Tanzanian Anti-Gay Crackdown | Hunt Down Gays and Punish Them
Paul Makonda, governor of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania’s largest city), publicized a chilling roundup of gays which is set to start on Monday.
Paul Makonda swore this week to begin mass arrests of homosexuals starting on Monday.
The Governor is in know of reports listing out many homosexuals based in Dar es Salaam. According to these reports homosexuals are advertising and selling their services on the internet.
This is the main trigger for him announcing to every citizen of Dar es Salaam that if they know any gays then to report them to him directly. CNN later translated a youtube interview which was in Swahili to reveal that Makonda had actually distributed a hotline number. This is to facilitate citizens to report gay people.
An LGBTQ activist spoke to NBC News and confirmed that Makonda held a news conference Wednesday in which he announced he had received over 18,000 messages since the YouTube video went live on Monday. These messages were from Tanzanians reporting 100s of alleged homosexuals and sex workers in Dar Es Salaam.
Tanzanian Anti-Gay Crackdown
The LGBTQ activist was horrified while saying that Makonda seemed to be proud of himself and Tanzanians who hate” gays.
Many gay people in the city have had sleepless nights since Monday, the activist said, adding that the fear of a rowdy backlash is high.
Makonda’s anti-gay crackdown team will consist of a 17-member committee, which starts next week, in order to carry out his commands. The committee, as per the activist, will comprise of police officers, psychologists, film regulators & telecom regulators. He said the team will target alleged gay people through social media and other online forms of public or private networking.
A people’s welfare organization in neighbouring Kenya, called the committee “an anti-LGBTQI surveillance squad” and in a message reached out to the sexual and gender minorities in Tanzania. They conveyed to them that their plight and fear is not new to them. They offered these minorities all support if they chose to flee to Kenya.
Homosexuality is indictable in Tanzania by imprisonment of 30 years to life, one of the harshest sentences in the world for same-sex intimacy, according to Human Rights Watchdogs.
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Sources: nbcnews
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