Shock! Cameroon government denies persecution of LGBT, facts prove otherwise

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By Paul Canning

In reaction sought by the BBC to Wednesday's Supreme Court decision on LGBT asylum, which involved an Iranian and a Cameroonian, Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma told them that:

"Homosexuality is forbidden by the law, there is no doubt. But what I can emphasise is the fact that no homosexual is persecuted in Cameroon."

"Do you think he ('HT', the applicant in the Supreme Court case) is the only gay person in Cameroon?"

HT certainly is not, but a cursory trawl just through the LGBT Asylum News archives reveals a stack of documented evidence of persecution of LGBT in Cameroon, both by the State as well as the general public - who were both involved in the beating and attempted penis-removal of HT which lies at the core of his asylum case.

In 2005 Ndiki Samuel Eleazard rang into a provincial radio show and said he was gay. Him and his boyfriend Xavier were "dragged to the local constabulary and well beaten". Ndiki sought asylum in France.

In 2008 Anatole Zali was threatened by police and the subject of an arrest warrant. He sought sanctuary in Switzerland. Amnesty International told Swiss authorities that:

Those detained or imprisoned in Cameroon because of their alleged sexual orientation have been targeted for ill-treatment in custody.

They are often subjected to verbal and physical threats from other inmates.

In 2009 the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on African journalists to beware the dangers of prejudice and discrimination facing gay people after a report that a journalists' group in Cameroon has put at risk colleagues by making public accusations of homosexuality in a country where the practice is forbidden by law.

AFP reported last year that:

For gay men in Cameroon, where homosexual acts are punishable by five years in prison, it is still safest to live in hiding. Especially since the persecution of gays has intensified, including with the publication of a top 50 list of "suspected gays" and regular arrests. But some are fighting for the right to live a normal life.

Last year IPS News interviewed Alice Nkom, a rare Cameroonian lawyer who defends gay clients. She said:

Every day I hear about extortion here and there ... at any given time they can be subjected to arrest or blackmail - even when the law does not provide the police with the power to do so.

There is a criminal procedure code which is continuously violated when it comes to gay and lesbian people. The code does not provide the prosecutor the power to arraign somebody unless the person was caught in flagrante delicto (caught in the act).

A police officer does not have the right to come to your house or to bars to arrest you for homosexuality. But what happens is that people are just thought to be gay... (which) catches the attention of greedy police officers who are looking for someone to blackmail.

In one case, nine people were charged. The judge wanted them to go for forensic anal tests, which means that not only were they spending seven months in jail (pending the case) but the judge wanted to force them to undergo a humiliating test to show that they were actually gay. Medical doctors refused to carry out the tests.

He released two of the men for unknown reasons. The remaining seven were sentenced to seven months in jail and then released for time served. In all, they spent 12 months and 12 days in jail. How did the judge manage to find them homosexual, given that he did not get the proof he was looking for? They were found guilty on the basis of personal beliefs.

In another case two people (tried to steal from someone at whose house they were staying). He called the police. The two thieves got the idea to say the complainant wanted to sleep with them. It turned into a "gay case". The prosecutor charged all three with homosexuality and they were sentenced to six months.

Asked by IPSNews "How do your peers respond to your work?" Nkom said:

Many of them are very homophobic. Others are indifferent. I receive little support.

In April this year an Australian and two Cameroonians were arrested for homosexuality in the lobby of an international hotel in the capital, Douala, after being 'denounced' and only freed thanks to the efforts of Nkom.

We must challenge myths on LGBT asylum

By Paul Canning

The British right-wing press is all over the Supreme Court decision on LGBT asylum seekers, and it's not pretty.

The coverage immediately reminded me of the worst homophobic newspaper articles and opinion pieces carried by the likes of The Daily Mail, Express and Sun newspapers in the eighties and nineties.

Lord Rodger's comments comparing a stereotypical 'straight lifestyle' with a gay one - designed to explain that being gay is not just about sex - were leaped on in the Express front-page and the Mail headline 'Supreme Court Judge says homosexual asylum seekers should be allowed to stay because 'gays must be free to enjoy Kylie concerts and cocktails'.

But it is The Daily Star's Editorial which repeats every single myth and which reflects extremely widely held myths about both LGBT and asylum seekers in general. They said:

Opening the floodgates to gay asylum seekers is absolute madness.

The idea is bound to be abused. Every illegal desperate to get into Britain will try claiming they’re gay to ensure they stay here.

Some people will do whatever it takes if it means a cushy life in Britain.

This cannot be allowed to happen. The Supreme Court doesn’t want to send back anyone who fears they may suffer in their home country because they’re gay.

That’s admirable ideology. But it’s not practical in the real world.

Their ruling means millions more people will now be eligible to stay in Britain.

And the resulting flood of numbers could push our creaking infrastructure over the edge.

We simply cannot afford to keep taking the world’s outcasts.

Britain is struggling with record debt and millions out of work.

We must look after our own first.

This decision must be overturned.

We cannot solve the world’s problems on our own.

Read more »

BBC carries cross-chanel coverage on LGBT asylum; demo at Supreme Court tomorrow

By Paul Canning

The BBC has multiple reports today on LGBT asylum, provoked by the decision coming tomorrow on the 'discretion test' case from the Supreme Court.

The main report by Mike Lanchin interviews H, the Cameroonian involved in the case (the other is an Iranian gay man) and Alexandra McDowall from UNHCR, who intervened in the case on the side of the applicants, alongside the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The report also featured on the top-rating 'Today' show on BBC Radio Four and sparked debate on BBC Five Live Breakfast (which had Stonewall's Ben Summerskill and Sir Andrew Green from MigrationWatch UK, it featured calls from homophobic callers claiming to be a judge and a barrister) and is also a BBC 'Have your say' talking point and was covered on BBC America.



The FiveLive discussion heard all of the repeated myths in all coverage of LGBT asylum (in fact asylum generally) which features comments from the general public - and therefore the need for campaigners to address those myths. Claims by Phillip Green that change would mean 'millions' of LGBT claiming asylum and, answering a caller, on the incredibly widely held myth about 'they should claim in the first safe country' (which is solely about the European Union under the Dublin Regulation) both went unanswered.

The report description chosen by the Today show editors shows another of the problems with LGBT asylum reporting - most prominently highlighted in the misleading if not dangerous coverage in The Independent. Today says: "Almost all asylum claims based on the threat of persecution on the grounds of homosexuality are rejected by the UK Border Agency. Today reporter Mike Lanchin explains how this is all about to change."

This is similar to the Independent's headline of "98% sent back" when it's actually 98% in one study found to be refused in the first instance. Lanchin was extremely careful to make this distinction. He also, very subtly, through a change of tone in his voice, says that the Coalition's policy simply restates existing policy - that no people will be sent back where persecution is proven. That is, that the actual content of Coalition policy represents no change, and, contrary to Today's description, Lanchin does not explains how this is all about to change - he cannot, no-one in the government has said anything about how it'll change.

This background is true but what I have argued is based on the thrust (perhaps 'hope' is a better word) of change. The very existence of a policy inclusion (particularly its prominence in the first Coalition agreement) represents, coming from longstanding LibDem support as it does and back by restatement as an example of difference by the Tories, including the new Home Secretary, on several occasions, hope.

But the devil is in both the detail plus the ability of advocates to secure change in the Home Office/Border Agency and legal system as it is not just about one aspect, i.e. the 'discretion test', but great swathes of both policy and practice which went neglected during the last government. I'm not convinced by lobbying thus far as a mass campaign is needed to draw in wide support from allies and there are at least four separate sets of demands out there.

The fact of BBC interest is significant though, especially if it sparks and is followed up by more. Media helps, but whatever the Supreme Court announces tomorrow it is pressure on the government which will actually secure change on-the-ground for real LGBT refugees.

Movement for Justice - who marched for LGBT asylum at London Pride - will be holding a demonstration tomorrow, Wednesday 7 July at 9am at The Supreme Court (Parliament Square, London SW1P 3BD, opposite the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben).

Phone Alex Owolade on 0208 674 4051 or 07985 403 781 for more information.

Movement for Justice is also holding a LGBT asylum campaign meeting on Monday 12 July at 6.30pm, in the Social Room at Brixton Recreation Centre, Brixton Station Road, Brixton, London SW9 8QQ (2 minutes from Brixton Tube & BR Stations).

LGBT asylum discussed on BBC Radio Four

By Paul Canning

BBC Radio Four's Women's Hour reached over three million listeners last week in a segment about LGBT asylum which LGBT Asylum News helped organise.

Veteran presenter Jenni Murray spoke with Prossy Kakooza , a Ugandan who finally won UK asylum last year after a long campaign, and Ruth Hunt, Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Stonewall, about their new report on LGBT asylum.

Kakooza told Murray about what she had fled from. How did her family react when they discovered she was a lesbian?

"Not very well. I think it was worse by the fact that I was 'caught red-handed'. It was my family who marched me to the police, naked. Later, when I got out of the prison, I was going to be sacrificed. There's a belief, when something like that happens, to take the curse out of the family, you have to die. I heard them discussing it."

"At the police station I was savagely attacked. I was raped by four different men and burnt."

"It's seven years to life imprisonment in Uganda - and now they are discussing the death penalty."

"I was able to escape because I was in charge of the finances in the business I had with my mother and my brother helped me to escape at night - I was tied up. I paid a lot of money to an agent in town to help me come here."

"Here, I went to Croydon [the UK Border Agency office]. I was interviewed by a lady who wasn't very sympathetic, but I suppose that's their job. I was transferred to Bolton [near Manchester] and I was in so much pain. I went to a [hospital] and the nurses refused to touch me, they called the police who took me somewhere where they examined my injuries and reports were made. It was a very traumatic time."

"[Despite this evidence] at first the [Border Agency] said it was false, but then they had to concede. In my case they did believe I was a lesbian but they still refused me to stay."

"They said that I'm an intelligent, educated women and I could relocate in Uganda. This would be impossible. Uganda is not the same as the UK where a young lady can move from home and live in a different town without family ties, living a normal life. You are expected to have family protection [in Uganda]."

"In the end I won not so much because of the evidence presented but because of the successful campaign. There was an internet campaign with more than 5000 signatures online and more than 3000 on paper. It was only because they considered me to be - in inverted commas - an 'activist'. They said my profile is high in Uganda and it would be easy to recognise me. It was unfortunate that they did not rely so much on the evidence that was in front of them."

"I can't tell you how traumatic the process was. This was only a couple of months after everything had happened to me and you're talking to people who are looking you in the eye and saying 'you're lying'. It's the worst thing that can happen, especially if you have been raped. I tried to commit suicide and spent three weeks in hospital because I just couldn't cope."

"Now the future is good. I'm going back to University, I have a lot of friends around me, I go to Manchester Metropolitan Community Church. But I have a partner back home who is still in prison and some days you really can't cope."

Ruth Hunt, from Stonewall, talking about the LGBT asylum seekers they'd spoken with to compile their report 'No Going Back', described Prossy as "lucky' because she was able to get a successful campaign going.

Asked how the system should change, Hunt said "the first thing is stop applying the 'discretion test'. They can go back and just because they were raped before they won't be raped again. New Zealand, Australia has abandoned this, there's an acceptance that being gay is your human right."

"We can't apply British standards to what sort of behaviour we expect [of LGBT] - one Border Agency staff member told us he would expect someone to have read Oscar Wilde, this is preposterous."

• Listen to the segment (may not be available outside the UK)
• Stonewall's Report 'No Going Back'

Updates on continuing anti-gay pogrom in Kenya

By Paul Canning

• Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirms pogrom fears, writes demanding action from Kenyan authorities
• Six gay men released from police custody, told to leave the region
• HRW say no arrests for homosexual offences made
• Mob attacks spread to Mombasa from nearby towns
• Local politicians closely involved in attempted pogrom
• Public continue to identify gay men, police arrest them
• More reports of media incitement role 
• Anti-gay forces plan further attacks

The HRW letter, organised by Dipika Nath, researcher in the LGBT rights program, details the investigations carried out by local human rights bodies and backs the account of events first circulated by Kenyan gay groups in the immediate aftermath of the attempted pogrom.

HRW say that events began with in late January with unsubstantiated rumours about a "gay wedding" scheduled for February 12 (other reports say it was a joke made in a barbers). Radio stations discussed the rumour then on February 7 several imams and muftis (Islamic scholars) told their congregations during Friday prayers to be vigilant and to "expose" homosexuals in Mtwapa, a town north of Mombasa.

On February 11 Sheikh Ali Hussein of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya and Bishop Lawrence Chai of the National Council of Churches of Kenya held a news conference.

As reported by Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation and confirmed by other witnesses who spoke to HRW, they demanded an investigation of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Mtwapa, a government health center that provides HIV/AIDS services. They criticized the government for "providing counselling services to these criminals" and demanded that the KEMRI office be shut down.

In a statement after the meeting, the religious leaders promised to "flush out gays", local activists told HRW.

The next day an armed mob of 200 to 300 people, which HRW say appeared planned rather than spontaneous, surrounded the KEMRI health center. HRW say that a KEMRI staff member was pointed out as homosexual because he wore a T-shirt promoting safer sex and arrested, the report from local gay groups say the T-shirt had a pink triangle on it (the symbol worn by gays in Nazi death camps).

The mob continued to pull two people from a home and beat senseless another man who was approaching the health center and was about to set him on fire when the police arrived and took him into custody as well. Others went to the homes of gays and threatened them.

Local activists told HRW that none of the men were charged and they have all since been released, and that the police were attempting to protect them from violence by taking them into custody. However HRW says that the men were asked to submit to forensic examinations to determine if they are homosexual. Five of them refused and the sixth consented and was examined, although no "evidence" of homosexuality is reported to have been found.

Human Rights Watch said:

Forensic medical examinations to "prove" homosexual conduct are archaic and discredited. If conducted without genuine consent, they may constitute torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.

The mob were addressed outside the police station where the gay men were being held by speakers including a religious leader saying all homosexuals should be driven out and another (a former local MP according to other reports) saying to not bother bringing homosexuals to the police but rather to take the law into its own hands.

A Dutch man, Jankees de Ridder, who was traveling through Mtwapa the next day, Saturday 13 Feb, reported that the mob were holding the Kenyan newspaper the Saturday Nation with their photograph on the front page.

Police in a pick-up could hardly prevent the mob from beating a man, lying in the vehicle. I was shocked. I was even more shocked as I had read about a bishop and a Imam in the Friday newspaper calling on youths to harass homosexuals.

GALCK's David Kuria says that reports coming in to them are that police have initiated an operation to identify and arrest suspected homosexuals. Local politicians are actively involved in the exercise of identifying people as are members of the public.

Most of the people have been arrested from their offices or as in the case of two of the men, while boarding public transport - each in a different location.

Kuria says that medical professionals were relocated from attending normal hospital operations to help the police with quick identification of the homosexuals through medical examinations. He says that it is assumed that many people will be arrested during the police swoops and the medical professionals will help in filtering those who will be taken to court and those to be released.

The BBC say that police spokesman Martha Mutegi told them that the gay men taken into custody had been advised to leave the area for their own safety and 'to avoid angering the local community'.

HRW say that attacks on gays have spread to Mombasa.

"Inaction is complicity, and silence can be lethal."

They say that none of the attackers have been arrested but that several people have gone into hiding; others are preparing to flee their homes at a moment's notice.

Gay Uganda reports that further demonstrations are planned after Friday prayers (Feb 19). HRW say that Sheikh Ali Hussein had announced this on the radio and that local activists fear that demonstrations may extend to mosques along the coast, including in Mombasa. Hussein told Islam Online:

We are ready to shed our bloods to protect the dignity of Mtwapa town and we want our people to rise up against the vice.

Human Rights Watch's Dipika Nath said:

The government is sitting silent while mobs try to kill human rights defenders and assault people they suspect are gay. Inaction is complicity, and silence can be lethal.

The police need to arrest the attackers and put a halt to what appears to be a coordinated nationwide attack on people perceived to be homosexual. The disruption of lifesaving HIV/AIDS work could mean a public health catastrophe as well as a human rights disaster.

The attacks and hate-mongering and the government's failure to act have spread fear in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, Human Rights Watch said.

Meanwhile the BBC continues to carry a completely different account of events from those coming from human rights and gay groups.

Local reporter Odhiambo Joseph continues to claim that "five people [were] arrested for planning a "gay wedding"" and in its latest report now says that "the rallies were apparently sparked by US President Barack Obama's condemnation of planned anti-gay legislation in neighbouring Uganda."

He also claims that (my emphasis) "police began a crackdown on the gay community last week following anti-gay protests".

The reporting echoed that of Islam Online which claimed that:

Muslim and Christian residents of Mtwapa, a district in the outskirts of the port city of Mombassa, recently joined hands in disrupting a planned nuptial involving two local tribesmen on the ground of being completely an alien practice in their largely conservative community.

They quote Bishop Laurence Chai, of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, about the non-existent marriage:

We may be on the verge of being doomed had these criminals managed to conduct their evil exercise within our neighborhood.

• UPDATE: further reporting including quotes from local activists from Doug Ireland: False Gay Marriage Rumor Sparks Kenyan Riots and Jim Burroway Anti-Gay Vigilantism Unleashed In Kenya, More Mob Arrests Feared and Voice of America Rights Groups Demand Protection of Gays in Kenya

Media asked to correct innacurate Kenyan anti-gay pogrom reports

By Paul Canning

Following my complaint to the BBC I received this response:

Thank you for your interest in the website.

We use inverted commas around words in headlines to indicate that something is claimed but not confirmed.

In the story you mention, the idea that there was a gay wedding came from local officials and police and had not been confirmed by one of our reporters, so we put it in inverted commas. It is attributed in the story to district officer George Matandura. We did not report it as fact.

Likewise, the word gay is put in inverted commas because it is an accusation made by the police in a country where homosexuality is illegal. To state as fact that those arrested are gay could harm their legal defence in the event of a trial.

Kind regards

Joe Boyle
BBC News website, Africa desk
8 joe.boyle@bbc.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk

In reply I told Joe that Kenyan gay organisations say that the BBC reporter was told at the Kemri clinic on the Thursday prior to the first riot that there never was a wedding. I did not say this but really it should be blindingly obvious not just that there couldn't have been any wedding but there wouldn't be one going ahead - a theme of media reports - on the Saturday following days of media incitement to 'find (and kill) the gays'.

The major failure though is the absence from the BBC and agency reports of the media and clerical
incitement to massacre and their coordination with police. None of them have carried the statements by Kenyan gay groups about the attempted pogrom.

I have asked for corrections from pinknews.co.uk, the New York Times and the Guardian.

The following is the text of my complaint to the BBC:

BBC: Kenyan police raid 'gay wedding' and arrest five men

Summary: Innacurate misreporting aided media incitement of pogrom

This article is based on coverage in Kenyan media as well as statements by local police. It includes one brief reference to a Kenyan gay source.

Statements made detailing the events from Kenyan gay and human rights sources since have catalogued local police complicity in an attempted pogrom organised from local clerics and politicians and aided by media incitement.

They also say that the BBC was amongst media which was told prior to the first riot that the source - the wedding claim - was false. However this was not included.

The debunking of the events and claims by Kenyan organisations of an attempted, incited pogrom of gays have not been reported by the BBC.

Further, in his response to my original complaint, Joe Boyle, BBC News website, Africa desk, says that the headline used, which had 'gay' in inverted commas, was because it was not confirmed that those arrested were gay. However this could have been confirmed by the local groups which say they were not spoken to.

In addition, those groups could have confirmed that the supposed wedding was a concoction as they would know that it was both impossible and something Kenyan gays wouldn't do. It, infact, from their perspective, beggars belief that it would even be entertained as a possibility, let alone that following days of media incitement that it would go ahead.

Your reporter in failing to speak with gay organisations failed to understand this and your reporting ended up being part of the incitement (rioting happened on the Saturday and further demonstrations are planned) and playing down of what was a pogrom.

It was completely comparable with the incitement prior to the genocide in Rwanda. Replace 'gay' with 'Tutsi' and re-read the reports.

The very least the BBC could do is report on the statements of local gay and human rights organisations. It should not let the statements of those who attempted the pogrom stand as its sole coverage of these events.

Statements by the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya: http://www.galck.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56:kenyan-gays-appeal-to-the-government-for-protection&catid=7:news&Itemid=5
http://www.galck.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57:gay-attacks-in-mombasa-developing-story&catid=7:news&Itemid=5

Statement by Gay Activists Alliance International Africa: http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&blogger=Denis+Nzioka&Itemid=1035

Complaint made to BBC on Kenyan gay coverage

Why is the BBC putting gay back in inverted commas 
Coverage of terrifying Mombasa riot against gays inaccurate and misleading

Sunday, 14 February 2010

The Editor of LGBT Asylum News, Paul Canning, today complained to the BBC over its coverage of a so-called 'gay wedding' in Mombasa, Kenya and attempted massacre of local gay men.

The BBC carried the headline 'Police arrest five 'gay' Kenyans' [screenshot link below] on its website, a link which led to a story headlined 'Kenya chiefs block Mombasa 'gay wedding''.

In December the BBC's coverage of gay issues in Africa faced widespread condemnation when a discussion board on it's website aimed at Africans asked 'Should Homosexuals Face Execution?'

Canning said that a number of Kenyan gay sources have confirmed there was no wedding including the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, which blamed the riot on media incitement.

The first BBC report had carried a brief reference to statements by Kenyan gay community condemning arrests of gays by local police but not their refutation of the wedding claim.

Canning has tracked the timeline of the events.

A riot started on Friday following a report in Kenya's newspaper The Daily Nation, and subsequent radio reports, of a supposed 'gay wedding' at Mtwapa, a Indian Ocean beach resort, north-east of Kenya's second city.

Kenyan gay activists say the newspaper report was based on "rumors started in a hair salon" following a practical joke on a local radio station and that there never was a planned 'wedding'. GayUganda reports receiving email saying that "one of our Guys made a joke last week that he was getting married to his lover, this issue has been picked by Radio Rahma and it's inciting Muslims against Gay men".

Activists claim that presenters on the radio stations Kaya and Baraka FM had been inciting people, with Radio Rahama asking Muslims to "find these men".

Canning said:

"It is shocking that the BBC is carrying the incitement to murder of gay men by the local media and clerics, repeating as fact their claims. The local TV footage shows terrified gays holding a meeting at a clinic as part of a HIV vaccine research project surrounded by a mob being hauled out by police - but the BBC refers to 'Crowds gathered' and 'protests'."

"This reporting plays down what it is a clear attempt to massacre local gay men. Why has the BBC not spoken to the organised gay community?"

"Would the BBC have carried the fantastical claims made by Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines prior to the Rwandan genocide as fact? African media regularly carries fantastical claims about gays. The BBC should be far more careful than it is being in repeating those claims as fact."

BBC: Kenyan police raid 'gay wedding' and arrest five men
BBC: Kenya chiefs block Mombasa 'gay wedding'

Screenshot of BBC website showing the headline

Statement by the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya

The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya have said that they would complain to the Media Council of Kenya. Canning said he had written to encourage them and GAAI Africa to also complain to the BBC.

GAAI Africa can be contacted at gaai_gcdgh@yahoo.co.uk

Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya info@galck.org
Telephone:     +254-20-242-6060
Mobile Phone Number:     +254 714 492 228 or +254 736 345 328
http://www.galck.org


Text of complaint to BBC follows.

~~~~

Re: so-called Kenyan 'gay wedding'

Firstly, I understand it is against your style manual to put the word gay in inverted commas yet that's what I see on your website in a headline: Police arrest five 'gay' Kenyans.

Secondly, there was no 'gay wedding'. Just because the local newspaper and radio said there was and this was then repeated by police and clerics does not make it so.

The Kenyan gay community, in particular The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya in their statement, make this clear. Yet you are reporting this as fact.

What there was was media incitement which stirred up a mob, most horrifically seen in local TV footage.

None of this is reflected in your reports. They are misleading and inaccurate.

Here is my reporting, with sources http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/02/five-gay-men-arrested-in-mombassa-kenya.html

Gay Life After Saddam on BBC Radio 5Live this Sunday

This program has now been postponed to Sunday June 12.

Radio production company Made in Manchester has won its first major commission for BBC Radio 5Live with a harrowing documentary about the persecution of gay people in Iraq.

In Gay Life After Saddam, presenter Aasmah Mir finds out how life for the country’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community (LGBT), has got much worse since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Human rights campaigners claim hundreds of LGBT people have been killed or tortured while others have fled the country fearing for their safety since Saddam was toppled from power six years ago.

Meanwhile, in the UK, gay Iraqis seeking asylum are struggling to persuade authorities to let them stay.

Through some harrowing testimonies, Aasmah hears from campaigners and those who’ve been persecuted to see how life has actually changed for gay Iraqis.

Producer Ashley Byrne, who is also Made in Manchester’s Creative Director, says: “We’re proud to be making our 5Live debut with such an important documentary which tackles a subject that doesn’t usually feature as part of the usual narrative from Iraq.

“The programme includes an interview with a gay Iraqi who was kidnapped and raped before fleeing the country, we hear from a young man who fled to Paris after being tortured and we get exclusive access to a so-called ‘safe house’ harbouring vulnerable LGBT Iraqis on the outskirts of Baghdad,” says Ashley.

He adds: “Some of the evidence is very difficult to comprehend especially a form of torture involving glue and diarrhoea inducing drugs.”

Presenter Aasmah Mir also meets a London based Iraqi whose life is under threat for the work he’s doing to help gay people in his homeland. Ali Hilli, who runs the group Iraqi LGBT claims he has had two fatwas issued against him from extremists in the Middle East.

Co Producer Gail Champion says: “What becomes clear throughout is that not one person, one group or another is responsible for this persecution. It seems like it’s chaos in Iraq with the authorities struggling to keep control. What surprised me more than anything was how much life was easier for LGBT people under Saddam Hussein.”

As part of the programme, the US Government is put on the spot over the issue. Ashley Byrne says: “It was our reporter who managed to illicit a response from the US Government during a State Department Briefing in Washington earlier this month. The Obama administration’s reaction to the recent killings and violence can be heard during this programme.”

The programme also includes interviews with the Iraqi Prime Minister, religious leaders and ordinary people on the streets of Baghdad where homosexuality is still viewed by many as an illness and something that needs treatment.

Radio 5 live Commissioning Editor Jonathan Wall said: "This important programme raises issues about human rights and tells some stories seldom heard in the general narrative from Iraq.

"It's a moving and powerful documentary."

Gay Life After Saddam is produced by Ashley Byrne and Gail Champion and is A Made in Manchester Production for BBC Radio 5Live. It will air from 7-8pm this Sunday, 5th July 2009 on 909/693 medium wave, on line and DAB Digital Radio and via the BBC iplayer.

BBC video: Fears over Iraq gay killing spate

TV news report

The Iraqi government must do more to protect homosexuals in the wake of a reported spate of killings of gay young men, Amnesty International has urged.

In the last few weeks, 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, Amnesty said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the rights organisation called for "urgent and concerted action".

It also criticised the government's failure to condemn the killings.

'Corpses found'

The recent killings are said to have been carried out by armed Shia militiamen as well as by members of the tribes and families of the victims, Amnesty said.

It cited reports that three corpses of gay men were found in the Shia area of Sadr City last week - two of which were reported to have had pieces of paper bearing the word "pervert" attached to them.

The letter also raised concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against members of Iraq's gay community, and over reported statements by one senior police officer that appear to condone or even encourage the targeting of gay Iraqis.

Amnesty called on the government to bring those responsible for the killings to justice and to afford effective protection to the gay community in Iraq.