us funding blamed to fuel homophobia in africa

By Nthateng Mhlambiso (BTM Senior Reporter)

AFRICA ABROAD – November 13, 2007: While international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, sent petition to the US Global Aids Coordinator Mark Dybul, complaining about an alleged bias funding received in Uganda, the US embassy in Kampala denied the allegations.

The US embassy refuted that the funding was promoting homophobia, and emphasised that the organisations met the terms and conditions of funding process.

In a press statement released on 16 August 2007, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) revealed that it has uncovered evidence that the US government has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote discrimination against homosexuals.

The statement further stated that the press conference held by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) on 16 August this year was met with heated hate speech by religious groups, with the primary instigator being Pastor Martin Ssempa of the Makerere Community Church, which is a sub-recipient of US funding through Population Services International.   

IGLHRC also found that the Ugandan Muslim Tabliqh Women’s Desk, that has recently announced a plan to establish an anti-gay squad in Uganda, has also received a grant under the President’s Emergency Fund for Aids Relief (PEPFAR), to implement HIV programmes in Masaka District.

"What we do know is that few PEPFAR dollars are being used to fight HIV among gay men in Africa", Cary Alan Johnson IGLHRC's Senior Specialist for Africa said.

"Not only have African men who have sex with men been largely ignored with regard to HIV prevention services, but avowedly homophobic organisations are recieving funding for programmes that will only further stigmatise homosexuality, this has to stop”, he added.
 
On the other hand, in his letter to Dybul, Scott Long, Director of Human Rights Watch said that attacks of LGBTI people in Uganda come in context where prevention methods that condemn both the use of condoms and the fact of homosexual conduct have been funded by the US government.

“The US enables and supports the devastating exclusions of LGBTI people. By definition, abstinence-until-marriage programmes [allegedly pushed by Ssempa] discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. For young people who are lesbian or gay and cannot legally marry in Uganda, these messages imply a lifetime of enforced celibacy”, Long said.

Responding for the US Embassy in Kampala, Public Affairs Officer, Lisa Heilbron said that the US government is aware of the recent allegations concerning activities of people associated with the Uganda Muslim Tabliqh Community Women’s Desk, The Makerere Community Church and the Campus Alliance to Wipe Out Aids.

She, however, denied any knowledge of specific allegations of non-compliance regarding terms and conditions of grants by these organisations.

“If any are brought to the attention of the US government team in Kampala, they will be fully investigated. Similarly, if allegations of exclusion of persons or groups from HIV/Aids programmes in Uganda are received, they will be fully investigated”, she concluded.