Gays 'send minister hate mail'

2007-06-29 21:07

Kampala - An anti-gay Ugandan cabinet minister vowed on Friday to continue to fight homosexuality in his country despite his claim that he receives daily hate mail from gays around the world.

"The mail is from outside not from Uganda and I receive these mails everyday," Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told dpa.

"I would not tell what is in those mails because the language used is rotten. The gays claim that they are oppressed, denied rights, undermined and fought."

As cabinet minister, Buturo has hotly opposed homosexuality and lesbianism in the country where the practice is illegal and punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"The practice (of homosexuality) is nonsensical. With men and men having relationships and women and women doing the same, we are destroying a generation. We should take care of our future," he said.

Gays in Uganda rarely speak openly or go to press but an independent newspaper, The Daily Monitor in its Friday edition quoted one of their leaders as saying that Buturo was a stumbling block in their quest for gay rights.

"Despite fighting us, we shall not be intimidated. We will fight for our rights and we will win," the paper quoted Juliet Victor Mukasa, the head of Sexual Minorities in Uganda, as saying.

There are no official or independent statistics as to the number of gays in Uganda. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA