Cameroon president seeks end to arrests for being LGBTI
by Denis LeBlanc
Cameroon President Paul Biya (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
By Denis LeBlanc and Colin Stewart
The
president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has made a commitment “to work to
stop the arrests of people on the basis of their supposed sexual
orientation."
He took that position in a private meeting two months ago, Cameroonian activists say.
Biya's
commitment occurred at a side meeting with a group of gay rights
advocates at the Africa-European Union summit held in Brussels, Belgium,
on April 2-3.
Since
then, Biya has ordered Cameroonian police to stop arresting people on
the basis of their sexual orientation, the activist group Aids Acodev
Cameroun says.
It
is possible that the country's police have received that message and
are complying with the order. Most police and court news about LGBTI
people in Cameroon since April has involved ongoing cases and people who
are in prison, not new arrests.
Logo of AIDS Acodev Cameroun.
In
the recent past, Cameroon has been one of the world's most repressive
countries for LGBTI people, with dozens of people arrested and jailed.
Cameroonian
law provides for prison sentences of up to five years for same-sex
sexual activity. The law is supposed to apply only to cases of same-sex
intercourse in which a couple is “caught in the act,” but the law has
often been interpreted as justifying imprisonment for people who are
merely suspected of being homosexual. Biya's new position might
eliminate arrests based on that misinterpretation of the law, but might
allow occasional arrests to be made on the basis of alleged same-sex
intercourse.
Although
Biya's commitment was made verbally, not in writing, a reference to it
appeared in an article in the Cameroonian newspaper Tribune Verte on May
27. The story, an op-ed piece by Blondel Silenou, was entitled "Homosexuals support the nomination of Paul Biya for a Nobel Prize." [JPG file showing the article in French]
The article was posted on AIDS Acodev's Facebook page.
In
the article, Adonis Tchoudja, president of AIDS Acodev, asserted that
"president Biya is a man of peace, everyone knows this. His tolerant
character demonstrates that he is a great man. He deserves respect and
recognition."
Banner
in Cameroon promotes President Paul Biya as a nominee for receiving a
Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo courtesy of Cameroon-Info.net)
The idea that Biya deserves a Nobel Peace Prize has been widely discussed in Cameroon recently.
That suggestion has often been related to Nigeria's peaceful return to
Cameroon of the disputed oil-rich Bakassi peninsula at the border of the
two countries. Much of the lobbying for Biya to receive this honor has
come from his own Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party, Cameroon Journal noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment