NAMIBIA?S President Sam Nujoma has called on police to arrest, deport and imprison gays and lesbians, saying homosexual behaviour was not permitted despite the country’s liberal constitution.
“The Republic of Namibia does not allow homosexuality, lesbianism here. Police are ordered to arrest you, and deport you and imprison you,” Nujoma told students in a speech at the University of Namibia.
Decrying “foreign influences” among the country’s youth, Nujoma also rallied against alcohol abuse, which he said caused promiscuity and fueled the country’s HIV/Aids pandemic.
He said alcohol abuse led to domestic violence and “even men cooking their wives”, a reference to a case a few years ago when a German national residing in Namibia killed his wife and cut up and cooked her remains.
People who drank too much often went home with “any man, any woman,” Nujoma said, adding that this was contributing to the country’s HIV/Aids infection rate.
Last week, the health ministry estimated Aids orphans would number some 118_000 in Namibia by 2006.
“Are we not a sick nation?” he asked.
Nujoma, like his Zimbabwean counterpart President Robert Mugabe, has acquired a reputation as a gay-basher in the last few years.
Prominent members of his cabinet, including Home Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo, have previously called for gays and homosexuals “to be eliminated” from Namibian society.
The Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said it considered “Nujoma’s latest homophobic attack as dangerous and violent words from a popular leader (that) may lead to violence against innocent citizens.”
The NSHR said targeting people because of their sexual orientation was as bad as racial discrimination, and Nujoma could not decree a clampdown on homosexuals in contravention of the constitution.
NSHR spokesman Zen Mnakapu called Nujoma’s comments immature and devoid of logic.
“In a country that has emerged from the horrors of apartheid, it should not be such a leap in logic to recognise that homophobia is a form of the same cancer as racism.” – AFP