Long prison sentences and forced labour for gay engagement in Malawi provoke international protests. Will development aid now be frozen?
In Malawi's capital Blantyre, two gay men were each sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labour yesterday. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza had celebrated their engagement in a church on 26 December 2009 and were arrested a short time later. They are said to have been tortured while in custody. They were charged with "consummation of homosexuality", which is punishable by severe prison sentences in Malawi.
The judge justified the high penalties yesterday with the words: "This is the maximum in the penal code. I am giving you a deterrent sentence so that the public is protected from people like you and we are not tempted to imitate this terrible example."
Malawi has been Christianised since colonial times, when Scottish missionaries, among others, settled there, and is one of the most conservative countries in the whole of Africa. During the public trial, the two defendants were repeatedly insulted by spectators.
International human rights organisations and the British government, among others, declared that the ruling was "intolerable". Consideration is being given to freezing development aid, which accounts for 40 per cent of Malawi's national budget.
More information on this topic can be found on the website of the "tageszeitung" and on queer.de
(Paul Schulz)
