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Compiled By GayToday
 President Sam Nujoma: Calling for the killing of homosexuals in Namibia |
Amnesty International UK is expressing alarm at recent threats issued
against lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT) in
Ecuador and Namibia.
In Ecuador, an anonymous homophobic group has threatened to begin to kill
members of the human rights organization Quitogay this month and to wipe
out the rest of Ecuador's LGBT community.
The threat to Quitogay was received in an email that referred to "mentally
disturbed, queers and human rubbish". It went on to say "our objective is
to exterminate this plague of queers" and refers to a "social cleansing of
the whole country".
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The threat comes at a time when the police themselves are accused of
torturing and threatening to kill LGBT people in Ecuador. In January, when
police officers were accused of harassment, representatives of the
Ecuadorian Sexual Minorities Foundation went to the national police
headquarters to identify officers responsible. Upon entering, an officer
threatened to kill them if they testified.
According to recent reports, at least 60 LGBT people have been arbitrarily
arrested in the last six months in the Ecuadorian town of Guayaquil alone—
this in spite of the fact that homosexual acts between consenting adults were
decriminalized in Ecuador in 1997.
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Meanwhile last month, President Nujoma of Namibia told University of
Namibia students that "the Republic of Namibia does not allow
homosexuality, lesbianism here. Police are ordered to arrest you, and
deport you and imprison you." Members of Nujoma's cabinet have reportedly
made similar statements that homosexuals should be "eliminated" from
Namibian society.
Amnesty International says that "the vilification and persecution of
persons for their sexuality is a violation of their fundamental human
rights and considers those imprisoned for their sexual orientation, or for
the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression and
assembly, to be prisoners of conscience. Official vilification also
increases the risk of assaults and other human rights abuses against
people from sexual minorities by security officials and other individuals."
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Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Namibian President Calls
for Violence Against Gays
Gay Amnesty International
Activists Form Network
Amnesty Seeks Support for Jailed Romanian Lesbian
Related Sites:
Amnesty International
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