AIDS patient assaulted by cops for refusing sexual favours Wednesday September 28 2005 00:00 IST IANS
KATHMANDU: An HIV positive man was allegedly beaten up by police and held in a police station here for 24 hours for refusing to have sex with policemen. The incident occurred on Saturday night in Thamel, the tourist hub of the Nepal capital, following a violent scuffle between a group of cops and gay men. According to Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal's only gay rights organisation, a group of gay men and metis - homosexuals who dress up as women - were hanging around Thamel, a stone's throw from the royal palace, when a group of policemen in plainclothes started harassing them. "The cops were on the lookout to get money and free sex," alleged BDS founder Sunil Pant. An especially importunate policeman, according to BDS, started groping a 21-year-old meti and putting his lighted cigarette end on his hand. When the victim still refused, the policeman started pulling his hair and slapping him, provoking a retaliation by his companions. The thwarted policeman came back with more friends and started beating up the gays resulting in a battle right on the streets. The policeman, who was said to have started the trouble, was hit on the head by a stone and his enraged companions caught hold of a man in his mid-20s who is also HIV positive. He was kicked and punched and taken to the police station on King's Way. He was released on Sunday after his companions paid the policemen Nepali Rs.1,000, BDS said. According to Pant, the police did not give any receipt for the money. The victim, a sex worker, has been often gang-raped and probably contracted the virus through the assaults, Pant said. The incident highlights the plight of gays in Nepal. Last year, 39 gays were arrested from the capital, roughed up and detained in a city police station. They were released after Amnesty International launched a campaign. In Nepal's male-dominated, conservative society, homosexuality is abhorred and gays with effeminate traits often find themselves thrown out by their families. "Nobody wants to give them jobs and, in desperation, they become sex workers," Pant says. According to Pant, there could be about 400 such sex workers in Kathmandu itself with a growing number of them HIV positive. "BDS can't give jobs to everyone," Pant said. "We thought of providing beauty training to some of the boys so that they would have a means of livelihood. We managed to get funds for a three- month training course but, at the last moment, the beautician who was supposed to train them backed out." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give at-risk students the materials they need to succeed at DonorsChoose.org! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Ryu7JD/LpQLAA/E2hLAA/WfTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. Post:- gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com Subscribe:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] No Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Individual Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact Us:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives are at http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay%40yahoogroups.com/maillist.html Classifieds for personal advertisements are back on www.gaybombay.info site. Please exercise restraint in the language of your personal advertisement. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
