User:Djflem/2017 purges of gay men in Chechnya

User talk:Yashovardhan Dhanania

As of June the Russian LGBT Network says 42 of men been evacuated to other parts of Russia. While they are safe from the immediate threat of detention, as long as they are still in Russia they risk being discovered by Chechnyan diaspora  tracked down. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/04/opinions/gay-chechen-asylum-opinion-mackinnon http://www.advocate.com/politics/2017/6/02/ian-mckellen-joins-london-protesters-demanding-change-chechnya

Novoya Gazeta has also claimed authorities are demanding families sign a statement with the text: "their son (or brother) [FULL NAME] left the republic to work in Moscow in late February. There is no connection to the Chechen police". Names of the four gay men killed in the region are also known to the newspaper. Three, one of whom was was a member of the National Guard of Russia, were killed on suspicion of homosexuality. A fourth was detained on suspicion of extremism.

US denies visas
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/homo-s-tsjetsjenie-ontvoerd-en-gemarteld-human-rights-watch-wil-noodvisa~a4487733/ human rights watch call for emergencies visas http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chechnya-gay-men-us-visas-denied-trump-government-crackdown-flee-536-a7741901.html http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lithuania-first-country-to-grant-asylum-to-gay-men-escaping-chechnya/ http://www.advocate.com/world/2017/5/19/gay-chechen-refugees-are-finding-surprising-ally Lithuiania http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39974512?SThisFB

camps
six April 2017 http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/now-six-concentration-camps-illegally-imprisoning-gay-men-chechnya/

honor killngs
http://www.advocate.com/world/2017/5/03/chechen-authorities-tell-families-kill-your-gay-sons-or-we-will https://www.thegailygrind.com/2017/05/05/17-year-old-gay-teen-pushed-off-9th-floor-balcony-uncle-outed-chechen-family/ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chechnya-parents-kill-gay-sons-russia-region-government-chechen-leader-ramzan-kadyrov-a7714591.html

http://www.newnownext.com/amsterdam-chechnya-protest/04/2017/ http://www.advocate.com/politics/2017/4/18/human-rights-group-hopes-evacuate-gay-men-chechnya http://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/protest-westermarkt-tegen-vervolging-lhbti-s-in-tsjetsjenie~a4487305/

round up, crackdown

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/insider/russia-chechnya-gays.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=timesinsider&region=c-column-bottom-span-region&_r=0

Rainbow Railroad

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/02/angela-merkel-vladimir-putin-russia-investigate-lgbt-torture-claims-chechnya Merkel in Russia

abstersion https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abstersion

The witch hunt is an attempt to purge Chechnya of men who have sex with men: The methods to suppress or cleanse society of those with so-caleed "unorthodox sexual orientation or practices" have included. surveillance, detention, interrogation, torture, and threat of honor killing. (The barracks where the men have been held-and from reports later released-have been called any of a number of the things by any pf a number of parties/sources.) This has precipitated an exodus through escape or evacuation using official and unofficial channels. Thus the stated intention to "purify" the region by the Chechnya authorities is succeeding. Purge remans the best term to describe the systematic:purification through voluntary or involuntary expulsion, evacuation, immigration, relocation.

The information about the arrests began to come about a week ago and was reviewed by us and confirmed by an unprecedented number of sources: the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, the administration of the head of the republic, the FSB Chechnya, the prosecutor's office of Chechnya, and local LGBT activists. Some of them were detained and left the republic after they were released (an extremely rare case). Some left after their friends and acquaintances were detained. Detentions are held in various localities, not only in Grozny.

Among the detainees are representatives of the Chechen muftiate, including prominent, influential and religious leaders close to the head of the republic, as well as two well-known Chechen TV personalities. Of course, all these people in no way demonstrated their special sexual orientation - in the Caucasus it is tantamount to a death sentence. However, in traditional Chechen society, between which extremely short social distances exist, such things are recognized quickly, no matter how much they hide.

In a panic, Chechen users of social networks leave the closed thematic groups in instant messengers and closed accounts in social networks. However, some, took the risk to try to warn others about the threat. The residents of Chechnya, who were victims of persecution - even if only on suspicion of unconventional sexual orientation - have very little chance of surviving. It is enough for the family to report the reason for the detention, and relatives will not complain to official authorities, and the facts of detention and even the murder of their loved ones will be carefully concealed.

It is known that some detainees are released for "lack of evidence". However, in this case, they are in danger, which comes from relatives. In Chechnya, the ancient custom of "killing honor" is still common - it is a measure that allows to wash the shame of the family by killing the culprit of this disgrace.

Our sources in the Chechen special services categorically linked the wave of detentions, which they called a "preventive sweep," with another wave of information.

At the beginning of March in the Caucasus, Russian LGBT activists, participants of the GayRussia.ru project, within the framework of their all-Russian judicial campaign, applied for a series of gay pride parades in four cities of the North Caucasus Federal District. So, on March 9, LGBT activist Vladimir Klimov, who lives in the Sverdlovsk Region, sent a "notification of a public event in the form of a procession" to the administration of Nalchik and the regional administration of Kabardino-Balkaria. The notification indicated that the procession is planned to be conducted along the main streets in the historical center of Nalchik, the estimated number of participants in the event is 300 people (there are scans at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta). The Nalchik administration predictably refused. Actually, it is this, the applicants, apparently, and added. Similar statements were also filed by Moscow LGBT activists on March 9 and 10 in Cherkessk, Stavropol and Maikop.

Information about the intentions of the GayRussia.ru project activists (the project manager of the well-known Moscow LGBT activist Nikolai Alekseev) to hold gay prides in the Caucasus regions was in the media. In the entire Caucasus, this news caused massive protests, where speakers demonstrated a high level of aggression. In social networks there were made with varying degrees of creativity videos and calls for the murder of people with unconventional sexual orientation.

It was at this time in Chechnya that a command was given to "preventive cleansing" and it came to real murders.

Nikolay Alekseev told Novaya Gazeta that by applying for parades in various regions of Russia he is fighting for his constitutional rights, for freedom of assembly and for repealing the law on the prohibition of gay propaganda. "We no longer hold uncoordinated gay pride parades," he told Novaya Gazeta. - We used to do it, now we do not. We seek from the state the coordination of our actions and providing security for their participants. But every time we submit an application, we, of course, are preparing for a gay parade in case our application is agreed upon. "

On the clarifying questions of Novaya Gazeta, why 300 people appear in the application and how many local LGBT activists planned to go to gay parades in Nalchik, Cherkessk, Maikop or at least in Stavropol, Alekseev could not say anything concrete. He explained that if the action was agreed and security was secured, Moscow and St. Petersburg activists were ready to come to the Caucasus and participate in gay pride parades.

At the same time, neither Alekseev nor his lawyers came to Nalchik either for giving notice or for a preliminary hearing on the suit about refusing to hold a gay parade in this Caucasian city. Alekseev noted that this is due not only to the workload, but also to considerations of personal safety. After it became known about the application for the gay pride in Nalchik and other cities of the North Caucasus Federal District, he received "a huge number of threats for all possible types of communication."

Alekseev, in addition to activism, is known for his numerous lawsuits brought to the courts in various regions of the country: he refuses every refusal to coordinate the action in Russian courts, and then goes to the European Court of Human Rights.

In 2011 Alexeev won his first complaint in Strasbourg, compensation amounted to 29 thousand euros.

At the moment, the ECHR has communicated two more similar complaints, compensation for which, in the opinion of coordinator of the "Gender Program" of the Bell Foundation Irina Kosterina, can amount to 100,000 euros.

In addition, according to Alekseev, now is preparing the third, "unprecedented in scale" wave of complaints, which, apparently, got the cases of refusals in the Caucasian cities. According to Alekseev, "trials in recognition of refusals to conduct gay parades illegal, are in 95 cities, suits for an incomplete year we covered 78 of the 89 regions of Russia." Alekseev confirmed that complaints on all regions will be sent to the ECHR, but it was difficult to name the requested amount of compensation for legal costs and for non-pecuniary damage.

Asked by Novaya Gazeta whether he knew that his statements about the intention to hold gay parades in the Caucasus provoked the persecution of local LGBT representatives, and in Chechnya led to mass arrests and killings, Alekseev replied that the correspondent of Novaya Gazeta was " Speculates with unverified information, operates with unfounded facts, and personally he knows nothing about such persecution and the consequences of his actions. "

One can understand why Alekseev, a fighter for the rights of LGBT people, still does not have those "proven facts". The fact is that, as if shaking up the patriarchal Caucasus, he did not provide his supporters with at least a minimal cover, at least some channels for retreat.

Absolutely not knowing and not understanding the local specifics, he apparently simply did not take into account what consequences for people can be from just one notification of intention, which no one was planning to implement. The problem is that in the Caucasus the word is still taken seriously.

The seriousness of Alexeyev's intentions was not doubted by those who declared a real hunt for local LGBT communities.

Novaya Gazeta knows that other Russian LGBT organizations (the GayRussia.ru project does not participate in this) are currently creating a hotline, receiving reports about the persecution of the residents of Chechnya and are ready to evacuate people.

Novaya Gazeta is preparing an application to the TFR and the General Prosecutor's Office, as well as to the administration of the President of the Russian Federation. We intend to provide the investigation with personal data (name, place of work, place of residence) of the dead and demand the initiation of criminal proceedings, as only in the criminal case it is possible to conduct exhumations to establish the exact cause of death of people.

MESSAGE FROM VKONTAKTA
"Salam alaykum to all! I did not think that I would write again here, but now, when there is only one chain in the subject, and if you substitute one, he is tortured until he gives up others and this can touch and I think that it will be correct if I warn.

There are often posts about the bases (referring to provocations to identify people of homosexual orientation - note EM) and I some time ago tried to find the victims of these substitutions. When I did not find any, I thought it was not true. Now I understand why I did not find any who were framed in Chechnya. Unfortunately, many are killed.

Killed not just young guys but even adult men in their 50 years. Among them there are well-known personalities in Chechnya.

At various events, television editions, in competitions participated. I do not want to mention their names. The youngest is 16 years old. He's from our village. Just a few days ago he was brought back all the beaten, just a bag of bones. They threw him in the yard and told him to be killed. He still says did not come to himself and will hardly come. I do not know how they explain why they do this, they will be asked to show evidence that our son or brother is like that.

In Chechnya, after all, strictly to slander anyone who had no weighty evidence. You can even stay without your pants. Especially to raise a hand on the peasant and slander it in homosexuality is generally a disgrace for many centuries. I do not know how they explain it, but it's crap. A natural, my military relative who literally told me this morning. I was wrong when I spoke here and wrote that there was no substitute. They are and still have their hands untied now. Be extremely careful and remove your dubious connections.

The main thing is not to rent apartment apartments, probably all realtors are forced to put cameras in apartments and in this way they get dirt on the victims. And realtors from Chechnya will do everything to not lose their business and who will dare to protest our military. Please be very careful. This is my last post here. "

PS
On March 29, the Russian LGBT network distributed the following message in social networks: "In connection with the recent incidence of harassment of gay, lesbian, transgender / -co (or those considered so) in the North Caucasian republics, the Russian LGBT network created the Hot Line for residents of the region in danger. If you feel threatened, you are threatened, immediately contact us at kavkaz@lgbtnet.org

We guarantee that all the information you will give (including your name and surname) will be known only to our three employees who are directly involved in the organization of assistance.

We recommend that you include the following information in your email: - describe the situation in which you find yourself; - what assistance do you need. - Your name and surname;

We will promptly respond to each request and discuss with you different options for assistance.