a.i says anti-gay laws used as a political tool

By Yemti Harry Ndienla (English.ohmynews)

March 9, 2006: Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, has described current anti-homosexuality campaigns in Cameroon and other countries around the world as a gross violation of human rights.

Amnesty International's condemnations are entitled, "Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence, Torture and Ill-Treatment, Based on Sexual Identity." The document, published as part of Amnesty International's worldwide campaign against torture, is a contribution to the growing international efforts to end violence and discrimination against homosexuals, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people.

The non-governmental organization believes that the current homophobia in Cameroon and elsewhere is used as a tool to divert public opinion and discredit or silence opponents from society. It says in other countries, accusation of homosexuality has been used as a pretext to imprison political opponents. It calls on human rights organizations in Cameroon to rise up and emulate the South African example, where a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights march in Cape Town forced the South African constitutional court in 1998 to rule that laws incriminating sodomy (referring to consensual sex between men) violated the rights to equality, dignity and privacy enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution.

Fortunately, Amnesty International's plea finds a welcoming ear in Cameroon, as the nation's president, Paul Biya, in his message to the youth in February condemned journalists reporting on homosexual activities for violations of human rights and invasion of privacy. His statement was in reaction to a list of alleged homosexuals in the country published by Jean Pierre Amougou Belinge, in the No. 254 edition of the Anecdote newspaper.

Amnesty says sexual orientation, like gender or race, relates to fundamental aspects of human identity. It recalls the opening words of the universal declaration of human rights, where human rights are founded on the concept of respect for the inherent dignity and worth of the human person.

It holds that law and cultural practices criminalizing sexual orientation attack a deeply rooted aspect of human personality. They inflict huge psychological as well as physical violence, because they force some people to forgo an area of experience which, for many, offers the greatest potential for human fulfillment.

Because homosexuality relates to the deepest affairs of the heart, the innermost desires of the mind, and the most intimate expressions of the body, sexual orientation goes to the care of a person's right. Amnesty International recalls that unlike men, women already won their right to be recognized at the 1995 Beijing conference with the Beijing platform for action, where women were given the control over their lives and to decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive rights, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

It should be noted here that two French students, Medzer Celine Christiane and Cordeau Christelle, were in Cameroon to carry out studies on how homosexuality is practiced. After succeeding in getting live pictures of people involved in homosexual acts on video cassettes, they were later caught by three police commissioners; Zogo Junior Christophe, Kergnine Kerbai Didier, and Ebene Albert Leopold, who later collected a 1 million francs (U.S.$10,000) bribe from them. But the officers where later suspended by National Security Delegate General Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo'o. On behalf of the head of state, they were suspended from their respective duties for three months for what was described as "serious dishonesty, compromise of mission, characterized negligence, and disrespect for given instructions."

It is widely said in Cameroon that they were in the country to shoot video images of homosexual activities and identify those who go about the macabre act in Cameroon at the instructions of a sect society called Free Masons. The move to measure the level of homosexuality in the country was commanded by the sect in order to get the government of Cameroon to legalize the act in the days ahead.