Category: People

Malawi has suspended laws against same-sex relationships pending a decision on whether to repeal the legislation, the justice minister has said.

Police have been ordered not to arrest or prosecute homosexuals until parliament has debated the issue, said Ralph Kasambara.
At present, homosexual acts carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.

Some Western leaders have suggested they would cut aid to African countries failing to recognise gay rights.

Homosexuality is illegal in most African nations and remains a controversial topic in Malawi’s traditionally conservative society.
One of Malawi’s most influential traditional leaders, Chief Kaomba, has urged the government not to let parliament change its laws on homosexuality.

“This is against our culture,” he said.
Repealing the legislation would be an unpopular move with many church leaders, as well as the wider population.

Indecent practices

In 2010, two Malawian men were arrested and charged with public indecency after saying they were getting married.
The prosecution drew international condemnation and led to some donors withdrawing budget support – a major blow to one of the world’s poorest countries.

The then-president Bingu wa Mutharika – who died of a heart attack earlier this year – pardoned both men on “humanitarian grounds” but said they had “committed a crime against our culture, against our religion, and against our laws”.

However Mr Mutharika’s successor, Joyce Banda, told MPs shortly after taking office that she wanted to overturn the ban on homosexuality.

In her first state-of-the-nation address to parliament, Mrs Banda said: “Some laws which were duly passed by the august house… will be repealed as a matter of urgency… these include the provisions regarding indecent practices and unnatural acts.”

The authorities are hoping the suspension of anti-gay legislation will encourage public debate and help parliament make a decision on the matter.

“If we continue arresting and prosecuting people based on the said laws and later such laws are found to be unconstitutional, it would be an embarrassment to government,” Mr Kasambara told Reuters news agency.

“It is better to let one criminal get away with it rather than throw a lot of innocent people in jail.”

Human rights group Amnesty International welcomed the announcement as a “historic step” forward.

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Libyians on Tuesday celebrated the first anniversary of its “liberation” from the regime of Moamer Kadhafi, even as fighting flared in a former bastion of the slain dictator.

On October 23, 2011, just three days after Kadhafi was captured and killed in his hometown Sirte, the transitional authorities declared the country’s liberation, formally ceasing hostilities.

The day was observed as a public holiday across Libya.

Cars cloaked with the national flag cruised the capital from the early morning, their speakers pumping out patriotic songs at full volume. People gathered at Martyrs Square after sundown with youths setting off fire crackers.

In Benghazi, hundreds of people massed outside Tibesti Hotel to mark the one-year anniversary but also demand that the eastern city, cradle of the uprising that toppled the regime, become the “economic capital.”

Fierce clashes in Bani Walid, one of the final bastions of the former regime and accused of harbouring die-hard Kadhafi loyalists, have cast a pall over celebrations.

De facto Libyan leader Mohammed Megaryef expressed confidence on Tuesday that the military operation in Bani Walid would finish “very soon”. He expressed regret over the casualties of the fighting.

In a speech broadcast by state television, Megaryef emphasised that the assault specifically targeted the “criminals who held the town and its residents hostage,” rather than Bani Walid as a whole.

He called for national reconciliation and the reactivation of the judiciary.

Earlier, columns of smoke rose over the hilltop town according to an AFP photographer on the northwestern edge of the town.

The sound of shooting and explosions rang out in the valleys below.

Dozens of foreign workers continued to flee on foot, he added.

Pro-government forces entered Bani Walid and released 22 detainees, the official LANA news agency said.

Fighting in Bani Walid has fanned old tribal feuds and underscored the difficulties of achieving national reconciliation. Former rebel fighters are locked in battle with ex-Kadhafi loyalists.

“Since the formal declaration of the end of hostilities, Libya has become a country beset by intercommunal strife,” said Claudia Gazzini, senior Libya analyst for the International Crisis Group.

“The central authorities have acted chiefly as bystanders, in effect sub-contracting security to largely autonomous armed groups only nominally under the authority of the state,” she said.

Bani Walid natives, angered by the government-sanctioned offensive against the heartland of the powerful Warfalla tribe, stormed the national assembly on Saturday in protest.