Chechnya's gay purge
Beginning February it has been reported that over 100 male residents of the Chechen republic have been abducted, tortured and held prisoner in what eye witnesses are calling concentration camps for gay and bisexual men. At least three men have died in these extrajudicial killings and many more may have also lost their lives in these camps.
One victim of these camps is Maxim Lapunov and he is the first to go public with these allegations without hiding his identity. He reports that he was held in a basement for 12 days and beaten by Chechen security forces who demanded to know whether he was gay and who his sexual partners were.
One victim spoke of how he was subjected to electric shock torture but kept his identity anonymous for fear of retribution from authorities or their families.
Meanwhile, the Chechen authorities refuse to acknowledge that this purge ever happened and also continue to deny the existence of gay people in their republic. Leader Ramzan Kadyrov remarked:
“We don’t have those kind of people here. We don’t have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada… Take them far away from us, so we don’t have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them”.
Yet, even with these unsettling words no action has been taken against them. The Russian federal investigative authorities have remained silent on the matter and their “preliminary investigations” appear to be stalled and unlikely to deliver any plausible results. Even if they wanted to get to the bottom of these allegations, they have limited sway over Kadyrov who often operates outside of Russian law with no consequences.
However, Amnesty International is monitoring the situation and raising money in attempts to conduct a thorough investigation and bring those accountable to justice. But, will this be enough when left with the thought
:
“On the European continent, nobody has tried to destroy people based on their sexual orientation since the time of Nazi Germany.”