“I have never seen homosexual chicken or
turkey.” - Yahya Jammeh
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1237120]
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INTERNET
SOURCE: https://news.vice.com/article/gambian-president-says-he-will-slit-gay-mens-throats-in-public-speech
Gambian President Says
He Will Slit Gay Men's Throats in Public Speech
By Kayla Ruble
May
12, 2015 | 6:30 am
The
Gambia's notorious dictator Yahya Jammeh recently intensified his
anti-homosexual rhetoric, threatening to slit the throats of gay men living in
the small West African nation while seeming to claim that the West could do
nothing to stop him, according to a translation provided to VICE News of a
speech he made last week on a nationwide agricultural tour.
The
49-year-old president, who has ruled the country since 1994, was speaking
during a tour stop last week in the country's North Bank Region when he
delivered his latest inflammatory comments.
"If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you
are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no
one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about
it," he said in the
Wolof language to a crowd in the town of Farafeni as he spoke about fostering a
healthy atmosphere for the country's youth.
Fatu
Camara, a Gambian journalist and former press secretary to Jammeh who fled the
Gambia in 2013 to escape sedition charges against her, told VICE News that
the reference to white people was likely a nod to Western leaders who have been
critical of the country's harsh policies and poor track record when it comes to
gay rights.
The
United States and the European Union have both slashed aid to the country in
the last year, citing general concerns over continued human rights abuses.
Camara believes that Jammeh's remarks are closely linked to these developments,
explaining that the leader has spun the international funding cuts as an
affront to the country's religious values that is directly related to its
anti-homosexuality laws — not to the reports of widespread human rights abuses
such as prison torture, disappearances, and the persecution of political
opponents. An estimated 95 percent of the Gambia's population is Muslim, and
Camara noted that funding from other Muslim countries has continued despite the
human rights concerns.
Related: Gambian
Coup Plotters Blackmail Military Accomplices to 'Complete Mission' to Overthrow
Yahya Jammeh
The
Gambia's Foreign Minister Neneh MacDouall-Gaye, a Gambian who lived in the US
until her appointment in January, said at an EU event this weekend that the country's
government would observe international laws, but would continue to protect
religious beliefs and traditions.
"If you read in between the lines, the foreign minister is also
trying to say, 'We are not going to accept homosexuality,' " Camara said. "The
president already made the Gambians believe that the reason the EU cut funding
to him is because of homosexuality."
These
are just the latest hostile remarks Jammeh has made about homosexuality as the
dictator seeks to maintain his hold on power, which was jeopardized by an
attempted coup while he was out of the country on December 30. Last year, in a
speech given on the anniversary of his country's independence, Jammeh compared
gay people to vermin that should be fought like malaria-causing mosquitos. US
Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time that he was "deeply
troubled" by this rhetoric. In 2008, he threatened to cut off the heads of
gays found in the Gambia.
Last
September, the country made headlines when its government approved legislation
qualifying gay acts as crimes of "aggravated homosexuality" and
punishable by life in prison. Homosexuality has long been illegal in the
country — a popular tourist destination on the Atlantic coast that is
surrounded by Senegal on three of its four sides — with homosexual acts
previously carrying maximum sentences of 14 years. The 2014 bill garnered
international outcry, but Jammeh dismissed the criticism and signed the bill
into law the following October.
The
EU cut off $14.5 million in aid to the Gambia just weeks
later, citing systematic human rights abuses as members of the gay community
reportedly fled to nearby countries like Senegal to avoid persecution.
Similarly, the White House expressed deep concern over continued reports of
human rights abuses, particularly the targeting of individuals for their
perceived sexual orientation.
"We
remain concerned about ongoing reports of forced disappearances and arbitrary
arrests, including of journalists, human rights advocates, and civil servants,
as well as continued calls by senior officials for the persecution of members
of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community," White House
Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said in a statement in December, shortly before the
government cut the Gambia out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA),
a long-standing regional trade agreement.
Jeffrey
Smith, an advocacy officer with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, told VICE News
that a struggling economy and a need to bolster public support are likely
motivating Jammeh's renewed anti-gay vitriol. The leader faces national
elections in 2016, and while a win is all but guaranteed, the country's
opposition has been notably active in the North Bank Region in recent weeks.
"There
is definitely a sinister motive behind President Jammeh's repugnant
rhetoric," Smith said. "While he has undoubtedly proven to be a
virulently homophobic individual, his comments are also meant to divert
attention from Gambia's struggling economy, rising inequality, and the
country's decreasing levels of foreign investment."
The
Gambia is one of 38 countries across Africa where homosexuality is
illegal, and the small nation of less than 2 million people has not gone soft
on suspected gay citizens and activists. In November alone, eight people —
including women and a 17-year-old boy — were arrested during a
government crackdown on homosexuality. The detainees were taken to the
headquarters of the feared National Intelligence Agency, where they were told
that a device would be inserted into their vagina or anus in order to determine
their sexual orientation if they did not confess to being gay, according to Amnesty International.
Some
of those arrested in last year's anti-gay operation were reportedly disappeared
for weeks without any communication or access to a lawyer. Camara said that
three men are still behind bars awaiting trial, unable to pay the $50,000 bail
set for their release, adding that as part of their punishment the men are
forced to study the Quran, pray five times a day, and are told that they must
get married. Their lawyer is currently trying to negotiate their bail.
Both
Smith and Camara called on the US government and other world powers to take
action against Jammeh in the face of continued human rights abuses. While the
government did remove the Gambia from AGOA, activists and Gambian diaspora
members have been pushing for strict sanctions against the dictator,
particularly on personal bank accounts to curb spending abroad, considering
that Jammeh owns a house in Maryland and his daughter reportedly attends
school in the US.
"This
latest example should both lend credence to what human rights activists have been saying for the past two
decades, as well as add momentum to the growing chorus of those calling for
visa bans and travel restrictions against President Jammeh," Smith said.
"Allowing homosexuality means allowing
satanic rights." - Yahya Jammeh
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://quoteaddicts.com/32054]
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-7-worst-things-gambias-president-yahya-jammeh-has-ever-said-about-gay-people-9977170.html
The 7 worst things
Gambia's president Yahya Jammeh has ever said about gay people
Yahya
Jammeh came to power in a coup in 1994
Wednesday
14 January 2015
1) In a speech on Saturday Mr Jammeh said gay people would doom the world and that the “empire of homosexuals” would “go down the dirty drain”.
“All empires before collapsed not at the time they were weakest, but at the peak of their might and when they equated themselves with the Almighty Allah. So this evil empire of homosexuals will also go down the dirty drain and garbage of hell,” he said.
2) In May 2014 Mr Jammeh said he would “kill” anyone who cited the persecution of LGBTQ people as a reason for seeking asylum abroad.
“Some people go to the West and claim they are gays and that their lives are at risk in the Gambia, in order for them to be granted a stay in Europe. If I catch them I will kill them,” he in a speech in the city of Basse, according to African news service APA.
3) In February 2014 he described gay people as “vermin” who should be treated worse than mosquitoes.
“We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively,” he said in a speech made to mark the country’s 49th anniversary of independence from Britain.
4) In September 2013 he said that homosexuality was “more deadly than all natural disasters put together”.
In an address to the UN general assembly he put homosexuality alongside “greed” and “obsession with world domination” as the three “biggest threats to human existence” that “are more deadly than all natural disasters put together”.
5) In February 2012 Mr Jammeh said gay rights were a “great mistake” and that they “destroy culture”.
“We know what human rights are. Human beings of the same sex cannot marry or date,” he said. “If you think it is human rights to destroy our culture, you are making a great mistake because if you are in the Gambia, you are in the wrong place then.”
6) In February 2014 he said that LGBT stood for "Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis".
“As far as I am concerned, LGBT can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis; all of which are detrimental to human existence,” he said.
7) In May 2008 he said he would decapitate any homosexuals he found in his country.
Mr Jammeh promised laws against LGBTQ people "stricter laws than Iran" and said he would "cut off the head" of any gay person found in Gambia. "The Gambia is a country of believers... sinful and immoral practices [such] as homosexuality will not be tolerated in this country," the president told a crowd at a political rally.
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