NEW YORK (AFP) — A leading human rights group has appealed to Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to disavow his reported comments encouraging violence against gays.
In an open letter to Jammeh, New York-based Human Rights Watch also said it was concerned about the arrest or questioning of at least four people in The Gambia's capital Banjul following his statements.
"We urge you to publicly disavow threats and vilification directed against gays and lesbian people in Gambia," said the letter signed by Scott Long, director of HRW's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program.
"We ask you to affirm publicly and without equivocation that all people should enjoy their rights regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity," he wrote.
Long called on Jammeh to ask police to release all people still detained on charges or under suspicion of homosexual conduct and refrain from such arrests.
The rights group also urged the president to repeal the country's colonial-era sodomy law, which punishes sex between two men with 14 years in prison.
During a political rally last month, Jammeh said homosexuality would not be tolerated in his country and that he would "cut off the head" of any gay person caught in The Gambia, local journalists told AFP.
About two weeks later, two Spaniards were arrested and accused of making a homosexual advance to two taxi drivers.
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