1 of 2 | Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (pictured at United Nations in 2017) remains defiant in support of his country's extreme anti-LGBTQ law, even as the World Bank continues to bar new loans to the nation because of the homophobic stance taken by Uganda. File Photo by Jaxon Szenes/EPA-EFE
Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Uganda President Yoweri Museveni lashed out at the World Bank Thursday for suspending loans following his country's enactment of an anti-LGBTQ law that imposes death or life in prison for people who engage in gay sex.
On the social-media platform X, Museveni wrote, "Some of these imperialist actors, are insufferable. You have to work hard, to restrain yourself from exploding with anger. The provocations by the World Bank and the thoughtless homo-sexual [sic] lobby, should not provoke us into being, automatically, anti-Western."
The World Bank said it will not consider new loans pending negotiations with Ugandan authorities regarding implementing measures to prevent discrimination in World Bank-funded projects.
In an Aug. 8 statement on Uganda's law, the World Bank said, "Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group's values. We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a livable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality."
Text of the law describes it as, "An act to prohibit any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; to prohibit the promotion or recognition of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; and for related matters."
Museveni said in a longer statement, "To dare think that the Ugandans, the brothers, the sisters and grandchildren of the Christian religious Martyrs of 1884 against our own tyrannical Kings, the Martyrs of the Luwero War (the 9th of JuneHeroes), can be intimidated by the threat of withdrawal of loans and aid, that are, moreover, peripheral to our transformation efforts, is the epitome of mistake-making."
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights closed its last remaining office in the country in the capital, Kampala, Aug. 4 after the government decided not to renew its Host Country Agreement with the watchdog.
