The Ugandan government has announced a major offensive against gays and lesbians in the African country, saying it will prosecute anyone who comes out.

Sex between two people of the same sex  already is a criminal offense in Uganda - punishable by life imprisonment - but Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told a weekend news conference he does not know of a single conviction.

Buturo said the government is concerned about what he called the “mushrooming” number of gays and lesbians in the country.

Last year Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric called for gays to be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission last year said that it had uncovered evidence that the Bush administration has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there