Tanzania Putting Out Surveillance Squads to Hunt Down Gays
Residents in Tanzania’s biggest city have been urged to inform on neighbors and friends ahead of a police operation to hunt down and jail homosexuals.
A 17-member committee appointed by Paul Makonda, Dar es Salaam’s powerful regional commissioner, will attempt to identify all gay men living in the coastal city after it first convenes next Monday.
Mr Makonda, a close ally of Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, said that a list of 200 suspects had already been drawn up thanks to public tip-offs and a trawl through Tanzanians’ social media accounts.
“I have information about the presence of many homosexuals in our province,” he told reporters. “These homosexuals boast on social networks. Give me their names. My ad hoc team will begin to get their hands on them next Monday.”
Homosexuality is not strictly illegal in Tanzania. Sodomy, however, carries a sentence of between 30 years and life in prison, while other sexual acts between consenting men also carry jail terms.
Tanzania was seen until recently as more tolerant of homosexuals than neighboring countries, but the atmosphere has chilled since Mr. Magufuli became president in 2015. Last year he announced the closure of AIDS clinics after accusing them of promoting homosexuality.
Mr. Makonda, a devout Christian who has long railed against gay Tanzanians, is one of the country’s most powerful figures and is viewed as increasingly untouchable.
Last year he stormed a private television station at the head of a group of armed officers after it declined to broadcast material allegedly incriminating one of his critics in an affair. President Magufuli then sacked the information minister for investigating the raid.
Mr. Makonda has also used his role as the government’s chief representative in Dar es Salaam to champion a clampdown on free speech, instructing police to arrest anyone who “insults” political leaders.
Acknowledging the potential for a backlash from the West if homosexuals are detained en masse, Mr. Makonda said: “I prefer to anger these countries than to anger God.”
Britain, which will give Tanzania £153m in direct aid this year, is one of Tanzania’s largest bilateral donors.
The clampdown comes after the arrest on Thursday of Zitto Kabwe, arguably the country’s best-known opposition leader, after he accused security forces of killing as many as 100 people in clashes with cattle herders in Tanzania’s west. Mr. Kabwe was denied bail and is being held in custody.
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