Chechen lear: No gays here -- but if there are, take them away | CNN

Contents:

• CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE
• NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN
• ‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA
• INSI CHECHNYA’S GULAG FOR GAY MEN
• CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'
• CHECHEN LEAR: NO GAYS HERE – BUT IF THERE ARE, TAKE THEM AWAY
• THREATS OVER GAY CRACKDOWN VERAGE FORCE RSIAN JOURNALIST TO HIDG

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. 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. In 2017 and 2019, Chechen thori orchtrated lethal purg of men perceived to be gay or bisexual.

In 2017, as reports of the purge surfaced, gay and bisexual men began pg Chechnya, knowg the dangers they faced. In September 2017, jt months after pg Chechnya and arrivg Canada, a Chechen gay man Toronto faced threats. But for the young man who lls himself Maksim, as for sr of other gay men arrted a pogrom this month Rsia’s Chechnya regn, pivoted to nearly two weeks of beatgs and said had started wh a chat room nversatn wh “a very good old iend who is also gay, ” and who suggted that they meet at an apartment.

NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN

”Gay men have never had an easy life Chechnya. But the targeted, llective punishment of gays that began last month unr s pro-Kreml lear, Ramzan A.

Kadyrov, is a new turn the regn’s long history of rights Gazeta, an opposn newspaper, first reported the pogrom, sayg that at least 100 gay men had been arrted and three killed the roundup. The victims e assumed nam their everyday followg acunt is based on terviews wh Maksim, who is his 20s, and two other gay men who were taed by Chechen secury agents.

Homosexualy is taboo Chechnya and the mostly Mlim surroundg areas of the Cs regn southern Rsia.

‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

“This society is highly homophobic, ” said Ekatera L. “Homosexualy is nmned. ”Neverthels, before the crackdown, gay men Chechnya uld at least lead social liv, if heavily closeted on, Maksim said.

“When two gay men meet, they don’t tell one another their te nam, ” Maksim said. ” Hill for The New York TimThe crackdown began after GayRsia, a rights group based Mosw, applied for perms for gay pri paras the Cs regn, promptg unterprotts by relig groups, the men said.

In Chechnya, beme somethg even worse — a mass “prophylactic” cleansg of homosexuals, the secury service agents told the gay men as they round them men were held for as ltle as a day or as long as several weeks, acrdg to Human Rights Watch and to terviews wh gay men who later ped the regn. Kadyrov’s spokman, Alvi Karimov, said the reports of an anti-gay pogrom had to be false bee such men did not exist Chechnya.

INSI CHECHNYA’S GULAG FOR GAY MEN

Kadyrov characterized as “libelo” news reports that the secury servic Chechnya had been persecutg gay on Thursday, Mr. Pkov, told journalists that the Rsian thori had found no evince that the Chechen police had arrted gay quickly beme clear to Maksim and the other men that the Chechen thori were applyg the same tactics ed by Rsia and by Mr.

Secury service agents took to posg as gay men lookg for dat on the Village and other chat rooms, or persuad those they had already ptured to lure acquatanc, those arrted said spread among gay Chechens. We’re jt gay guys. ”That, seems, is sentially what happened to Maksim, who had been rrpondg wh his gay acquatance for some time.

His acunt of the ceptn ed to ta him was nsistent wh others documented by Human Rights Watch and wh the acunts of the two other gay men terviewed separately for this six of the men the apartment were transferred to a makhift cell an abandoned buildg, where they were tortured wh electricy one by one, Maksim 11 days, he was released to a male relative, who was told that Maksim was gay. ”Fearg for his life, Maksim turned to a gay rights group, the Rsian LGBT Network, based St.

CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'

Petersburg, which has tablished an emergency, round-the-clock volunteer group to help gay men pe the reassure the victims they are tryg to help, the activists have taken extraordary preutns, operatg virtually as a partisan cell behd enemy l, though they have done nothg illegal unr Rsian law. “The people don’t tst anybody, ” said Olga Baranova, director of the Mosw Communy Center, a support group for gays that is part of the volunteer work helpg gay men flee arrivg at the safe lotn outsi Chechnya, several young men said they had spected that the volunteer group was also a trap but had no other optn but to accept the help, Ms. ’”The work bought airplane tickets for Chechen gay men, found safe ho and arranged for doctors to treat those who had been badly beaten.

“Gays Chechnya and the North Cs are lethal danger, ” Igor Kochetkov, director of the Rsian LGBT Network, said a telephone terview. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 13 of the New York edn wh the headle: Chechnya’s Anti-Gay Pogrom: ‘They Starve You. They started accg me, ‘you’re gay, ’ ‘you were talkg to a woman about homosexualy.

“They tried to beat the rmatn out of me, askg me about other gay men I’d never spoken to and never met.

CHECHEN LEAR: NO GAYS HERE – BUT IF THERE ARE, TAKE THEM AWAY

I didn’t want them to thk I was gay eher. 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.

THREATS OVER GAY CRACKDOWN VERAGE FORCE RSIAN JOURNALIST TO HIDG

Cooperatn, he explaed, meant workg wh the thori to meet gay men onle, lure them to an apartment wired wh surveillance equipment, and then turn them . The worst place the world to be gay?

“All those who fend human rights groups and the gays we supposedly have the Chechen Republic are foreign agents, ” Kadyrov blasted an terview wh the BBC 2018. “I don’t thk the thori Chechnya try to mask that there’s open hostily to people who are gay or believed to be gay. It’s no surprise then that there have been numero anti-gay pogroms, ” said Rachel Denber, puty director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch.

“There have been s when such allegatns [of homosexualy] were ed by the secury forc as threats or to jtify their illegal actns. The route kidnappg and btal torture of gay men and women the republic has been heavily documented by rights groups and journalists, sce a so-lled "gay purge" 2017 ma global headl, when dozens of men were round up and tortured at police bas.