Namibian Gay Rights Groups Challenge Nujoma
BBC News, March 21, 2001
A group campaigning for homosexual equality in Namibia has challenged
President Sam Nujoma to clarify remarks he made about gays earlier in the
week.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Rainbow Project coalition, Ian Swartz,
demanded to know which of the country’s laws allowed gays and lesbians to be
prosecuted.
On Monday, in a speech at the University of Namibia, Mr Nujoma was reported
to have said that homosexuals should be arrested, imprisoned or deported.
Mr Swartz asked whether special arrangements had been made with the prison
authorities to accommodate what he said would be a large influx of prisoners
if police acted on the remarks.
Several leading figures in the governing South West Africa People’s
Organisation of Namibia have, in the past few years, strongly criticised
homosexuality.
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