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U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) meets with Ugandan President
Yoweri
Museveni at the State House in Kampala August 3, 2012.
(Credit:
Reuters/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool)
|
(Reuters) -
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday praised activists who opposed
a tough draft law in Uganda targeting gays and lesbians, calling them an
inspiration for others struggling to secure equal rights around the world.
Clinton
presented a coalition of Ugandan rights groups with the State Department's 2011
Human Rights Defender Award, a signal to African and Islamic nations that
Washington will not backtrack in its fight against the legal and political
persecution of homosexuals.
"It is
critical for all Ugandans - the government and citizens alike - to speak out
against discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of anyone. That's true no
matter where they come from, what they believe, or whom they love,"
Clinton said.
Clinton
said she raised the issue in talks on Friday with Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni, whose government has been accused of allowing political and religious
leaders to drum up anti-gay feeling in the deeply conservative East African
nation.
"You
are a model for others and an inspiration for the world," Clinton said to
representatives of the group, formed in 2009 to combat draft legislation which
proposed the death penalty for anyone convicted of "aggravated
homosexuality".
The bill,
which spurred a global outcry, stalled in parliament but has been reintroduced
in a watered down form by a member of Museveni's party.
The new
version dropped the death sentence, but would still outlaw the
"promotion" of gay rights and punish anyone who "funds, sponsors
or abets homosexuality".
Clinton's
strong expression of support for Uganda's beleaguered gay community came as she
continued a seven-nation trip across Africa.
She began
Friday with a visit to South Sudan, Africa's newest nation, where she urged the
new government in Juba to make a deal with their old rulers in Khartoum to
resolve a dispute over oil revenues which has driven both countries to economic
crisis. [ID:nL6E8J39K3].
On
Saturday, she will continue on to Kenya, before heading south to Malawi and
South Africa.
COULD
DRONES HUNT KONY?
In Uganda,
Clinton visited a military base where Ugandan and U.S. soldiers showed her the
U.S.-made "drone" aircraft now patrolling the skies over Somalia,
where an African Union force is seeking to crush al Shabaab Islamist
insurgents.
Uganda, a
strong U.S. security partner, has contributed the bulk of the Somalia force and
Clinton said she foresaw a day when drones might help the United States and
Uganda with another of their joint military efforts - the hunt for renegade
Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.
"Now
we have to figure out how to look through thick vegetation to find Joseph
Kony," Clinton said, after inspecting a drone, a small unmanned aircraft
no more than a yard long and mounted with cameras.
The United
States last year dispatched about 100 military advisers to help Uganda and
other central African nations track down Kony, whose Lord's Resistance Army has
been charged with repeated atrocities against civilians.
But Kony is
at large in a vast and often heavily-forested part of Africa, making finding
him difficult.
U.S.
officials stressed that Clinton's visit to Uganda was aimed at thanking it for
its strong security assistance in Somalia and elsewhere.
But the
visit highlighted lingering tensions between Washington and Museveni, accused
by critics of increasingly authoritarian policies and of bending the
constitution to prolong his rule.
Before her
meeting with the Ugandan leader, Clinton indicated that she would gently press
him to think about a day when he might leave the political stage.
"It is
important for leaders to make judgments about how they can best support the
institutionalization of democracy," Clinton told reporters. "It's
not about strong men, it's about strong institutions."
(Writing by
Andrew Quinn and James Macharia; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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