Some have asked me to make a post regarding gay men being rounded up in Chechnya. Now, let me just clarify that details are very slim because the government is denying this (obviously) and there are a lot of posts on tumblr with misinformation. So Iâll do as best I can here:
An independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and human rights activists have been providing this information. âIn Chechnya, the command was given for a âprophylactic sweepâ and it went as far as real murders,â the Novaya Gazeta reported.Â
According to the newspaper, dozens of men between the ages of 16 and 50 have mysteriously disappeared off the streets. Reports say that authorities aided in these roundups by posing as men looking for dates online. They also say that some of these men are well known religious leaders and/or popular faces on local television.
The Russian LGBT Network has set up a hotline for those seeking help and evacuation from the region. They told the media that they have received reports of whatâs been happening in these prisons. âGay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region. Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death,â Svetlana Zakharova from the Russian LGBT network said.
A spokesman for Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnyaâs leader, is claiming that the reports are âabsolute lies and disinformation,â and said that âYou cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic. If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldnât need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.â They are even claiming that these reports were nothing more than an April Fools joke because the Novaya Gazeta article was published on April 1st. The Kremlin is also denying any knowledge of these reports.Â
The Human Rights Watch in Moscow told the media that theyâve gained information regarding these attacks that include torture, humiliation, and at least three reports of murder.
Note that itâs very difficult to get much information on this because almost no independent journalists or rights activists are able to work in the region due to restrictions. A journalist from the Novaya Gazeta has spoken out against Kadyrov before and was murdered only days later.
A Chechen activist who claims to work on human rights in the republic (and works on Kadyrovâs human rights council) has denied the claims. She told a Russian radio station âIn our Chechen society, any person who respects our traditions and culture will hunt down this kind of person without any help from authorities, and do everything to make sure that this kind of person does not exist in our society.âÂ
Novaya Gazeta said they have been able to confirm their information with an âunprecedented large number of sources in the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic, in the administration of the head of the republic, the FSB Department for Chechnya, the Chechen prosecutorâs office finally local LGBT activists.â They are also saying that a former military headquarters is the site of the camp.Â
source. source. source. souce. source. and hereâs the original Novaya Gazeta article. It is in Russian but it may be of interest to you if you can read it or your computer translates.Â
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