Joseph Kaweesi Arrested

(Image from Times article)

[BREAKING NEWS 2nd January 2012: "Another member of youth on rock as been arrested at exactly 7:30pm. KABUYE NAJIBU and BAD BLACK who had gone to visit KAWESI JOSEPH at kawempe police station lucky enough BAD BLACK managed to escape and NAJIBU is also in prison now." - Police seem to be waiting to arrest people visiting Joseph Kaweesi.]


News from the SMUG forum today:

This is terrible the arrests have begun even before the bill passes into a law imagine what will happen when ''kill the gay bill passes.   

Uganda LGBTI Founder Arrested On Charges
Of Recruiting To Homosexuality

According to reports that started to stream in on the evening of Monday, Dec 31, Kaweesi Joseph, the co-founder of Youth on Rock Foundation was arrested by police officers and is currently in custody at Kawempe police station.

Youth on Rock Foundation  (YRF) is an LGBTI group of youths and professionals dealing mainly with health and well-being. It is based in the capital city, Kampala...

Observers point out that whereas there is indeed a law that when one can be charged for 'carnal knowledge' or rape or defilement, there is currently no law that speaks to the so called “recruitment” of homosexuals.

According to Melanie Nathan, the arrest is closely tied in with the current Kill the Gays Bill that is expected to be debated this year once Parliament resumes...

The incident comes just a few days after the offices of LGBTI group, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) were broken into and vandalised.

If you'd like to take action, voice your concern over this in the following ways:

1. Write to the following people. 
2. If you're in the UK, follow that up by writing to your MP and the House of Lords. If you're in America, try the Select Committee on Foreign Relations (info at the bottom of this post). If you're from another country, please leave details of who to contact in a comment and we'll add them.
3. Protest outside your nearest Ugandan Embassy.
4. Tweet and e-mail Prime Minister, Patrick Mbabazi: @AmamaMbabazi / ps@opm.go.ug and President Museveni: museveni@starcom.co.ug reminding them of their pledge not to support the bill, or the persecution of gay people (click their names to read what they said).
5. E-mail and tweet Amnesty International: sct@amnesty.org.uk / @Amnesty and Human Rights Watch: hrwpress@hrw.org / @hrw urging them to investigate this and make it a campaign priority.

Let us know if you hear any updates on the case!