“Wele to Chechnya” Reveals the Killg of Gay People

Contents:

• NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN
• 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
• 'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA
• ONLY FIVE UNTRI ARE HELPG GAY CHECHENS LEAVE RSIA
• A VICTIM OF THE ANTI-GAY PURGE CHECHNYA SPEAKS OUT: 'THE TTH EXISTS'

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. Activists display plards ont of the Chancellery Berl on April 30, 2017, durg a monstratn llg on the Rsian print to put an end to the persecutn of gay men Chechnya.

“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.

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

“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. Sce 2017, there have been a seri of state-sponsored anti-gay purg across Chechnya, which hundreds of gay men have been arrted and taed secret prisons. “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.

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. Like every good tyrant, Kadyrov has a list of “unsirabl” who are monized and spegoated for all of the untry’s problems — and top of his list are gay people. ” 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.

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

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. ” Polls suggt a majory of Rsians believe gays are nspirg to “stroy” the untry’s valu, while 1  5 of them want to “elimate” gay and lbian people om Rsian society.

Then there is the global ntext: As the director, France, remd me, homosexualy remas illegal more than 70 untri across the world and is punishable by ath eight of them. Holot Memorial Mm, “an timated 100, 000 men were arrted for vlatg Nazi Germany’s law agast homosexualy, and of the, approximately 50, 000 were sentenced to prison. “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.

Nonprof Rabow Railroad is a Canadian-headquartered group helpg LGBTQ people around the world pe persecutn and vlence, cludg assistg queer Chechens pe the terrory amid anti-gay purg. 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.

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

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. Abhorrent extrajudicial actns agast LGBTQ people did not first sprg up April of 2017; ed, lol thori excelled at blackmailg the republic’s gay muny for years prr.

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. Some of the taed were eventually released and able to flee Chechnya, while others were released only upon handg over about other gay iends and acquatanc.

” 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. 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.

ONLY FIVE UNTRI ARE HELPG GAY CHECHENS LEAVE RSIA

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. Other ci see anized protts agast Chechnya’s gay purge as well, cludg London (April 12), Amsterdam (April 19), Toronto (April 22) and Manchter (April 23).

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

Novaya Gazeta reports there are six known secret prisons for gays Chechnya, one of which is loted the town of Argun and another is the village of Tsotsi-Yurt.