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Zimbabwean Gay Man
lost Asylum Appeals in US
14.12.2005-For
fear of persecution at home in Zimbabwe, William J. Kimumwe from Zimbabwe
who has been in St Louis, Missouri since 2002 has had his appeal for
Asylum rejected by a federal appeals court.
In federal court
he related to the three judges the situation in Zimbabwe under strongman
Robert Mugabe where gays are routinely arrested and often held for months
without trial.
Kimumwe said that
in 1995, when he was 12, he came out and was expelled from school for
having sex with another male student. In 1998 he was arrested as a result
of another gay sexual experience and was detained by police for two
months.
In a 2 - 1 ruling
the court said that his problems were not the result of being gay,
pointing out that even though, in the first instance the two students were
the same age they were still underage and in the second that Kimumwe had
admitted getting his partner drunk.
In a dissenting
opinion Judge Gerald Heaney said that the immigration judge who originally
denied Kimumwe asylum overlooked "Kimumwe's unrefuted testimony that the
officers who arrested him made it clear he was arrested for being gay, not
for having sex."
Judge Heaney also
pointed to Robert Mugabe's vow that he would do "everything in its power"
to combat homosexuality in Zimbabwe.
"Our country
ought not sanction the return of an openly gay man to a country whose
leader has vowed to rid the country of homosexuals," Heaney wrote in his
dissent.
The Zimbabwe
president frequently describes gays as lower than "pigs or dogs." Last
year British activist Peter Tatchell attempted to have a London court
issue an arrest warrant for Robert Mugabe.
Peter Tatchell
submitted extensive reports by more than a half dozen international human
rights groups and interviews with victims of the regime.But, the court
ruled that as a head of government Robert Mugabe is immune from
extradition
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