The Ugandan government has its hands full on several fronts all of the sudden. Earlier this month, there was the tragic landslide in Bududa district, which has resulted in at least 300 deaths. President Yoweri Museveni’s government has come under harsh criticism for its slow response to the tragedy. Then on Monday night of this week, two Makerere University students were shot and killed by security guards at a university dormitory. Local police quickly moved to arrest the shooter and disarm the rest of the guards, but that hasn’t gone very far to quell massive demonstrations which have engulfed the campus of Uganda’s largest university. Both students were Kenyans, which adds an international element to the shootings. Kenya has formally protested the killings.

Map of Uganda, with the Buganda kingdom shown in green (Click to enlarge).

As bad as all of that is, it may prove to be a minor distraction compared to the dangerous developments that are now unfolding in the traditional kingdom of Buganda. Uganda is divided into several such traditional kingdoms, with the kingdom of Buganda being nominally headed by a traditional king (known as a Kabaka) and his cabinet. Their positions have cultural significance, but under Uganda’s constitution they hold no political power. Nevertheless, the Kabaka, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, is widely revered and respected among the Baganda. Tensions between the Kabaka and Museveni have been building ever since the Ugandan government blocked the Kabaka from visiting the disputed Kayunga district just outside of Kampala last September. Several days of intense rioting broke out, and the government shut down several radio stations operated by or sympathetic to the Kabaka. Dozens were reportedly killed, and more than 400 arrested and detained by police.

The Kasubi Tombs

Those tensions are about to flare again.

The Kasubi Tombs are the royal tombs for four previous Kabakas. The royal enclosure at Kasubi hill was first built in 1881, and was built in the traditional Baganda style with wood frame and thatched roof. The tombs were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, and they remain an important spiritual and political site for the Baganda people.

Last night, the historic Tombs went up in flames, in what is widely believed to be an arson fire. According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor:

Kasubi Tombs burning (Joseph Kiggundu / Daily Monitor)

Hundreds of Kingdom subjects, some prostrating, crying and screaming, gathered in front of the embers. The grass-thatched hut was completely destroyed within minutes, leaving the skeletal brick wall. The burial grounds, revered by the Baganda, are 128 years old.

Witnesses said the blaze started around 8:30pm. One woman, Lydia Nabambulide, said she heard “a loud explosion” behind the tombs, just before the fire began. She said: “I saw a white box wrapped in something like bark cloth and it looked strange.”

A white numberless pickup truck reportedly emerged from the tombs shortly after the fire broke out, Mr Andrew Jjuko said, quoting Boda Boda [motorcycle taxi] men who were at the scene.

The Kabaka has already made a visit to the ruined tombs, as has President Museveni, but not before soldiers fired live rounds into a crowd of hundreds who had gathered at the tombs to grieve and block the President’s visit. Two are dead, with the more five injured being treated at Kampala’s main hospital. [Update: Uganda's The Independent puts the death toll at five.]

Anne Mugisha puts this tragedy into context:

The mind of a Muganda might grasp the idea of an exiled king, even a king denied the right of passage through his own kingdom — they were well prepared for such incidents by the history of tension between their kingdom and central government.  Nothing has prepared the Baganda for an attack on this significant symbol of their culture.  African cultures show great respect for the dead and all burial grounds are sacred.  Kasubi tombs was that much more sacred because it is a burial ground for the kings.  This attack will be understood by many as an attempt to destroy their culture.

…And so if someone torched Kasubi tombs last night, who will stop them from torching the palace at Bulange?  Have they not already torched the King’s own school in Buddo?  How many arsonists have been brought to trial since this wave of arson hit the country.  Who is answerable for these fiery crimes?  If someone torched Kasubi last night they also torched the spirit of Buganda and an invisible line has been crossed by Uganda as a nation.  We have entered a dark, fiery, and smoky place that feels my heart with fear for the Kingdom and the country as a whole.

Meanwhile, this morning’s Daily Monitor reports that rioting at Makerere University continues unabated.

Oh, yes. This Pope truly can be said to find gay people to be an enemy of all that is right and decent.

But pedophiles? Not such a problem for him.

The Times Online is reporting

The Pope was drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal last night as news emerged of his part in a decision to send a paedophile priest for therapy. The cleric went on to reoffend and was convicted of child abuse but continues to work as a priest in Upper Bavaria.

To recap, while Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict’s former name) was in charge of the church in Germany Archdiocese of Munich & Freising, Priest H (whose identity is being kept secret) molested an 11 year old boy. The church didn’t report him but instead “rehabilitated” him and sent him to another parish. Where he sexually abused more minors. That would be, AFTER his rehabilitation.

Now the Pope is saying, “Who me?” and laying all the blame on an underling.

The Vatican said that Mgr Gruber had taken “full responsibility” for the priest’s move back into pastoral work but did not comment further.

Mgr Gruber said that the Pope, who was made a cardinal in 1977, had not been not aware of his decision because there were 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and he had left many decisions to lower-level officials. “The cardinal could not deal with everything,” he said. “The repeated employment of H in pastoral duties was a serious mistake … I deeply regret that this decision led to offences against youths. I apologise to all those who were harmed.” He did not indicate whether the convicted paedophile would be allowed to continue working in the church.

Deal with everything? Everything?

What on Earth is of more importance than, “OH MY GOD, we have a priest molesting children!!”

Was the German Catholic Church so full of pedophiles that this was an every-day mundane unimportant administrative matter to be shuffled off? Really? Is that what you want us to believe?

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of Germany’s Catholic bishops, apologised yesterday to the victims of clerical sex abuse after meeting Pope Benedict. He said that the German-born Pope had expressed “great dismay” over the scandals and had encouraged him to take “decisive and courageous steps” to tackle the problem.

Oh no doubt the scandals caused Il Papa great dismay. It’s a pity the molested children never did.

Just five years ago, police were beating gays and transsexuals in the streets. Now, the issue of gay rights is almost passe here. Nepal has an openly gay parliamentarian, it is issuing “third gender” identity cards and it appears set to enshrine gay rights — and possibly even same-sex marriage — in a new constitution. “(It) is not an issue anymore, for anybody,” said Vishnu Adhikari, a 21-year-old lesbian. “Society has basically accepted us.”

Nepal has been popular for decades among backpakers who spend very little and are seen a stingy by the locals. Tourism authorities see the LGBT market as being significantly more lucrative. They’re thinking weddings at the base of Mt. Everest and elephant safaris would be a big draw. I’m thinking that cashing in some airline miles is a tempting idea.

Cavaco Silva asked the court to review the constitutionality of 4 out of 5 of the bill’s articles. Article 3, which was not forwarded, would forbid married gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

The Constitutional Court has already ruled against gay marriage. In a narrow 3-to-2 decision last year, the court denied a lesbian couple the right to marry, despite a provision in the constitution that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

It is difficult to know what this means.

For those who read Portuguese

George Oundo

Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa’s latest tirade includes a “testimony” by George Ooundo, a deeply disturbed man who was an important ex-gay “success story” for a short while. A very short while. Last we heard, he is now ex-ex-gay and seeking forgiveness in the LGBT community for being part of a massive anti-gay vigilante campaign. I don’t know what demons Oundo is wrestling with, and for the sake of compassion for this obviously troubled young man, the less said the better. But Ssempa’s account of Oundo’s “story of transformation” somehow avoids one critically important element: Oundo hasn’t changed at all.

It looks like we may have the beginnings of an ongoing series.

The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) is a coalition composed of the supreme heads of Uganda’s largest officially-recognized religions: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims, Christian Orthodox and Seventh-Day Adventists. Among the Council’s goals are to “promote non-violence, peaceful coexistence and respect for human rights.” But with respect to the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Parliament, the IRCU’s position had been in direct conflict with their stated goal. Shortly after the anti-gay bill was introduced into Parliament last fall, the IRCU met with a Parliament committee and strongly supported for the bill, although some of the individual council members expressed reservations over the death penalty. This became the official position of the Ugandan Anglican Church, while the head of Uganda’s Roman Catholics called for the bill to be rejected altogether.

Now, with this latest statement from the IRCU, it appears that the Council’s position has evolved toward a position which is closer to rejecting the bill. It’s unclear that they reject the bill entirely — they throw in the caveat that “we recognize the need to improve on the Penal Code as it has gaps which can be addressed by some provisions contained in the proposed Bill” — this statement may well be interpreted politically as a rejection. Despite the strong prejudices and vitriol expressed in the statement (they openly call for another vigilante campaign in point #7), it is nevertheless a notable criticism of the proposed legislation. Here’s the statement:

IRCU is an initiative that brings together different religious institutions to address issues of common concern.

Its membership comprises of the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, the Church of Uganda, the Uganda Orthodox Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Vision: A divinely Peaceful, prosperous and HIV/AIDS free Uganda

We the Council of Presidents of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) gathered this 10th day of February, 2010, at IRCU Secretariat;

Having read and considered carefully the provisions in the Anti-Homosexuality Bill yet to be debated by Parliament;

Aware of our mandate to nurture and protect the moral fibre of our society, guided by the Holy Scriptures of the religions we subscribe to;

Hereby state that:

1. The Bible, the Quran and other Holy Teachings treat homosexuality as a sin. Both the Bible and Qur’an are categorical in their objection to same sex relationships (Lev. 18:22; Surah Ash’shura 26:165-166). Homosexual acts are contrary to the natural divine law, and under no circumstance can be approved.

2. The IRCU Council of Presidents, therefore, condemns homosexuality as an undesirable evil that should not be allowed in our society.

3. Our religious teachings promote respect, compassion and sensitivity. We, therefore, condemn the sin but welcome the sinners to confess, repent and seek a new beginning. This is based on the belief that all people are called by God to fulfill His will in their lives; IRCU, therefore, decries the proposed death penalty and life imprisonment in the proposed Bill as unwarranted. We believe homosexuals need conversion, repentance, support, and understanding and love in order to abandon their practices and return to God fully.

4. Since the proposed death penalty and life imprisonment do not provide the sinner an opportunity to repent, hence falling short of compassion to those who need conversion, repentance, support and hope, they are unnecessary.

5. Even the proposal to prosecute those who fail to disclose information regarding homosexual acts is inconsistent with the trust, confidentiality and professional ethics of persons such as parents, priests, counselors, teachers, doctors and leaders, to whom the sick, troubled and repentant sinners turn in search of support and advice for rehabilitation. The proposed law does not provide for the rehabilitation of repentant homosexuals. Yet as Religious Leaders, we are mandated to reach out to all people of God in a show of love and compassion (Mt. 9:10-13). The proposed Bill also has the potential to destroy the family as it is likely to undermine the important role of parents in providing guidance to their children.

6. Additionally, in our view the proposed Bill may not be called for considering that acts of sodomy are already condemned under section 145 of the Penal Code. However, we recognize the need to improve on the Penal Code as it has gaps which can be addressed by some provisions contained in the proposed Bill.

7. We the Council of Presidents of the Inter – Religious Council of Uganda, therefore, advise government, and all well-meaning groups and individuals to take remedial measures against this evil that has crept into our society by:

a. Exposing the people and organizations funding homosexuality in the country;
b. Providing enough information on recruitment and funding to the public in the interest of transparency and accountability;
c. Establishing facts on homosexuality and gay activities in Uganda and publishing a brochure which IRCU can distribute through its structures;
d. Emphasizing our core cultural and religious values and undertaking moral education in schools; and
e. Counteracting the distortion and misrepresentation of the debate on homosexuality by the media.

His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga: Archbishop of the Uganda Orthodox Church; Chairperson, IRCU Council of Presidents

His Grace the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi: Archbishop of the Church of the Province of Uganda/Member IRCU Council of Presidents

Pr. Dr. John Kakembo
President, Seventh-day Adventist Uganda; Union/ Member IRCU Council of Presidents

His Eminence Sheikh Shaban R. Mubaje: Mufti of Uganda/ Member IRCU Council of Presidents

His Grace Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga
Archbishop of Kampala Archdiocese
Member IRCU Council of Presidents

As I said, it’s difficult to get to the bottom line in this message, but there are some encouraging elements to this. First, while this is still a deeply homophobic and ill-informed document, it represents the strongest criticism yet of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by Uganda’s mainline religious leaders. Catholics, Anglicans and Muslims together make up almost 90% of Uganda’s religious adherents.

It is also significant that this statement was published in full in the state-owned New Vision newspaper. Not only is it Uganda’s largest newspaper, but it can be reasonably assumed that New Vision’s content is closely monitored by the government. While Uganda has the trappings of a democracy, it is effectively a one-party state which has been ruled continuously for twenty-four years by President Yoweri Museveni and his New Resistance Movement (NRM). One reflection of New Vision’s short leash with the government is the fact that despite the tremendous controversy the bill has drawn both inside and outside of Uganda, New Vision has been almost completely silent on the controversy. In fact, their reporting has been so scant that if one were to rely solely on New Vision for information about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, one might be left with the impression that there is no such bill before Parliament. New Vision, despite being Uganda’s largest mass-circulation newspaper, has been almost completely missing in action on this story.

[Update: Another significant point to notices is that this statement repeats a line others have put forward as possible justification for dropping the bill. "In our view the proposed Bill may not be called for considering that acts of sodomy are already condemned under section 145 of the Penal Code," they say in point #6. This has been put forward by other less prominent critics as a face-saving way out of the mess by pointing out that Ugandan law already criminalizes homosexuality, and it also criminalizes child sexual abuse and rape in gender-neutral terms. While this line of objection comes across as very weak to western ears (slanderously equating, as it does, homosexuality with pedophilia and other sex crimes), when raised in the context of how the debate surrounding the proposed legislation has been framed in Uganda until now, it would be a serious mistake to overlook its importance. The IRCU is now the most prominent body to raise this particular objection.]

These two three factors are encouraging signs, which may help to explain something else I’ve noticed but haven’t publicly asked until now: Where is the bill itself? When Parliament returned from recess in February, it was expected to be near the top of Parliament’s business in the Legal Affairs and Presidential Affairs committees. Some six weeks have passed, and we still have heard of no action on this supposedly urgent, high-priority bill from either committee.

One possible explanation for this inaction may well be the massive landslides that Uganda has been grappling with in the Bubuda district in eastern Uganda on March 3. While we’ve been hearing a lot about the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes in the west, Uganda’s media has been consumed with their own natural disaster at Mt. Elgon near the Kenyan border which has claimed at least 300 lives.

But that doesn’t explain the delay through February. There is now some speculation that there may well be a conscious slow-down on the measure, as “suggested” by President Museveni at January’s meeting of the ruling party’s Executive Council at State House Entebbe.

If the bill is not passed into law, the next more likely scenario would be for the bill to die a quiet, unannounced death. It is inconceivable that Parliament would vote to defeat the measure, and making an official announcement of its withdrawal would likely inspire political unrest ahead of the 2011 elections. Even though Uganda’s Electoral Commission is packed with Museveni’s supporters and the fairness of the upcoming elections is very much in doubt, such unrest would only serve to further stain Museveni’s rather shaky reputation as a reformer. Museveni is expected to run for another five year term as president. If the 66-year-old President completes that term, the “democratic reformer” will have ruled Uganda for an unprecedented thirty uninterrupted years.

It’s difficult and perhaps foolhardy to try to read the tea leaves in Uganda politics — especially by a foreigner some 9,5000 miles and ten time zones away — but I don’t believe that we will ever see this bill officially “killed.” It also appears that Museveni doesn’t have the stomach to incur worldwide condemnation by passing this law, not now when his government is already under heightened scrutiny in advance of its upcoming elections. Instead, after observing what is going on in Uganda’s state-owned media, coupled now with this statement by Uganda’s most influential religious leaders, it appears increasingly possible that this bill may remain in the two committees (most notably, in the Presidential Affairs committee)  to be “studied” and “revised” for a very, very long time.

[Hat tip: GayUganda]

Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

For example, on April 5, police in Mbale District arrested SMUG activists Fred Wasukira and Brian Mpadde. On April 17, a court in Mbale charged Wasukira and Mpadde with homosexual conduct and remanded the suspects to Maluke prison. On May 20, the court released Wasukira on police bail; Mpadde was released on June 16. The case was ongoing at year’s end.

On June 19, police in Kitgum interrogated former police coach Charles Ayeikoh over allegations that he was involved in homosexual acts. An investigation was ongoing at year’s end.

In July the administration of Mbalala Senior Secondary School in Mukono District dismissed student John Paul Mulumba after he acknowledged that he was a SMUG member.

During the year the UHRC stopped investigating the July 2008 case in which SMUG activist Usaam Mukwaya alleged that police tortured and humiliated him during an illegal detention; Mukwaya reportedly decided not to pursue the case.

During the year police dismissed for lack of evidence a September 2008 case against SMUG members George Oundo and Brenda Kiiza, who were charged with indecent practices.

LGBT persons were also subject to societal harassment and discrimination.

For example, on March 17, the Uganda Joint Christian Council and the Family Life Network launched a campaign to curb homosexual conduct in higher institutions. SMUG accused the organizers of using religion to attack the LGBT community in the country.

The report also mentions arrests, executions, and other violence and abuses in Malawi, Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, and elsewhere around the world.

The Associated Press is reporting that Neal Horsley, 65, was arrested early Wednesday in Carrollton, Georgia for making a terroristic threat. Atlanta Police Sgt. Curtis Davenport would not say who Horsley is accused of threatening, but it is believed that the charges are in connection with a February 28 YouTube video in which Horsley held up a sign reading “Elton John Must Die” in front of a building where he said John has a condo. In the video, Horsley is heard saying, “We’re here today to remind Elton John that he has to die.”

Horsley is not only calling for Elton John’s death, but we have learned that he is also the operator of a Kenyan site known as ProjectSEE. That web site is responsible for placing posters written in Swahili in parts of Kenya containing photos and identifying information for LGBT people, and encouraging Kenyans to follow the Levitical law calling for their death.

The anonymous blogger GayUganda received an email from an American in Kenya saying that ProjectSEE is placing posters in the Rift Valley area of Kenya:

First, it explicitly encourages the broad public posting of images of individuals, with a Swahili translation that basically advocates their harm through a Swahili Leviticus ‘quote’ that says death is in order. Encouraging these postings in a place like Kenya presents a very real and potentially harmful threat to their targets.

Secondly, they have put individual faces and in some cases contact information on the posters, placing some people at potentially immediate risk.

Third, this campaign and website appears to be organized and financed by U.S. citizens based on U.S. soil.

According to the ProjectSEE web site:

The Project SEE coalition exists to expose the “who, what, where, when, why, how, & to what extent” of the satanic efforts to legalize abortion, legalize homosexuality and otherwise contaminate Kenya with tolerance for the rebellious abominations that have corrupted the USA and Europe, and caused unbelievers to blaspheme the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The section inside the quotation marks includes a hyperlink to another page seeking and providing personally identifiable information on the web site’s targets. BTB is not providing direct hyperlinks to ProjectSEE in order to discourage increasing the site’s Google PageRank.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has an extensive profile on Horsley’s anti-abortion terrorism activities:

It was Horsley who Clayton Waagner, a self-described anti-abortion “terrorist” on the Ten Most Wanted List, chose to drop in on shortly before being arrested last November. It was Horsley who propelled his notorious website — featuring home addresses and other detailed information about hundreds of abortion providers — into the national limelight after a physician was murdered by a sniper in 1998.

It was Horsley who managed to make himself a central focus of a Home Box Office documentary on the extremist fringe of the anti-abortion movement. Horsley has become so well known that the Southern Party — a neo-Confederate group with strong secessionist elements — had him give a keynote speech last August.

According to a “whois” lookup for ProjectSee, the web site is registered through GoDaddy, and the domain servers hosting the web site are also operated by GoDaddy. (Disclosure: BTB uses GoDaddy for domain name registration.) GoDaddy’s Terms of Service prohibits the following activities:

• activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties;
• activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which You conduct business;
• activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography;
• activities that are tortuous, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable…

I have not yet been able to determine specific contact information for lodging a complaint against ProjectSEE. GoDaddy’s Technical and Billing Support phone numbers are provided here.

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family. And of course they are part of the African family.

…No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

According to Brown Kiyimba, a gay Unitarian minister, the diplomats spoke very little at the meeting, and were mostly listening. The diplomats however did express concerns that passage of the draconian bill would limit American investment in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Diplomats also said they would consider granting visas for LGBT leaders to travel to the US to raise awareness about the legislation. Local leaders expressed concerns about the safety of LGBT people, with many planning to flee if the law is passed. While that reportedly led to a short discussion on the possibility of asylum, no commitments were made as far as I can tell. According to Xtra, the US Embassy had no comment on the meeting.