Uganda Warns UN Not to Give Gays AIDS Information
By 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
365Gay.com,
November 30, 2004
Kampala—The government of Uganda
has has issued a warning to the UN joint program on HIV/AIDS that it risks
being thrown out of the country if it offers AIDS education to gays.
Information Minister James Nsaba Buturo accused UNAIDS
and the Uganda AIDS Commission of holding “a secret meeting” with members
of Uganda’s gay community.
Buturo said that any initiatives with gays would be a
violation of Ugandan law. Homosexuality is illegal in the country and Buturo
said that contacts with gays in which UNAIDS gave sexual advice would be a
crime.
The government has recently called on police to crack
down on homosexual activity.
Minutes of a “five-day East African Symposium on
HIV/Aids and Human Rights” obtained by the Kampala newspaper The Observer
show that the meeting held under the auspices of the Regional All Africa
Initiative in September discussed ways to lobby for better access for health
services for gays.
The symposium reportedly drew participants from Burundi,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe with resource persons from
South Africa, Switzerland and Argentina.
The Uganda AIDS Commission has denied that it is
developing a program aimed at men who have sex with men.
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