gay activist vows to sue lcs for raiding her home

By Moses Mulondo & Wendy Glauser

July 28, 2005: Ms Juliet Victor Mukasa, the chairperson of the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), says she is pressing charges against her LC1 chairman, Mr John Lubega, for abusing her friend and violating her right to privacy by illegally searching her house on July 20.

Mukasa, who admits she is a lesbian, was away when Lubega entered her house in Kamuli C Zone. He confiscated a CD and documents, most of which were SMUG-related.

Targeted?
Mukasa believes she was targeted because she is a lesbian, and that this discrimination violates her basic human rights.

"I felt that the way they raided my house without a search warrant violated my right to privacy. The way they pushed my friend around in my house, I see that as abuse," Mukasa said.

A female friend of Mukasa from Kenya, who is also a gay activist but wishes to remain anonymous, was staying in Mukasa's home at the time. (Mukasa asserts she is not in a relationship with her Kenyan friend.)

Mukasa's friend tried to stop the officials from taking documents and asked to see a search warrant. Mukasa's friend alleged Lubega pushed her out of the way, although Lubega denies this allegation.

Lubega took Mukasa's friend to the OC of Kamuli police station, Mrs Rose Isone, for being "idle and disorderly" because she didn't have identification papers.

After speaking to the woman, Rose decided she didn't have grounds to detain her.

"Even if she was a lesbian, how could you prove that?" she said. Mukasa's friend says the ordeal at the police station took three hours, though Isone alleges most of this time was spent in the waiting room.

During this time, Rose ordered the woman to undress in front of her to prove that she was a woman. "The laws on homosexuality aren't very clear. This gives authorities the opportunity to arrest you for anything," Mukasa said.

When Mukasa asked Lubega about the incident, he told her he went to her house because neighbours were complaining that Mukasa and her friend behave like husband and wife.

When Mukasa said she wanted to see the witnesses, Lubega brought a woman Mukasa didn't know. "The girl was saying we take ganja, we drink a lot, we smoke a lot, we sometimes come home late and make noise in our house," Mukasa said.

"These are all lies," she said. While she was at the station, police ordered Mukasa and her friends to stand up so they could determine that they were woman. "It was very humiliating," Mukasa said. "They kept saying 'they look like men.' It makes me feel bad when my gender identity is an issue of play, something to laugh about," she said.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Uganda has signed. "Gay people are not advocating for gay rights or special rights or bigger rights or more rights, they are only asking for the rights that belong to them like any other human being," Mukasa says, adding, "Human Rights Watch would make a statement on the incident and Amnesty International was investigating it".

When Daily Monitor approached Lubega, he said he was responding to several complaints from Mukasa's neighbours alleging she was engaging in lesbianism. "They don't dress like women. They wear shoes that are for men," Mukasa said, adding that confiscated books showing pictures of two women in intimate activity proved that Mukasa was engaging in homosexual acts.

Mob action
Lubega said he had been warned a mob attack could occur if Mukasa was not dealt with by authorities.

Mukasa feels Lubega is using protection from mob action as an excuse for what she sees as an unlawful search and detention. Still, she is fearful of both neighbours and police and is currently staying in a hotel.