A few hours before he was sacked and days after his close friend was arrested for engaging in homosexuality, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on Friday condemned Western “tyranny” in wanting to “impose” homosexuality, and rejected any attempt to stop the application of a new law toughening sentences for same-sex relations.
LGBTQ issues have stirred controversy in Muslim-majority Senegal in recent years and gay rights advocacy is frequently denounced as a tool used by Westerners to impose foreign values.
“There is a kind of tyranny. There are eight billion human beings in the world, but there is a small nucleus called the West… which, because it has resources and controls the media, wants to impose it (homosexuality) on the rest of the world,” Sonko said in an address to lawmakers in the west African country.
Sonko said that after the law was approved he had heard much criticism of Senegal in foreign countries, particularly France.
“If they have opted for these practices, it’s their problem, but we don’t have any lessons to take from them, absolutely none,” he said.
Unlike the position of the West, which “wants to impose its diktat”, no Asian, African or Arab country criticises Senegal, the prime minister said.
He also urged the justice system to ensure the law’s “total” application.
The new law punishes “acts against nature”, a term used to signify same-sex relations, by five to 10 years’ imprisonment, compared with one to five years previously.
It also provides for three to seven years in prison for those found guilty of promoting or financing same-sex relationships.
Sonko rejected any kind of “moratorium” on the law’s enforcement after a call by around 30 personalities of African origin in an editorial published in French daily Liberation this month.
AFP
