Security guard killed as thugs break into Ugandan pro-LGBT group
A security guard has been killed during a break-in at the premises of a Ugandan organisation standing up for LGBT rights.
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum Uganda (HRAPF) was broken into last night.
Posting on Facebook, the organisation said the offices were ransacked, and that a security guard named Emma was killed during the break in.
The statement from HRAPF suggests that the four people who broke into the organisation made an attempt for “information rather than property”.
Police are investigating the break-in.
The statement reads: “There has been break in at our offices today in the night and our guard killed in cold blood in the process. Specifically, they broke into the office of the Executive Director and the Deputy Executive Director Programs. All lockers and shelves in the Executive Directors offices were ransacked. All cameras were cut and unplugged.
“Police has already surveyed the premises and investigations are going on. We have managed to get some footage on the cameras showing four people entering and pouncing on the security guard some of whose faces are visible on the footage. Evidence points more at information rather than property as the motive of the break in. We are now in the process of replacing what was destroyed and beefing up the security at the office. Our heartfelt condolences to Emma’s family family, the guard who died protecting our work.”
Adamantly homophobic Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni remained in office for a fifth term, as he won a general election earlier this year, amid accusations of corruption.
President Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February 2014. The law called for repeat offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and to make it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.
However, the country’s Constitutional Court later struck down the bill, finding that the speaker of parliament acted illegally by moving ahead with a vote on the law despite at least three lawmakers objecting to a lack of quorum.
Despite this, it still remains illegal to be gay in Uganda.
Uganda later passed a controversial new law, that could result in the closure of NGOs helping the country’s LGBT population.
The country’s parliament passed the controversial Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) bill, in a late-night sitting.
Museveni has previously claimed that Uganda is a “better destination” for tourists than Spain, that “Uganda is so rich, we should be the ones to give aid”, and that oral sex is a Western invention that is “more terrible” than homosexuality.
