{"id":5482,"date":"2011-10-11T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=5482"},"modified":"2011-10-11T10:18:08","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T10:18:08","slug":"uk-to-reduce-aid-to-anti-gay-regimes-allafrica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/11\/uk-to-reduce-aid-to-anti-gay-regimes-allafrica\/","title":{"rendered":"UK to Reduce Aid to Anti-Gay Regimes | Allafrica"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>African countries which persecute gays will have their aid cut, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said.
\nMr Michael was quoted by the Britain\u2019s Mail on Sunday saying that already his country has cut aid to Malawi by \u00a319million after two gay men were sentenced to 14 years hard labour.
\nMr Mitchell, one of Mr Cameron\u2019s closest allies, is also threatening to impose further aid \u2018fines\u2019 against Uganda and Ghana for hardline anti-gay and lesbian measures.
\nThe policy was disclosed after Mr Cameron defended his decision to legalise gay weddings when he addressed last week\u2019s Conservative Party Conference.
\nIt also comes at a time when the divorce of Kenya gay couple in London, Charles Ng\u2019ang\u2019a Wacera and his civil partner, Daniel Chege Gichia were said to be seeking divorce, two years after their internationally debated wedding.
\nMr Wacera had told the Nation in an interview last week that the reason why his marriage to Gichia broke down was a campaign of negative publicity by media houses back home in Kenya and in social forums.
\nThe cut in aid to Malawi came after two gay men were convicted last year under the country\u2019s rigidly imposed ban on homosexuality.
\nPop stars Elton John and Madonna joined an international outcry when Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 26, and Steven Monjeza, 20, received a 14-year sentence for getting engaged.
\nBut a Judge in Malawi was quoted saying in his judgement: \u201c\u2018Malawi is not ready to see its sons getting married to its sons.\u201d
\nThe Mail reported that Uganda also faced the threat of an aid \u2018fine\u2019 by the UK unless it abandons plans to extend the death penalty to homosexuality.
\nThree weeks ago, the newspaper said, Mr Mitchell protested to Uganda\u2019s President Yoweri Museveni, who has claimed \u2018European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa\u2019 and who believes gay relationships are \u2018against God\u2019s will\u2019.
\nUganda is due to receive \u00a370 million from British taxpayers in 2011.
\n\u201cAgain during a visit to Ghana earlier this year, Stephen O\u2019Brien \u2013 Mr Mitchell\u2019s deputy \u2013 told President John Evans Atta Mills that Britain would cut its aid unless he stopped persecuting gays,\u201d The Mail claimed.
\nHowever, the threats to cut the aid to Ghana appeared to have little effect. Even though Ghana gets \u00a336million a year from the UK, her President has vowed to \u2018institute measures to check the menace of homosexuality and lesbianism.
\nAnd one of his regional ministers called for the \u2018immediate arrest of all homosexuals\u2019.
\nA spokesman for Mr Mitchell said: \u201cThe Government is committed to combating violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all circumstances, in this country and abroad. We take action where we have concerns.\u201d
\n\u201cWe now allocate funds every three months, rather than every year, so that we can review a country\u2019s performance, for example on human rights, and take swift action when governments fall short. We only provide aid directly to governments when we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and respect human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

African countries which persecute gays will have their aid cut, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said. Mr Michael was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[368,258,1250,337],"class_list":["post-5482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-gay","tag-malawi","tag-rights","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}