L
LequteMan
Guest
Africa- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has wadded into the dispute between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the West after the East African leader signed anti-homosexuality laws.
The bill which originally carried a death penalty was first introduced in 2009 but was shelved when the West threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda.
However, Uganda's parliament passed it in December, only replacing the death penalty with a proposal of life in prison for ``aggravated homosexuality’’, which includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, "serial offenders’’ and sex with minors.
The World Bank has since shelved a 90 million dollars loan to Uganda as it considers whether the new law will not adversely affect the development objectives of the loan.
However, Museveni told the West that they can keep their aid and should not impose moral values on his country.
Speaking on the matter while addressing guests at his daughter Bona's wedding at the weekend, Mugabe said the threats by the U.S. to cut aid to Uganda, following the signing of the anti-gay bill on the basis that it violated human rights showed that the U.S. had no honour.
"The human right you have as a man is to marry another woman, not to get another man to marry,’’ Monday's Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe saying.
Mugabe's party Zanu-PF led the crusade against homosexuality and ensured that a clause outlawing same sex marriages was included in the new law.
The bill which originally carried a death penalty was first introduced in 2009 but was shelved when the West threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda.
However, Uganda's parliament passed it in December, only replacing the death penalty with a proposal of life in prison for ``aggravated homosexuality’’, which includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, "serial offenders’’ and sex with minors.
The World Bank has since shelved a 90 million dollars loan to Uganda as it considers whether the new law will not adversely affect the development objectives of the loan.
However, Museveni told the West that they can keep their aid and should not impose moral values on his country.
Speaking on the matter while addressing guests at his daughter Bona's wedding at the weekend, Mugabe said the threats by the U.S. to cut aid to Uganda, following the signing of the anti-gay bill on the basis that it violated human rights showed that the U.S. had no honour.
"The human right you have as a man is to marry another woman, not to get another man to marry,’’ Monday's Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe saying.
Mugabe's party Zanu-PF led the crusade against homosexuality and ensured that a clause outlawing same sex marriages was included in the new law.
