According to an as yet unconfirmed report, six LGBT persons have been stoned to death by a mob in rural Uganda. A seventh person was reportedly beaten to death. Via press release from the
Safe Passage Fund:
Over the past week, Ugandan activists have reported the horrific murders of six LGBT individuals in a rural zone of the country: three gay men, two lesbians and a transperson. They were killed by stoning. One who survived (still breathing after stoning) was burnt alive using kerosene/paraffin and a match box,” stated a witness and source to the Friends New Underground Railroad (FNUR), a Quaker solidarity initiative helping LGBT people in Uganda. A seventh gay man was reported to have been attacked by a mob and died a day later from head injuries. According to the source, a rural vigilante mob attacked the 28-year-old gay man in a different zone on August 5th. "I went to the scene,” wrote the eyewitness in an email. “I saved [____] when I lied to the mob that let me take him to the police." The witness stated that he was able to convince the mob he would deliver the victim to the police, but instead put him on a boda boda (motorcycle) and rescued him. The victim was later denied medical care, he alleged, because he lacked funds to pay.
Documentary evidence of the attack was provided, including pictures of the young gay man who died of his injuries on Monday, August 11th and buried two days later. Pictures provided from the scene show a young man sitting on the ground in a public street, his face and neck covered in blood. The sources have other details supporting the claim. The reports come from several Ugandan activists, including those who helped rescue the head trauma victim. The reports were shared with Olympia, Washington-based FNUR (referred to as the ‘Railroad’) and then the Safe Passage Fund, a fund set up to help LGBT victims of persecution. At press time, the names, identities, and location of the victims and the witnesses were not being publicly disclosed by the FNUR for security reasons. Several Ugandan rights groups in Kampala and researchers are launching independent investigations of the allegations. Local sources for the stonings say local radio stations in the zone have been broadcasting information about anti-gay incidents. Further investigation is underway.
Read the full press release (PDF). The Safe Passage Fund also reports that 65 people have been smuggled out of Uganda in recent days. Donations to the Safe Passage Fund
can be made here.
Labels: Africa, murder, religion, Uganda
