homophobic witch hunt at cameroon schools

By Mark Levy (365Gay.com Cape Town, South Africa Bureau)

March 22, 2006: The hunt for gays in the small central African nation of Cameroon has reached colleges and universities.  Reports coming out of the country say that at least 30 students have been expelled from schools in the financial center of Douala.

The colleges say they have turned over information on the students to police for criminal investigations.  Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon and sentences can range from 6 months to 5 years imprisonment.

Most of the students are female, according to local reports.

One school expelled 10 students in a single day.

The government has been on a purge of gays in the country.  Two Cameroon men were sentenced last month to a year in prison after admitting to police that they had sex. (story)

By pleading guilty the men escaped forced medical exams to determine if they had anal intercourse - a requirement imposed by courts in sodomy cases.

Cameroon has come under fire for more than a year for its treatment of gays.

Last December eight international human rights groups, including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, demanded the immediate release of 11 other men who have been in prison for the past nine months awaiting trial on charges of suspicion of homosexuality.

They were arrested during a raid on a gay bar in the capital of Yaounde.

In a preliminary hearing the men were ordered to undergo rectal exams to determine if they had engaged in gay sex.

Two newspapers in the capital of Yaounde went on their own witch hunt, listed names of people suspected of being gay.

One paper listed the name of a cabinet minister who sued for libel.  The publisher was sentenced earlier this month to four months in prison.