Uganda Gay Bill: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Declares Gay Rights are not Human Rights

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has pledged his support for the anti-gay law passed in Uganda last week and pledged to fight against the idea that gay rights are the equivalent of human rights.

According to Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald, Mugabe said that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was "fighting a just fight" by rejecting the "notion peddled by countries such as the United States that gay rights were human rights".

Ominously, he has also promised to deal decisively with the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe which has called for the recognition of gay rights.

The 90-year old despot stated that the recognition of homosexuality was an offence to the institution of marriage between a man and a woman.

Warnings by the US to withdraw aid and loans to Uganda in protest at the new anti-gay law was a clear indication that the West lacked honour, according to Mugabe.

"It's a terrible world we are in, a terrible world where people want to do things that they feel will enhance their own interests," he said.

"They want to tell us, for example, that it's a violation of human rights."

Mugabe has been previously quoted as saying that homosexuals are "worse than pigs and dogs".

Last week, the World Bank postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda because of the law which enforces tougher punishments for homosexuals.

The law, passed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, imposes stricter laws for gays including life sentences for "aggravated homosexuality" and bringing in a law that criminalises the failure to report anyone who breaks the anti-gay law.

A Ugandan reverend recently claimed that heterosexual rape is preferable to homosexual intercourse, also implying that hetrosexual child rape was "natural".