Chechnya police order parents to kill their gay children or 'we'll do it for you'

International Business Times

Human Rights

Gay men and children face persecution as part of an anti-LGBT purge in the Russian region.

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  By Lydia Smith
  Updated May 3, 2017 11:53 BST

How gay people are being persecuted in Chechnya IBTimes UK

Chechen authorities have reportedly instructed parents to kill their gay children, according to an account told by a survivor.
The individual, who escaped one of the LGBT prison camps in the southern Russian region of Chechnya, told France 24 that parents had been told to "sort it out" or risk persecution and death at the hands of the authorities.

"They tell the parents to kill their child. They say, 'Either you do it, or we will,'" he said, speaking anonymously. "They call it: 'Cleaning your honour with blood.'
"They tortured a man for two weeks [then] they summoned his parents and brothers who all came.
"The authorities said to them: 'Your son is a homosexual – sort it out or we'll do it ourselves'."
The victim added: "We've always been persecuted, but never like this.
"Now they arrest everyone. They kill people, they do whatever they want."
Hundreds of gay men are being abducted, tortured and killed in an anti-LGBT purge in the conservative republic.
A report published in the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta described how at least 100 men have been detained in World War Two-era concentration camps for LGBT people, where prisoners face abuse and torture.
After initially reporting prison camps had been established in the villages of Argun and Tsotsi-Yurt, the newspapers has since reported there are at least six prisons across Chechnya.
Svetlana Zakharova, an activist for the Russian LGBT Network, told IBTimes UK the crisis in Chechnya is unprecedented.
"Right now, there is a situation where homosexual men are being detained – they are being tortured and heavily beaten and people who contacted us said sometimes they are being beaten to death," she said.
"People are being tortured with electric currents, beaten – this is the information we know," Zakharova said.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied reports of LGBT abuse and tortureREUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

"In Chechnya being homosexual is considered to be a huge shame. Homosexuality is considered shameful not only for the person, but for their whole family and there are honour killings.
"It is considered that homosexuality brings such a shame on the family that there is only one way to wash the shame away – to kill the person."
Autocratic Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied the reports, despite evidence of the massive campaign against gay men in the region.
The reports of LGBT rights violations have attracted international attention and condemnation, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging Vladimir Putin, on 2 May, to investigate the situation during her first visit to Russia in two years.

More from IBTimes UK

• 'They stripped me... One filmed me... Three of them beat me': Chechen gay victim speaks out
• 'People are being tortured and killed': Chechnya's deadly anti-LGBT crisis
• Chechnya detains 100 gay men in first concentration camps since the Holocaust