Anti-gay repression in Tanzania incites people to hide

The regional governor responsible for Tanzania's most populous city is currently escalating its anti-gay crackdown.

Governor Paul Makonda said last week that he is forming a task force to identify, locate and arrest homosexuals in Dar es Salaam, a region of East Africa with great city ​​of the same name that can accommodate about 4 million people. Makonda also encouraged voters to flag people they thought were gay, and said officials had received up to 5,000 calls or messages to date, nominating about 100 people.

"I've received information that there are a lot of homosexuals in our city, and these gays are advertising and selling their services over the Internet," Makonda said in a video last week, according to CNN. "That's why I announce this to every citizen of Dar es Salaam. If you know of homosexuals, report them to me.

There is fear in Dar es Salaam right now, "said James Wandera, founder of LGBT Voice Tanzania. He added that many people have been hiding to avoid being arrested, some of them having settled in different areas to protect themselves.

"We are trying to find safe places until things cool down," Wandera said of his organization, which was set up in 2009. The group also has lawyers to defend people who may be in danger. 39, be arrested.

The Tanzanian government has moved away from Makonda's harsh policies following international repression. Officials said the crackdown was not an official policy of the government, but Makonda's opinion – although the activists point out that Makonda was nominated by the Tanzanian president and is considered a close ally of the current leader, John Magufuli.

The European Union on Monday reminded its ambassador of Tanzania because of the "deterioration" of human rights and the rule of law in the country. The US State Department issued a warning to US citizens traveling or living in the country and urged them to "suppress or protect" social media images that "may be contrary to Tanzanian laws regarding homosexual practices and explicit sexual activity".

Human rights groups condemned repressive policies in Dar es Salaam. "This could turn into a witch hunt and could be interpreted as a license to practice violence, intimidation, harassment, harassment and discrimination against people considered to be LGBT," he said. said Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Friday.

The anti-LGBT crackdown in Tanzania is part of a bigger and more alarming scheme

Tanzania has witnessed an increasingly aggressive targeting of homosexuals in the country in recent years under President John Magufuli, elected in 2015, activists told RTE, an Irish agency.

In 2016, the government banned the lubricant, claiming that it encourages homosexuality and that banning it would help stop the spread of HIV. It also suspended US-funded HIV / AIDS programs that provided outreach services and health care to gay men.

President Magufuli said last year that "even the cows" should condemn homosexuality and threatened to deport or arrest gay rights activists in the country.

Makonda – the regional governor who leads the current crackdown in Dar es Salaam – is one of the most vocal anti-LGBT leaders in the country. He has used a harsh anti-LGBT rhetoric in the past and has pledged crackdowns against the gay community, including, in 2016, threatening to stop people related to homosexual men via social networks.

Tanzania still has anti-sodomic laws in reserve, a vestige of British colonialism, although homosexuality itself is not criminalized. And Tanzania's policies were not as repressive as those of other countries in the region, such as Uganda, which aimed to pass a strict anti-gay law in 2014. But Tanzania has, in recent years, tended to further persecution of homosexual communities, not less.

This latest crackdown in Dar es Salaam is therefore part of an increasingly hostile climate for homosexuals in Tanzania.

Hundreds of Tanzanian LGBT activists have now hidden. People are trying to avoid arrest, Wandera said. Its organization, composed entirely of volunteers, tries to protect the people who could be targeted and to put in touch those who have gone underground or who have been relocated with emergency resources.

Wandera said his organization will continue to function. He is not going to hide and he is not afraid of being arrested. "You go to the front, you die or come back. Risk is doing the work, because you can only do it if you take the risk. "