Wikileaks, Uganda, the gays and the US State Department

The Obamas + Muscevenis

Source: El Pais

By Luis Doncel

[Google translation]

"It is true that I said we would have to cut the head of all homosexuals. But finally I cut one?" I've arrested someone for being gay? No. Senegal it does and get the support of the Millennium Development Goals. I know there are homosexuals in my country. But I am content to live in secret. As are private does not matter. But if you're talking about to be married, that will never happen. We will never accept the gay."
 

These words came from the mouth of the president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, in February last year. He spoke with U.S. Ambassador, who had come to deal with the president of this tiny West African country on the thorny issue of sexual freedom. "I want your government knows I'm not the monster they think I am," he said. It is true that Jammeh's speech is more aggressive than is customary among some African leaders. But, as shown by dozens of cables sent to Washington by diplomats on the continent, not far from an exception. Homophobia is rampant in the streets and government offices in Africa. And worse, it seems to be more.

The killing last week of David Kato, an activist for the rights of sexual minorities in Uganda, was the last episode of the battle that erupted in 2009 when a group of parliamentarians tried to pass a law condemning to death or life imprisonment for homosexual "repeat offenders". Finally, the rule did not go ahead, thanks largely to pressure from Western governments. But the lock does not mean that the situation now is idyllic: sexual deviance in Uganda is punishable with 14 years in prison. Four countries in Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania, including the death penalty for men who have sex with men, according to the International Association ILGA. In total, 38 African States have laws against homosexuality.
 
A dozen confidential letters sent to Washington between November 2009 and February 2010 have to detail how U.S. diplomats sought to convince President Yoweri Museveni that paralyzed the processing of the law. Even the Catholic Church stepped in to show their opposition to using the Criminal Code against homosexuals, although, he said a cable sent from the Vatican views these actions as a "mortal sin." In addition, documents obtained by Wikileaks, which the country has had access, are the U.S. fear that other governments harden their legislation soon.

Read more »

Wikileaks, the US Embassy Cables and Migration Issues

Image via Wikipedia   

Source: Franck Duvell: Diary on Human Migration Research

When ‘Cable gate’ – Wikileak’s publication of the US embassies’ reports to the US State Department Washington - hit the headlines in November and December 2010 I was wondering whether there is anything in it for migration and migration policy researchers. So far, I am not aware whether anybody else has already gone through the documents, so I had a quick look. Unfortunately, only a fraction of all cables – 2000 out of 251,000 - are already published on Wikileaks’ website (http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html).

In short, migration and refugee issues only play a very minor role in the set of documents I have sifted through. And where these are mentioned this is mostly in the context of terrorism, general threats to regional stability and security or with respect to Muslim minority communities. The first impression from these cables is that from the US American consular perspective migration as such is not considered a major issue and is not causing great anxiety whilst Muslim migration and minorities and to some extent border security are issues of concern.

Worldwide: Some reference to migration can be found in the already notorious ‘reporting and collecting needs’ issued by the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. For instance, the request for West Africa lines out to collect information on ‘population and Refugee Issues’, including ‘population movements in the region, and governments' involvement and response, indications of actual or potential refugee movements within or into the region, locations and conditions of refugee camps and informal refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) gathering sites and transit routes’ government capability and willingness to assist refugees and IDPs, health and demographic statistics of refugees and IDPs, dynamics and impact of migration and demographic shifts’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/04/09STATE37566.html). And also in Hungary information is requested on ‘demography, including ...migration’ and ‘plans and efforts to respond to declining birth rates, including through promotion of immigration’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/06/09STATE62393.html). Similar requests were sent to many other countries.

Read more »

Uganda opposition leader 'against prosecuting gays'

Kizza Besigye

By Paul Canning

In a first, one of Uganda's top opposition politicians has publicly opposed the 'kill the gays' bill and suggested he would decriminalise homosexuality if elected, according to an AFP report.

"This is something that is done in the privacy of people's rooms, between consenting adults," said Kizza Besigye, who is challenging President Yoweri Museveni for the third time in February 18 Presidential elections as leader of a four-party opposition grouping.

Besigye is a former colonel in the Ugandan army, former Interior Minister and chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party.

In 2001 Besigye was brutally arrested and detained, allegedly in connection with the offense of treason. He fled to the United States, returning in 2005 only to be arrested and then released again.

In the 2006 Presidential election Museveni was elected for another five-year tenure, winning 59% of the vote against Besigye's 37%. The Supreme Court of Uganda later ruled that the election was marred by intimidation, violence, voter disenfranchisement, and other irregularities.

There are fears that this will be repeated in 2011. According to Timothy Kalyegira, writing for Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor: "Museveni has made it clear that he cannot hand over power to the opposition." A leaked cable by the new U.S ambassador to Uganda, Jerry Lanier published by Wikileaks painted a bleak picture of the future.

Besigye, who noted he was speaking individually and not on behalf of the opposition, said that homosexuality has "generated far too much excitement" among current government leaders.

Resources the police devote to investigating homosexuality "could be better spent elsewhere," he added, during the recording of a town-hall style dialogue to be aired later on Ugandan television.

He argued his personal moral views about sexuality were not relevant.

"We are talking about the law," he said, explaining the current provisions banning homosexuality are superfluous because no one has been prosecuted (which is actually incorrect).

Speaking last year, Besigye said, that the issue of homosexuality was being used to divert attention away from “the real urgent issues – human rights abuses, rampant corruption”.

“The enthusiasm with which the anti- homosexuality bill has been introduced I find suspicious and dubious and ominous, he said”

President Museveni last year urged those politicians in his party pushing the 'kill the gays' bill to "go slow." He also called it a "foreign policy issue" following widespread international outrage including comments made directly to him by the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a 45' minute phone conversation with Hillary Clinton.

However according to commentator Warren Throckmorton, who has been closely following developments:

Museveni told his party members that the supporters of the bill needed to work with the Europeans and Americans on the issue (PDF); he did not say to shelve it – at least in public. Some sources have told me on the condition of anonymity that Museveni has assured the US that the bill will be vetoed. However, he has not to my knowledge said that publicly. Mr. Tashobya told me that the President has not indicated any position on the situation to him. Tashobya also told me he has no reason to think that the President will not allow the bill to become law, with possible amendments.

Musceveni said:

“This is a foreign policy issue and we have to discuss it in a manner that does not compromise our principles but also takes care of our foreign policy interest,” as the MPs shouted: “No, no, no!”

But David Bahati, the bill's author, has recently said he would do "whatever it takes" to see the bill passed. It is expected to come to a vote as early as February.

Related articles

• Uganda President Runs on Musical Platform (online.wsj.com)
• Ugandan 'kill the gays' bill may be voted on in February (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Uganda, not just gays oppose 'kill the gays' bill (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Web attacks target human rights sites

Image by kryptyk via Flickr

Source: BBC

Human rights groups and campaigners are being hit hard by huge web attacks launched by those opposed to their views, finds research.

Many web-based campaigning groups are being knocked offline for weeks by the attacks, it found.

The researchers expect the tempo of attacks to increase as the tools and techniques become more widespread.

It urged human rights groups and independent media groups to beef up their defences to avoid falling victim.

The research by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University tried to get a sense of how often human rights groups and independent media organisations are hit by what is known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

DDoS attacks try to knock a site offline by overwhelming it with data.

In the 12 months between August 2009 and September 2010 the research found evidence of 140 attacks against more than 280 different sites. The report acknowledged that these were likely to be the most high profile attacks and that many more had probably gone unreported.

"These attacks do seem to be increasingly common," said Ethan Zuckerman, one of the authors of the report.

While some attacks were triggered by specific incidents such as elections, others had no obvious cause, he said.

The report cites a sustained DDoS attack on Novaya Gazeta, the website of Russia's most liberal independent newspaper.

Deputy executive editor Sergey Sokolov is not certain who attacked his website but suspects government-sponsored Kremlin Youth organisations.

The report finds that DDoS is increasingly being used as a political tool and as a form of protest.

Attacks that recruit participants in so-called volunteer DDoS are proving popular

The report gives the example of the organisation 'Help Israel Win' which recently invited individuals to install a software package, dubbed Patriot DDos, on their computers so the machine could be used to launch attacks, on what the authors assume would be Palestinian targets.

The most recent example of a volunteer DDoS comes from Anonymous, a loose-knit group of activists, who used the method to launch attacks on the websites of firms it perceived to be anti-Wikileaks.

DDoS attacks could hit small media groups and campaigners hard because the organisations have such limited resources, said Mr Zuckerman.

"If you are a human rights organisation or independent media organisation you might be using an account you are paying £20 a month for and its very hard at that level of hosting to fend off DDoS," he told the BBC.

The attacks did not have to be prolonged, he said, to cause real problems for small campaigning groups.

"They just have to do it long enough to annoy their ISP and they will kick them off and then they have to find another place to host," said Mr Zuckerman.

The work of some groups only appears on the web, said Mr Zuckerman, so knocking them offline effectively silences the campaigners. It can take a long time for some to find a new host, upload content and re-build a site.

He said: "We see sites that do not come back online for two to three weeks."

The report also found that DDoS attacks are often only the most visible element of a much broader attack against a site or group.

"There's a very good chance that if you are experiencing DDoS you are being filtered, sent targeted e-mail to get access to your system or to snatch your passwords," he said.

Mr Zuckerman said some DDoS attacks logged in the report used hundreds or thousands of PCs in a botnet - networks of hijacked home computers - but others had just as big an effect with far fewer resources.

"There are certain attacks that seem to work if you have only one or two machines," he said.

What might cause problems in the future, he suggested, would be easy-to-use tools like those employed by Anonymous activists in support of Wikileaks.

"It seems like DDoS has become easier for more people to engage in," he said. "The threats do seem to be increasing."

In response, he said, rights groups needed to work hard to understand the threats and prepare in case they were hit.

"This community needs to get much, much smarter and much more knowledgeable," he said.

• Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University: 2010 Report on Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks [PDF}

Wikileaks Iraq records leak shows US knew of gay killings in 2005

Source: Gay City News

By Duncan Osborne

A 2005 document included in the nearly 400,000 US Department of Defense records recently posted on wikileaks.org shows that the Pentagon was aware of the organized killing of gay Iraqis more than 15 months before those murders were first reported, in Gay City News.

“The male was shot (___) times in the chest, and a note was discovered on the body stating that the man had been killed by ___ for stealing cars and being homosexual,” read the January 1, 2005, memo, in which some words were redacted.

The body was discovered in Ramadi, a city in central Iraq, and a note was left at the scene by the gunmen who killed the man. The fact that the note was written in advance of the killing suggests that the gunmen knew whom they were targeting and why they were killing him, and had time to plan and prepare for the murder.

“After talking with the locals (through an ___), a CO discovered that the male was killed at approximately 1545C by gunmen driving past in a vehicle,” the memo read. “The vehicle drove past, fired, dropped the note, and then fled. The note is being brought back to - -___ for further analysis. No friendly casualties or damage to equipment reported.”

Read more »