, is moving forward with its own plans to build a fiber optic network. It also has granted Internet service licenses to South African companies and plans to issue several more. “We think we are going to have a healthier market pretty soon,” said Nkubito Bakuramutsa, director general of the Rwanda Information Technology Authority. “We have learned from past experience.” Mr. Bakuramutsa said he hopes to bring the price of Internet service down to about $10 a month.

Mr. Lundh said his company welcomes the competition. But, he added, getting necessary bandwidth remains an issue and no matter what company supplies Internet service, speed will be a problem. “Eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns,” he said.“Unless there is a new undersea fiber optic cable built or a new satellite launched, it’s going to be difficult.”

Magnus K. Mazimpaka contributed reporting from Rwanda.

The Guardian, Nairobi, Kenya
Reuters

February 19, 2008

3a
Gay Africans and Arabs come out online

by Andrew Heavens
Khartoum (Reuters) - When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online. But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com. "Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.

Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution. "The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."

In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation. "If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,'" Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also." His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated: "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."

News and Abuse
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails. "Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. "I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation," referring to the country's post-election violence. Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog. Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger "...and then God created Men!" the joys of the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.

Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond. The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq. Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds "to help my community in Kenya". There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.

The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene. "It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which hosts gay stories, news and reports throughout the world.

" There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.

Ways to Meet
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge. There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians. And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open. "I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.

Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society. "That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda. "Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!"

(Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith)

pinknews.co.uk
http://pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6974.html

27th February 2008

4
African lesbian conference demands equal rights

by PinkNews.co.uk staff writer
Lesbians from across Africa have held a conference in Mozambique to highlight the homophobia and prejudice they face across the continent. Most nations in Africa criminalise same-sex relationships and in some countries gay people can be put to death. The Coalition of African Lesbians conference was attended by more than 100 delegates.

Women from 14 African countries gathered in Namibia's capital Windhoek in August 2004 to develop the Coalition of African Lesbians. Lesbian organisations and a number of individual women from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia are members of the organisation. "Our main goal is that lesbian and homosexuality can no longer be seen as a criminal offence," the group's director and conference spokeswoman Fikile Vilakazi told Reuters. "You should not be arrested and charged for how you use your own body."

The coalition lobbies for political, legal social, sexual, cultural and economic rights of African lesbians by engaging strategically with African and international structures and allies and to eradicate stigma and discrimination against lesbians. South Africa, one of the few countries on the continent where gay men and lesbians are allowed to marry and legally protected from discrimination, has been rocked by several murders of prominent lesbian activists.

Sizakele Sigasa, 34, an activist for HIV/AIDS and LGBT rights, and Salome Masooa, 24, were discovered dead at field in Soweto, Johannesburg, on July 8th. They had both been shot and, it is suspected, raped.

On 22nd July Thokozane Qwabe, 23, was found in a field in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal with multiple head wounds. She was naked and it is thought she was also raped.

New Times Kigali, Rwanda
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13467&article=4809

March 9, 2008

5
Homosexuality in Rwanda? Yes, it lives (Highly biased anti-gay report/diatribe from the Kigali newspaper)

BY Stephen Rwembeho and Eugene Mutara
The sexual behaviour or attraction between people of the same sex, or to a sexual orientation commonly referred to as homosexuality, has of recent hit public concern.

There has been a number of cases that were evidenced in prisons (mainly) and in some schools, in churches and to a lesser extent in the general public.

Etymologically, the word homosexual is a Greek and Latin hybrid with homos (often confused with the later Latin meaning of “man”, as in homo sapiens deriving from the Greek word for same, thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism.

Homosexuality however, goes against nature and African culture. No wonder it has received enormous condemnation in most African countries especially in black Africa. And various African heads of state have condemned it.
President Mugabe has no kind words for them One time he denounced lesbians and gays as “sexual perverts” who are “worse than dogs and pigs”.

“ We don’t believe they have any rights at all”, he said.
In a speech to an international conference on reproductive health, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said, “I have told the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them.”

“ Carnal knowledge” against the order of nature is a crime in Uganda with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Museveni denounced homosexuality as against the Bible and an abomination in African culture. He mocked European politicians for their support of gays and lesbians.

The following day, the former President of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi declared in the same tone, that homosexuality was wrong, going against the Bible and African tradition.
“ I will not shy away from warning Kenyans against the danger of the scourge,” he said. The western homosexual activists have, however, condemned such denouncements as human rights abuse.

They have been complaining that in many African cultures, gay and lesbian people are frequently subject to prejudice and discrimination, like many other minority groups that are objects of prejudice and stereotypes. It is true that homosexual culture is not Rwandan and is therefore susceptible to challenges.

Rwanda has not spoken much about homosexuality, but certainly it is against the practice. If homosexuality is not African then it cannot certainly be Rwandan! It is against this background that a mini survey was done to know if there are gays in Rwanda or not. The survey out that homosexuality really existed in Rwanda.

Like any other form of prostitution, it is denied, and practised indoors - a thing that has made it remain in obscurity. There is a community of gays in Rwanda, even though one will be hard put to produce evidence to clearly prove it.
One gentleman, who did not want to be mentioned, caused laughter in public when he complained thus: “I was surprised when a man of my age approached me to be his boy friend. He was serious and promised to offer me some good money. This is horrible! Suppose I was a young man with problems of money; the amount he offered would have really seduced me into the nasty demands of the son of devil.”

Many other people agree that there are gays in Rwanda, but say that it is difficult to identify them. It takes a lot to recognise a gay person; but sometimes young men go about with treated hair, tinted, walking like a woman, or forcing the voice to soften like that of a woman and speaking with abnormal gestures, etc. They cannot go out in the open and shout it out because they would be ridiculed.

There are communities that have a high number of gays, and these include prisons and schools. According to some school authorities who did not want to be mentioned due to obvious reasons, the youth in schools are adopting homosexuality. The teachers blame the foreign influence brought about by people who come from Europe and other Africans who have adopted the western sexual tendencies.

The Rwandan youth get friends online (internet),who later on come to visit them in Rwanda and end up teaching them homosexuality. We have homosexual cases, mainly in urban areas, but it is generally still at a low level.

However, we should not forget that Rwanda is gaining big momentum in technology and the use of internet. This may increase the number of homosexual cases as young men and girls try to discover the new world.

Cybercafés in Rwanda should put strong restrictions on pornography websites. Children go to internet mainly to watch these sites and others related to them. Parents too should control their children and protect them from watching pornographic movies at home.

Otherwise, we risk having children engaged in such unwanted sexual behaviour. The prisons in Rwanda are said to have the largest number of homosexuals according to the survey done.

We contacted the head of prisons in Rwanda, Mr. Steven Barinda, on the issue and he had this to say: “We have a problem of homosexuals and homosexuality in prisons due to a number of reasons; most of the prisoners we have are genocide suspects who used rape as a weapon during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. When they were put in prison they never stopped the behaviour. You know behaviour changes over time. They are the ones that have been causing trouble. Some genocide prisoners remained as kings and had other prisoners who worked as their servants. Of course, they were the very servants they had when they committed Genocide. The ones they used to kill. I am talking about the Genocide planners, category one and two.”

No one likes prison, but people are more unusually scared of finding such people in prison because they fear they would be raped by the same genocidaires. However, Barinda assured the public that stern measures were being put in place and “homosexual kings” in prisons have been dethroned and nobody should be worried any more.

“ We initiated inside prison patrols (amarondo) and any prisoner found misbehaving is confined in a separate room. We have greatly improved inside prison security. We of course still have a problem of old buildings that need rehabilitation so that we maximise our security measures,” said the experienced Barinda.

There are in fact very many reasons that call us to worry about homosexuality. These reasons go beyond the fact that homosexuality goes against the Rwandan cultural norms and morals. Homosexuality is harmful for society since it does not engender reproduction, thus threatens the survival of society.

It poses a great threat to children, and leads to depressing and miserable lifestyles. Generally, homosexuals are obsessed with a sexual lifestyle that is unnatural, and so the society should stand warned well in advance.

Behind the Mask
http://www.mask.org.za/index.php?page=rwanda

March 12, 2008

6
Two Lesbian Rwandan Human Rights Activists Released on Bail

By Abeli Zahabu (BTM French Reporter)

Two Rwandan human rights activists were released on bail early this week and are subjected to report to a Kigali prosecutor every Thursday following their arrest two weeks ago.

The two women are in addition confined within Kigali’s boundaries as one of the conditions of their bail.

Nyirahabimana Salma and Umutoni Fatoumata were arrested at Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on their way to Maputo in Mozambique to attend a 3rd Leadership Institute conference organised by Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) two weeks ago.

According to immigration officers at the Kigali airport, the human rights activists were arrested because of forged documents and were not in possession of valid visas to get into Mozambique.

However, according to LAMBDA, an organisation operating which co-hosted the conference, the human rights activists were in possession of invitation letters that could have allowed them to obtain visas at the entry point in Maputo.

The release came after the prosecutor in Kigali admitted that he didn’t have sufficient evidence and needed more time to prepare the evidence.

Few days ago, original documents were submitted by the Mozambican immigration services to assert that Fotoumata and Salma were not in possession of forged documents, and they were supposed to obtain their visas at the entry point in Maputo.

“ The original invitation letters that were sent from Maputo helped a lot to speed up the case, and we are really grateful for the support we got from LAMBDA, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, as well as from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex community”, said a joyful Ruzindana, Project Coordinator at Horizon Community Association (HOCA).

The release of the two activists was met with joy and a sense of relief at HOCA though “the girls are still very terrified”, Ruzindana added.

Asked if the organisation is planning any action, Ruzindana said they are waiting for instructions from the lawyer about way forward.

Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/

March 13, 2008

7
Rwandan priest gets life imprisonment for 1,500 dead

ARUSHA, Tanzania - A U.N. tribunal has extended the sentence of a priest to life in prison after upholding his war crimes conviction for ordering militiamen to burn and bulldoze a church with 1,500 people inside during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda's ruling came after Rwandan Roman Catholic priest Athanase Serombawar appealed his 2006 conviction, a tribunal statement posted on its Web site late Wednesday said. He was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The tribunal is trying the alleged masterminds of the 100-day Rwandan genocide in which more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

The tribunal said it convicted Seromba for "his role in the destruction of the church in Nyange Parish, and the consequent death of approximately 1500 Tutsi refugees sheltering inside."

Seromba was convicted of leading a militia that attacked the people and poured fuel through the roof of the church, while police threw grenades inside. After failing to kill everybody inside the church, Seromba ordered it to be demolished, the tribunal found.
Thousands of Rwandans have turned away from Catholicism, angered and saddened by the complicity of church officials in the genocide.

Priests, nuns and followers were implicated in the killings and some churches were sites of notorious massacres.
The Rwanda war crimes tribunal has delivered 32 judgments, including five acquittals, since the U.N. Security Council established it in November 1994. There are 27 trials under way.