Chechnya Undergoes Anti-Gay Purge
A purge is going on in Russia's Chechen Republic, but the targets are not political dissenters, and the campaign does not revolve around ideological differences. Rather, the victims are identified based on their sexual orientation — innocent and harmless gay men including those who are perceived to be such.
Like other conservative and traditional Muslim societies, Chechnya is intensely homophobic where homosexuality is viewed as a stain on a family's honor. The stigma is also placed on other "undesirables" that don't meet the moral standards of Islam like adulterers and promiscuous women.
Homosexuals have long been persecuted by authorities, but this was done for extortion purposes wherein the victim will be threatened with exposure to his family and the society. Things turned for the worse in the spring of 2017 when roundups on gay men were systematically carried out.
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Stories of men being rounded up first circulated on the streets in hushed tones, until a newspaper broke the story on Apr. 1. Human Rights Watch informed that the victims were taken to secret detention facilities s in Chechnya's capital of Grozny and Argun where they are tortured or killed.
The security forces' modus operandi is to scour information in the cellphones of captured suspects to identify the next victims of illegal arrests. Some men have fled the country, even those who are not gay, for fear of being targeted due to their association to those who have been picked up.
Human rights groups have appealed to the federal government to step in, but Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be taking a hands-off policy in Chechnya to maintain the loyalty of ultraconservative Muslim leaders. This prompted gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell to brand him as the "Czar of Homophobia."
The rights group Russian LGBT Network has provided evacuation-related assistance to almost 40 LGBT individuals. Many of the victims were given medical treatment for the physical, mental and emotional trauma they experienced in captivity.
