Lilongwe - Police in Malawi are hunting for a group of gay rights activists who are secretly mobilising the public to warm up to homosexuals following the arrest of Malawi's first openly gay couple in December.
Last Saturday police arrested a 21-year-old man, Peter Sawali, who was caught pasting pro-gay rights posts in the streets of Blantyre.
Police spokesman Dave Chingwalu said Sawali, who is still under police custody pending investigations, was found with a bundle of expensively printed posters saying: "GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS!".
"We believe he is working under someone and there is a chain of people who were working with him," said Chingwalu adding, "We cannot rule out international sponsors because of the quality and the quantity of the posters."
Two weeks ago government lashed out at local NGOs who were allegedly offered $US 500 000 by international gay rights advocates to promote gay rights in Malawi.
The Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), gay rights lobby group has asked the state to scrap off its "homophobic" laws.
Another lobby group, Broad Coalition, is also putting out flyers promoting gay rights.
A total of 33 Scottish parliamentarians, the Amnesty International and Outrage! - a UK-based pro-gay rights organisation, have also joined the campaign, calling for the release of people arrested on gay related charges.
Leckford Thotho, Malawi's Information Minister said Malawi is a sovereign state with its own laws and those arrested will be accorded fair trial based on Malawi laws.
