Ghana refuses to grant gays' rights despite aid threat

President John Atta Mills says Ghana's values are different from those in the UK


The BBC Reports


Ghana's President John Atta Mills has rejected the UK's threat to cut aid if he refuses to legalise homosexuality.


Mr Atta Mills said the UK could not impose its values on Ghana and he would never legalise homosexuality.


UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at the weekend that aid would be cut to countries which failed to respect gay rights.


Uganda also rejected the threat, with an official accusing the UK of showing a "bullying mentality".


Most Africans argue that homosexuality violates their religious and cultural beliefs.


Mr Atta Mills said Mr Cameron was entitled to his views, but he did not have the right to "direct to other sovereign nations as to what they should do".


He said Ghana's "societal norms" were different from those in the UK.


"I, as president, will never initiate or support any attempt to legalise homosexuality in Ghana," Mr Atta Mills said.

'No compromise'


On Monday, Ugandan presidential adviser John Nagenda said Mr Cameron was showing a "bullying mentality" and Ugandans would not tolerate being treated like "children".


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If that aid is going to be tied to things that will destroy the moral fibre of society, do you really want that?”

Koku AnyidohoGhana's presidential spokesman


"If they must take their money, so be it," Mr Nagenda said.


Mr Cameron said he had raised the issue of gay rights at last week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia.


Ending the bans on homosexuality was one of the recommendations of an internal report into the future relevance of the Commonwealth.


Mr Cameron's threat applies only to one type of bilateral aid known as general budget support, and would not reduce the overall amount of aid to any one country, correspondents say.


Ghana received bilateral aid from the UK of about £90m ($144m) during the last financial year, of which about £36m was as general budget support.


Mr Atta Mills' communications chief Koku Anyidoho told the BBC the government would not compromise its morals for money.


"If that aid is going to be tied to things that will destroy the moral fibre of society, do you really want that?" he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Mr Cameron said he had spoken with "a number of African countries" and that more pressure had been applied by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who deputised for him during parts of the Commonwealth summit.


Some 41 nations within the 54-member Commonwealth have laws banning homosexual acts.


Many of these laws are a legacy of British colonial rule, correspondents say.

Smallpox demise linked to spread of HIV infection

The worldwide eradication of smallpox may, inadvertently, have helped spread HIV infection, scientists believe.

By 1980 smallpox had been eradicated

Experts say the vaccine used to wipe out smallpox offered some protection against the Aids virus and, now it is no longer used, HIV has flourished.

The US investigators said trials indicated the smallpox jab interferes with how well HIV multiplies.

But they say in the journal BMC Immunology it is too early to recommend smallpox vaccine for fighting HIV.

Kill no cure

Lead researcher Dr Raymond Weinstein, from Virginia's George Mason University, said: "There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa, including wars, the reuse of unsterilised needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine.

"However, all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behaviour of the HIV pandemic."

It is a plausible explanation

Jason Warriner, clinical director for the Terrence Higgins Trust
Dr Weinstein and his colleagues believe immunisation against smallpox may go some way to explain the recent rises in HIV prevalence.

Smallpox immunisation was gradually withdrawn from the 1950s to the 1970s, following the worldwide eradication of the disease, and HIV has been spreading exponentially since then, they say.

Now, only scientists and medical professionals working with smallpox are vaccinated.

To test if the events may be linked, the researchers looked at the white blood cells taken from people recently immunised against smallpox and tested how they responded to HIV.

They found significantly lower replication rates of HIV in blood cells from vaccinated individuals, compared with those from unvaccinated controls.

The smallpox vaccine appeared to cut HIV replication five-fold.

Immune boost

The researchers believe vaccination may offer some protection against HIV by producing long-term alterations in the immune system, possibly including the expression of a receptor called CCR5 on the surface of white blood cells, which is exploited by the smallpox virus and HIV.

Jason Warriner, clinical director for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "It's impossible to say whether the withdrawal of the smallpox vaccine contributed to the initial explosion of HIV cases worldwide, but it is a plausible explanation.

"This is an interesting piece of research, and not just as a history lesson. Anything that gives us greater understanding of how the virus replicates is another step on the road towards a vaccine and, one day, a cure.

"Further studies into the role receptor cells play are needed, and even then any discoveries are likely to be just one part of the solution.

"Until we find a way to eradicate the virus from the body, the focus should remain on stopping it being passed on in the first place."