Uganda Accuses U.S. Of Pushing ‘LGBT Agenda’ Over New Round Of Sanctions

Uganda’s government on Wednesday denounced the United States’ expansion of visa restrictions against its officials, accusing Washington of pushing an “LGBT agenda” in Africa.

The new visa restrictions announced on Monday target unidentified officials the U.S. deems responsible for undermining democracy and repressing marginalised groups in Uganda, including the LGBTQ community.

Uganda enacted one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws in May, which calls for the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.

“There’s a coup at the State Department in the U.S. It is being taken over by people who are pushing the LGBT agenda in Africa,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Okello Oryem told Reuters.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/uganda-accuses-us-pushing-lgbt-agenda-after-new-round-sanctions-2023-12-06/

“Why don’t they impose the same sanctions on the Middle East countries which have the same or harsher laws against LGBT?” he said. “If they deny our MPs visas they will (go) to Shanghai, Guangzhou. There are very many beautiful places to visit.”

The Ugandan law’s enactment has unleashed a torrent of abuse against LGBTQ people, mostly committed by private individuals, rights groups said in a report in September.

The U.S. imposed a first round of visa restrictions on Ugandan officials in response to the law in June, and the World Bank halted new lending to the country in August.

In November, it was reported that Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, tackled the Western World leaders over the United States purported plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR) from a special US-Africa trade programme.

President Joe Biden-led US government had decided to remove the four African countries from the trade programme over alleged violation of human rights.

The US introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000.

It gives eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US for more than 1,800 products.

President Biden said that Niger and Gabon – both of which are currently under military rule following coups this year – are ineligible for AGOA because they “have not established, or are not making continual progress toward establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law”.

He also said that the removal of the CAR and Uganda from the programme was due to “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights” by their governments.

In May, the US government had said it was considering removing Uganda from Agoa and introducing sanctions on the country after it passed a controversial anti-homosexuality law.

Reacting to this, President Museveni claimed that the removal of his country and other African countries would not impede the countries’ growth and development, adding that Africa could develop without foreign aid.

He said, “I need to advise you not to be over-concerned by the recent actions by the American Government in discouraging their companies from investing in Uganda and on removing Uganda from the AGOA list.

“Some of these actors in the western world overestimate themselves and underestimate the freedom fighters of Africa. On account of some of the freedom fighters making mistakes of philosophy, ideology and strategy, some of the foreign actors, erroneously think that African countries cannot move forward without their support.

“Certainly, as far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us. It is the eight points that I outlined for you at our recent Independence celebrations that are decisive.

“The eight points are: patriotism – not following politics of identity but following politics of interests; supporting the private sector; economic infrastructure development to lower the costs of doing business in the economy; regional integration to create big markets that can absorb our products; working with foreigners who respect us; eliminate corruption; social infrastructure to develop the human resource through universal education and health, and protecting the environment that controls our water and our rain.

“It is good that the American government avoided the mistake of de-funding the procurement of the HIV drugs for our 1.4 million People on those drugs. However, all our people on the ARVs and all the Ugandans need to know that we had a contingency plan to fully fund the procurement of those drugs if ever the external funders were unable to fund them.”

President Museveni equally berated the US government for being mean in their judgement towards African countries.

He continued: “These pressures from outside are joogo (dharau – looking down upon somebody, underrating somebody) towards the Africans and must be rejected.

“I am told that some of the Arab Countries have similar laws. Why don’t these actors put similar pressures, on them? In 1963, the OAU was founded in Addis Ababa. Only 36 African Countries were independent that time and they are the ones that attended. Almost another 20 countries were not yet Independent.

“That OAU meeting, then, demanded that all the African countries, must be independent, either by peace or by war. The “jogooists” (the arrogant) of the World, mocked us. What can Africans do? In 1964, Frelimo launched the Armed struggle against the Portuguese Army in Mozambique, joining the MPLA that had launched an uprising earlier.

“By 1994, the whole of Africa had been liberated by the force of the Africans supported by the Socialist Countries of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc. Africa has got all the ingredients to succeed if we use them correctly.

“Uganda, under the NRM, is and will succeed, regardless of what some of the external actors and internal detractors do.”

“The further good news is that not all the Western Countries’ actors are of the same arrogant attitude. Many, actually, either agree with us or believe in the correct principles of live and let live. Even in the colonial times, some Western actors supported our anti-colonial struggle. People like Fenner Brockway, Dingle Foot, Olof Palme, etc, supported us,” he concluded in a statement he released via his verified account on X (formerly Twitter).