Lower Than Dogs & Pigs
Pigs and Pearls
Treating a Penny of Credit like a Penny Saved makes for Very Skinny Pigs
The Pigs That Run the Arab World
Israel's Racist Dogs
Cartoon-Stray Dogs & CWG
In 1993, Mugabe launched the first of many attacks on lesbians and gays. I have no opinion on these sexual choices.
Mugabe stated: "Lesbians and gays are "sexual perverts" who are "lower than dogs and pigs", according the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Arriving in Britain to attend this weekend's Commonwealth Conference, Mugabe has rejected calls for gay human rights. "We don't believe they (gays) have any rights at all," he said."
When Mugabe was the Prime Minister (way back in the early days of an independent Zimbabwe), the first President was one Canaan Banana – and he was arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of sodomy in 1997, following accusations made during the murder trial of his former bodyguard, Jefta Dube. The charges related to allegations from the state prosecutor that Banana had misused his power while he was president to coerce numerous men in positions of service (ranging from domestic staff to security guards even members of sports teams for whom he had acted as referee) into accepting sexual advances. Banana was found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998. He denied all charges, saying that homosexuality is "defiant, fun but ultimately abominable and wrong", and the allegations made against him were "a veritable bonanza of pathological lies" intended to destroy his political career. Janet Banana later acknowledged her husband's indiscretions, even though she considered the charges against him to be politically motivated. (information from Wikipedia).
Banana was sentenced to ten years imprisonment of which nine were suspended – and he actually served six months in an open prison before being released in January 2001.
Mugabe accuses the West of being the haven of sexual perverts given to lesbianism and homosexuality – and yet he forgets his own government titular head’s past.
But how is this relevant today?
On the internet today, I read how a man reported a case of sodomy against ZANU PF head honcho John Nkomo. What angered me, apart from the fact that this falls in line with the ZANU PF rule, is that the low ranking police officers that heard the report, refused to document it, deciding that such an allegation was 'obviously political'.
The documenting of case reports is not a decision which lies with the police. All cases reported are to be investigated – and if, after investigation, the case report is found to be false, then the person making that report can be charged with a crime.
Police officers are supposed to be apolitical – a demand made on them by the Police Act – and therefore the decision to ignore the report as it is ‘obviously political’ does not fall within their remit.
As I asked on my main page, "The Bearded Man", what happens to a case of murder if the accused person is a ZANU PF member? Is that case to be ignored because it is ‘obviously political’?
Surely the crime is ‘obviously political’ – but needs a full investigation nonetheless.
In Pakistan, the political opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, was killed by a suicide bomber. Are we to accept that that murder was ‘obviously political’ and it not be investigated?
What of the assassination of JFK in November 1963, or the killing of Anwar Sedat in 1981?
Political thinking is behind many of the more heinous crimes committed in Zimbabwe in the past 29 years, but the courts are not filled with people accused of these crimes.
Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man
