Insi Chechnya’s gulag for gay men – POLITICO

Contents:

• NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN
• CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE
• 'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA
• INSI CHECHNYA’S GULAG FOR GAY MEN
• CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.
• CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR
• JOURNALIST WHO REVEALED KILLG OF GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA BTALLY ATTACKED
• A VICTIM OF THE ANTI-GAY PURGE CHECHNYA SPEAKS OUT: 'THE TTH EXISTS'
• JOURNALIST WHO UNVERED CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY PURGE ATTACKED
• LGBTQ ACTIVISTS REPORT NEW WAVE OF TENTNS, TORTURE AND KILLGS OF GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA
• GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA DPERATELY NEED THE WORLD'S HELP

NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN

The Rsian LGBT Network has reported that May 2021, Chechen-speakg men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov Mosw and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s pal Grozny, where thori terrogated him about gay people the regn.

CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has long been acced of persecutg sexual moriTwo gay Chechen men who fled to Rsia after allegedly beg tortured have been returned to Chechnya and are "mortal danger", a rights group Rsian LGBT Network said Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev had been seized and returned by Rsian police. The group says they were later forcibly returned to thori Chechnya, a southern republic of people and other sexual mori face systematic persecutn predomantly Mlim Chechnya, where homophobia is regn's thorarian lear, Ramzan Kadyrov, has nsistently nied allegatns of illegal tentns and human rights and other ernment officials have even suggted there are no members of the LGBT+ muny source, RtersImage ptn, Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov (R) has nsistently nied allegatns of human rights abDpe official nials, dozens have e forward wh allegatns that they have been taed and tortured by thori bee of their sexual Magamadov and Mr Isayev are among LGBT Network said the men had arrived at a police statn the Chechen town of Gurm on Saturday. "They are tired and ightened, " a spokman for the group, Tim Btsvet, told AFP news the ctody of Chechen thori, the men were "mortal danger", Mr Btsvet source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has nied the existence of gay people the regnThe group has been monorg alleged ab Chechnya sce 2017, when dozens of gay people were reportedly 2019, the group alleged a h wave of persecutn and ab, accg Chechen police of killg two people unr torture.

A ernment spokman dismissed that report as "plete li" said he was subjected to torture - cludg electric shocks and ptn, 'Rlan', a gay man who says he fled: "It's the extermatn of gay men"More on this story. "Ricky's oral was mid-2018 and was a faiar early 2017, the world had beme aware of reports that Chechen thori were roundg up and torturg dozens of men they spected of beg gay, what me to be known as a "gay purge". The nam of most of those terviewed have been changed at their requt out of ncern the Chechen thori or their fai might harm acunts pat a picture of a place where there is now virtually no space to be gay, where datg rri potentially lethal nsequenc and the supprsn of their inty is obligatory for LGBT people.

He has done that, g allegedly savage methods, and the procs Kadyrov has remolled Chechnya around himself, erectg a police state and a cult of personaly built around an obssive machismo centered on sport, particularly martial the majory-Mlim regn, wh a eply nservative culture, beg gay was never accepted. "In 2017, that nservative hostily to homosexualy seemed to nvert to anised terror, part of a broar nservative mpaign that has also targeted dg and alhol Dzhabrailov, 27, only the send man to e forward publicly about his tentn 2017, told ABC News that armed police took him om the hair salon where he was workg.

'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA

For 14 days, he said, he was held a basement wh several other gay men, taken out for torture ssns, where he was electrocuted and subjected to a mock Dzhabrailov tells ABC News'' Jam Longman the torture and terrogatn he says he endured at the hands of Chechen News"They put me on the wall, put bag on my head, " he remembered.

INSI CHECHNYA’S GULAG FOR GAY MEN

Aluadov, who was also sanctned 2013 by the Uned Stat over the same se as Ddov, claimed the gay men allegg torture were simply seekg asylum the Wt or that they themselv were likely not Chechens.

CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

Insi, Aluadov showed the reporters the empty cells, which were clean and looked rarely ed, as though mostly sisted he uldn't nceive how a Chechen man uld be gay and said was not him but Chechen society that will not tolerate gay men.

Victims have repeatedly scribed beg hand back over to their fai wh a suggtn that they kill them themselv and many of speakg anonymoly said they feared their relativ would harm them if they found such circumstanc, discsg homosexualy, let alone g out is impossible. He scribed a daily sappg fear, where every teractn wh the police uld rried potentially tastrophic durg the new wave of arrts last wter, Omar's mother advertently disvered he was gay. He eventually sought asylum , a bisexual man livg the neighborg republic of Dagtan, where attus are very siar to Chechnya, had a wife and a 1-year-old baby when he said his life was men lured him to an apartment where they beat him and forced him to adm he was gay on mera.

CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR

'It’s harr for women bee they n’t leave'Many LGBT Chechens lk the eptn of more systematic vlence the past few years to a worseng atmosphere of homophobia Rsia, signaled by the passg of the notor so-lled "anti-gay propaganda" law law, which effectively banned public displays of homosexualy, has been cricized by rights groups as green-lightg discrimatn and vlence agast LGBT over Rsia, gay people reported creased hostily. Most lbian's romantic liv are rced to talkg on onle msenger servic, she said, or meetg some ways life Chechnya, where women are already face rtrictns, is even harr for gay women.

Rsian gay rights activist Nika Saonov pos ont of a police partment as he is released after beg taed central Mosw for havg llected two ln signatur on a petn llg for a probe to a reported crackdown on Chechnya’s LGBT muny. “Wele to Chechnya: Insi the Rsian Republic’s Deadly War on Gays, ” which premiered at the Sundance Ftival January and airs on HBO next week, is one of the most harrowg films I have ever seen.

“Image the 21st century, a supposedly secular untry, ” says David Isteev, at the start of this acclaimed documentary, “you have s where people are killed simply bee they are homosexual — where they are maimed, where the fai of the people are urged to kill their children and siblgs. “Wele to Chechnya” follows Isteev, emergency program ordator for the Rsian LGBT Network, and his fellow activists as they risk their liv tryg to protect gay Chechens om beg targeted both by the thori and their own fai. “We documented a large-sle, vic, anti-gay purge” marked by “torture, enforced disappearanc, and extrajudicial killgs, ” Tanya Loksha, the Rsia program director at Human Rights Watch, told me a phone terview om Mosw.

JOURNALIST WHO REVEALED KILLG OF GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA BTALLY ATTACKED

For David France, the award-wng director of “Wele to Chechnya, ” mak no sense to talk of a “first” or a “send” purge, as is all part of a sgle ongog mpaign of persecutn agast gay Chechens. ” In recent years, he has also been “jtifyg and enuragg” so-lled honor killgs of gay Chechens by their fai while his admistratn, France explaed to me, ref to prosecute such crim.

As Human Rights Watch has noted, the Rsian republic “is a highly nservative, tradnal Mlim society; homophobia is tense and rampant, and homosexualy is generally viewed as a sta on fay honor. “If there’s no punishment, ” says an exhsted-lookg Isteev toward the end of the film, “if LGBT people are regard as subhuman, if you n do anythg to them, means that tomorrow, anyone n fd themselv the sho of gay Chechens. Most survivors of this vlence by Chechen secury forc are gay or bisexual men; transgenr and genrqueer dividuals, as well as lbian and bisexual women, have also been targeted.

A VICTIM OF THE ANTI-GAY PURGE CHECHNYA SPEAKS OUT: 'THE TTH EXISTS'

Opprsn is pecially directed agast homosexual and bisexual Chechen men who are forced to hi their homosexualy orr to nform to the image of masculy enshred Chechen society. April 1, 2021, marks four years sce the world at large was first ma aware of Chechnya’s gay purge — atroci mted agast LGBTQ people wh the Rsian republic’s borrs, a horrific, ongog stratagem of abductn, tament, torture and murr. Gradually rebed by Wtern ernments over the years as first-hand acunts began to emerge, Chechnya’s gay purge has largely been ignored — if not supported through omissn — by Rsian Print Vladimir Put and his ernment.

After weeks of verifitn, the Rsian-language newspaper shar heart-wrenchg news out of Rsia’s North Cs: More than 100 people have been taed Chechnya, all of whom are gay or spected to be. ” Lol thori tell a news agency, “You nnot arrt or reprs people who jt don’t exist the republic, ” suggtg that Chechnya has no gay cizens, and that if did, those cizens’ relativ would have executed them unr honor killg ctoms.

JOURNALIST WHO UNVERED CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY PURGE ATTACKED

Amnty Internatnal lnch an “urgent actn” mpaign askg dividuals to wre to Rsian thori “urgg them to rry out prompt, effective and thorough vtigatns to the reports of abductns and killgs of men believed to be gay Chechnya and to ensure that anyone found guilty or plic such crim will be brought to jtice acrdance wh the laws of the Rsian Feratn. One of the victims of Chechnya’s gay purge, an aforementned TV journalist, has all footage of his past reportg erased by the Chechen State TV and Rad Company he worked for — “as if he simply did not exist. It’s now believed that up to several hundred gay men have been round up, some killed, Chechnya, and The Guardian publish this story followg terviews wh gay men who claim they were tortured secret tentn facili.

The newspaper urg the Rsian ernment to rpond to lls for a jihad agast journalists reportg on Chechnya’s gay purge, cg the April 3 meetg of 15, 000 at the central mosque of Grozny. Lra Weste, print of the Colombian-based NGO Gpo Acción y Apoyo a Personas Trans tweets a satelle picture that reportedly shows one lotn where gay men are beg held Chechnya’s gay purge. OutRight Actn Internatnal urg three oil pani wh large vtments Rsian oil and gas — Brish Petrolm, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell — to publicly nmn Chechnya’s gay purge.

As part of a special vtigatn, CNN releas terviews wh multiple victims of Chechnya’s gay purge (their inti ncealed), who discs the form their torture took and the “ath sentence” that has always rulted om beg openly gay the Southern Rsian republic. Speakg to Gay Star News, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokperson the UK nfirms that Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, has threatened to rid the area of homosexualy “by Ramadan, ” which falls on May 26. Followg reports of a 17-year-old man thrown off a nth floor balny by his own uncle for beg gay, Hor announc the lnch of s “Know Your Rights” mpaign, an tnal effort to help make gay men and travelers aware of their rights different untri around the world.

LGBTQ ACTIVISTS REPORT NEW WAVE OF TENTNS, TORTURE AND KILLGS OF GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA

One week after Rsia promised to nduct an vtigatn to Chechnya’s gay purge, the Rsian Embassy to Israel wr to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “There are no victims of persecutn, threats or vlence” the republic. One of many artists and activists spreadg rmatn and brgg awarens to Chechnya’s gay purge, Brooklyn-based illtrator Pl Tuller sells a new T-shirt, wh 100% of the profs gog to the Rsian LGBTQ Network. Three French LGBTQ groups — Stop Homophobia, Mose and Come Idaho France — file a plat agast Chechnya wh the Internatnal Crimal Court, accg the Rsian republic of “a policy of genoci” towards gay people and blamg Chechen print Ramzan Kadyrov and his officials for a “wave of persecutn.

The Baltic News Service reports that the eastern European natn of Lhuania has granted visas to at least two men who fled Chechnya’s gay purge, timed wh the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT).

The prott ends peacefully wh no arrts or major disturbanc, even though such non-permted monstratns are illegal Rsia and n afoul of the natn’s so-lled “gay propaganda” law. Novaya Gazeta publish a report sayg 26 people have now been murred “extrajudicial killgs” as part of Chechnya’s gay purge, and go on to acce Chechen thori of a systematic sabotage of Rsia’s vtigatn efforts.

GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA DPERATELY NEED THE WORLD'S HELP

The ostensible purpose of the torture is to get the nam of other gay men, but one refugee tells Human Rights Watch that if a victim giv up rmatn, actually prolongs the torture hop of more rmatn.

Officials also rerd the torture ssns on cellphone meras to show fai later as proof of what will happen to them if they do not “remove the sta of homosexual shame om their fai. On the eve of the first G20 summ meetg between Tmp and Put, The Rsian LGBT Network — which has at this pot helped approximately 40 gay Chechens pe the regn — says has “received more lls om Chechnya the last 72 hours” and has “credible evince that arrts are happeng aga.