by Rex Wockner
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Homosexuals in western Ghana must be arrested under a dictate issued by Western Region Minister Paul Evans Aidoo, local media have reported.
Police agencies reportedly were told to find the gays and capture them. Landlords and others were told to help sniff out the gays.
"All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society," Aidoo was quoted as saying by radio station Joy FM.
Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, said the campaign likely is aimed at frightening gay people.
"We understand that there have been no arrests specifically related to the statements, but that there is a state of fear permeating the local LGBT community – which was likely the intended result," Johnson said. "Quiet diplomacy is under way. We at IGLHRC are not taking direct action, but supporting the approach of the local movement to handling this in-country."
According to the latest Ghana information from the U.S. State Department: "The law makes consenting homosexual acts a misdemeanor, and strong sociocultural beliefs discriminated against and stigmatized same-gender sex. There were no registered LGBT organizations. LGBT persons faced widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts. Gay men in prison often were subjected to sexual and other physical abuse."
