aims - in Somalia under the shadowy 127e authority as part of a counterterrorism program code-named Ultimate Hunter. proxies - dispatched on U.S.-directed missions, targeting U.S. The United States has employed Ugandan commandos as U.S. Research by The Intercept turned up copious evidence of significant and enduring assistance to the East African nation. Africa Command focuses on building African partner nation capabilities primarily through security force assistance programs, exercises, military-to-military and key leader engagements, and operations,” AFRICOM spokesperson Kelly Cahalan told The Intercept by email. Africa Command provided boilerplate responses that did not address the substance of The Intercept’s questions. It’s too late to rescind the hundreds of millions in weapons and training already provided to Ugandan forces, but any future aid should be suspended indefinitely.” has played in bolstering this regime’s military capacity.
press, but few have noted the critical role the U.S. “The law has been widely condemned in the U.S. “Uganda’s horrific new law targeting LGBTQ people is just the latest reminder of how unchecked funneling of weapons and training to brutal regimes abroad can inadvertently enable crimes against humanity,” Erik Sperling of Just Foreign Policy, an advocacy group critical of mainstream Washington foreign policy, told The Intercept. has played in bolstering this regime’s military capacity.” Photo: AFP via Getty Images “The law has been widely condemned in the U.S. roughly $2.5 billion overall. That includes “train and equip” funding, of which Uganda has been among the largest recipients on the African continent.Ī Ugandan gay man packs his bags to vacate the city in Kampala, Uganda, on May 30, 2023. funding for the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, which has cost the U.S. Uganda has also been the largest recipient of U.S. That does not include about $18 million in funds for international military education and training and peacekeeping operations scheduled to be doled out this year. The Defense Department has spent more than $280 million on equipment and training for Uganda since 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service. “He believes that the United States government should respond not only by imposing individual sanctions on those responsible for this violation of human rights, but also by suspending military and security assistance until this law is repealed and the rights of innocent LGTBQI+ Ugandans are restored.” McGovern of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the House Rules Committee, told The Intercept.
“Congressman McGovern condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act in the strongest of terms,“ Matthew Bonaccorsi, a spokesperson for Rep. Delivered to you.īalint is just one of several members of Congress who have expressed alarm at the continued flow of military aid to the increasingly repressive country the State Department calls a “ reliable partner for the United States in promoting stability in the Horn and East/Central Africa and in combatting terror.” “The United States cannot continue to support countries that actively persecute and criminalize LGBTQI+ people.” Balint is currently working on an amendment to next year’s defense authorization bill that would restrict or cut off security assistance to Uganda due to the anti-gay law. As attacks against the LGBTQI+ community continue to spread around the world, it’s clear we have an obligation to stand up against the targeted violence toward the Ugandan LGBTQI+ community,” Rep. “The situation for LGBTQI+ people in Uganda is a matter of life or death. Nonetheless, the United States is slated to give Uganda close to $20 million in security assistance this year, according to Donovan Satchell, a spokesperson with the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. “This shameful Act is the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda.” “The enactment of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a tragic violation of universal human rights - one that is not worthy of the Ugandan people,” President Joe Biden announced last month. Advocates for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, including human rights campaigners or those funding advocacy organizations, could face up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the “ promotion of homosexuality.” Anyone attempting to have same-sex relations could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. Homosexuality has been illegal in Uganda, a conservative East African nation, since 1950, but Ugandans now face life imprisonment for gay sex. Last month, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed off on one of the most draconian pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world.
0 kommentar(er)
