KAMPALA, Saturday

Uganda's head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi-Nkoyooyo, has backed President Yoweri Museveni on his stand against homosexuals.

The Anglican prelate speaking shortly after his arrival from the United States where he attended the Anglican Consultative Council says the church in Uganda will remain firm on homosexuality.

Uganda is strongly opposed to homosexuality and many groups in the civil society have come out in the open to oppose it. The Archbishop told reporters at the airport Friday that the church will remain opposed to this inhuman act.

"Homosexuality is not only against the biblical teachings. It goes against the African culture and the order of nature," he said.

The Archbishop said while in the United States, he was taken to task over the Church's stand and President Museveni's views on homosexuals.

"I told them we are opposed to it," he said. "We cherish the biblical teaching of marriage between man and woman. We condemn this inhuman sex between man and man.".

Many church leaders in Uganda and political activists have expressed concern over homosexuality in Uganda.

However, the magnitude of the problem in the Ugandan society has not been verified. Social workers however say, it is an age-old tradition which is just coming into the fore and a lot more needs to be done to curb its spread.

Police in Kampala last September swung into action following President Museveni's directive to arrest and lock-up homosexuals.

Uganda does not recognise gay rights. Homosexuality in Uganda is considered a criminal offence and is punishable by life imprisonment.

Under the Ugandan laws homosexuals may be charged under unnatural offences in section 140 of the penal code.

Meanwhile, Ugandan journalists today staged a peaceful demonstration protesting harassment from the state.

The demonstration, organised by the National Institute of Journalists of Uganda (NIJU), started from the Constitutional Square in central Kampala up to parliamentary buildings.

Several policemen were deployed along the street where the demonstration passed. The journalists chanting "we want freedom", presented their petition to the Speaker of parliament Mr Francis Ayume at about 11.00 am.

Mr Ayume told the journalists that he will get back to them on the next course of action especially on the draconian laws pertaining to sedition.

"It was a success, this was beyond our expectations," journalist Loy Nabeta, one of the organisers of the demonstration, said.

The demonstration follows a recent case against the Monitor editor-in-chief Wafula Oguttu and two others over a picture published early this year of a nude woman being shaved by uniformed men allegedly in a barracks in northern Uganda.

The trial of the Monitor editors opened this week in Kampala clouded by the shooting of the Monitor lawyer Mr James Nangwale on Tuesday night by unknown gunmen. Mr Nangwale has since been admitted at Mulago Hospital under intensive care.

The President of the National Institute of Journalists of Uganda Peter Mwesigye said the case between the Monitor newspaper and the state should have been arbitrated under the 1995 Press and Journalists Statute set up by the Media Council.

Complaints from Ugandan journalists also include summons this week by the Uganda police of the Monitor editor over a story published last week claiming that the leader of the rebel UNITA army Jonas Savimbi was hiding in Uganda.

The state denied Savimbi's presence in Uganda.

Although the Uganda government says it has guaranteed fundamental press freedom in Uganda, journalists here feel they have been harassed perpetually by the state and feel that the Media Council statute should be applied whenever the state feels aggrieved.