From: Bjoern Skolander The Windhoek Advertiser Stübel Street Windhoek, NAMIBIA Thursday 12 December 1996 NUJOMA BLASTS GAYS By Erhard Günzel President Sam Nujoma lashed out against homosexuals at a political gathering last weekend, seemingly in imitation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's stance on gays last year. A foreign activist who attended the opening of the Swapo Women's Council Congress in Gobabis on Saturday told The Windhoek Advertiser yesterday that she was dismayed when she heard the Namibian Head of State condemn homosexuals. According to her, President Nujoma said in his opening statement at the third Swapo Women's Congress that "all necessary steps must be taken to combat all influences that are influencing us and our children in a negative way. Homosexuals must be condemned and rejected in our society". His remarks were an apparent departure from his prepared speech, as no references to homosexuality are contained in the official text which was made available to the media by the Office of the President. The activist, who chose to remain anonymous, said she was astonished by his statement, which was incompatible with the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. Such a statement was also not called for, as the gay and lesbian community in Namibian never asserted itself through exhibitionist behaviour, she felt. According to legal opinion, the issue of homosexuality is "mixed up in the Namibian context" because of the existence of the Law against Sodomy that dates from South African times. It clashed with the fact that "homosexuality as such is not criminalised yet."President Nujoma's attack on homosexuals is suspiciously reminiscent of similar ones and circumstances in which they were made by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe last year. At the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in August 1995, President Mugabe told a distinguished audience, including human rights activists, that homosexuals were "sodomists and perverts". His government had earlier demanded the book fair close down a stand allocated to the country's tiny homosexual rights movements, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ). President Mugabe's stance on homosexuals triggered off international criticism with 90 United States Congressmen publicly opposing his stance. About 500 members of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF Women's League later that month staged a demonstration in Harare in support of President Mugabe's stance, while the deputy secretary for women's affairs said Zimbabwean women could not stand by while foreign behaviour infiltrated their society. However, a spokesperson for Zimbabwe's Human Rights Organisation (ZimRights) indicated at the time that homosexuality had been present in that country before the advent of colonialism. Reiterating his stance that homosexuality should "never ever be accepted in this country", President Mugabe said foreigners should not meddle in Zimbabwe's affairs. He called on the police and public to work hand in hand and arrest anyone caught practising homosexuality, which he likened to a criminal offence like theft.