Call for African aid embargo

A visiting South African HIV expert has called on Western nations like Australia to consider imposing aid embargos on African countries to stop the persecution of gay men.

On a speaking tour of Melbourne and Sydney this month, South Africa’s Innovir Institute infectious diseases and medical director Dr Steve Miller told Southern Star Observer restrictive attitudes towards homosexuality in Africa are unlikely to change unless international pressure is applied.

“With the exception of South Africa and possibly to an extent Botswana, the notion of being a gay man in African culture is not only frowned upon, and sometimes believed culturally not to exist, but is seen to be some sort of aberration that comes from colonial days,” Miller said.

“We’ve seen in parts of Africa recently what you can only call the worst kind of hate speech that is coming from church organisations and governments who are seeking to re-victimise people purely because of their sexual orientation.

“If a government is prepared to abuse human rights to that extent … I think one should really target all of the money coming in for a wide range of projects and unless that happens, there won’t be sufficient international pressure on them to make any kind of difference.”

Miller said in an environment of fear men who have sex with men become “entirely unreachable” in attempts to prevent HIV.

“They’re already in a sense underground and then people become less accessible for intervention,” he said.

Miller said he believes change would not come from within Africa and “would not come voluntarily”.

South Africa — the continent’s most progressive nation on gay rights — refused to sign on a 2008 United Nations motion condemning violence and discrimination on the basis of sexuality.

“The reason given is … that it does not want to impose its values on the rest of Africa.

“It’s going to have to come down to a matter of money because listening to common sense and listening to wisdom is really not the hallmark of the African politician, I’m afraid.

“I do think there needs to be a groundswell and it needs to come from communities in those developed nations, if you like, [raising the conscience of] their own governments and their own representatives and criticising them for not doing the right thing.”