The key speaker at Amnesty’s North West Regional conference yesterday told the desperate story of how he was forced to flee from his former life as an eminent gynaecologist in Senegal.
As a human rights activist from a Christian area in the extreme South of Muslim Senegal, Dr Charles Dotou had always experienced a measure of discrimination, which was intensified by the opposition of some medical colleagues to his award-winning work to counter the practice of female gender mutilation in Senegal.
But when his efforts to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS led him to help members of the LGBT community, his own situation became life-threatening.
At first he did not believe the stories of violence and torture told to him by LGBT people, but he was soon to experience them himself. Unbeknown to Dr Dotou, his activities were being monitored by anti-gay vigilantes.
They then subjected him to a series of physical beatings, one of which was so severe it resulted in him sustaining a broken arm. On another occasion, he ended up in a small room, trembling , unable to see and apparently facing certain death. His life was only spared because, ironically, he had earlier helped the wife of one of the vigilantes obtain a grant for a caesarian section.
On the last occasion his tyres were slashed and he was simply told he had three months to leave the country or face execution. He eventually fled to the UK via Gambia under a false identity. He is now living in Darwen and taking further medical training at Salford Royal Hospital.
Later on Saturday, Dr Dotou delivered a short but impassioned speech at the end of the Amnesty “Refugees Welome” march through the streets of Blackburn. During it he stressed that there are many reasons why people become refugees: “It could be because of religion, it could be because of race, it could be for any other issue.”
He went on to make a strong plea for tolerance of refugees: “Refugees have to be accepted in this nation. We don’t want to hear about refugees going through racism, that are going through discrimination, that are being persecuted even here.”
Earlier Amnesty led activists had marched through the pedestrian area of Blackburn with pro-refugee placards behind two sets of African drums chanting: “Sing it loud, sing it clear. Refugees are welcome here.”
Source: Amnesty International North West
