Rights groups have pressed an alarm button as Chechnya is reportedly rounding up and killing its gay population. More than 100 gay men in this Russian republic situated in the North Caucasus region have been detained and at least three of them are known to be dead. Reports suggest that the death toll may be higher as the regime under Ramzan Kadyrov is out for extrajudicial honour killings of gay men in its territory.
Quoting a report in Novaya Gazeta, a Washington Post editorial said the rounding up of gays in Chechnya began when a Moscow gay rights group began filing requests for demonstrations in Russia’s provincial cities. Although the group had not focused on the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, including Chechnya, the petitions galvanized a local drive to round up gay men, the report said. The authorities searched for gay men partly by posing as men seeking dates on social media websites.
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A traditionally conservative Muslim society, homosexuality is considered a taboo in Chechnya. Reports suggest that none of the men detained had been open about their sexuality.
The regime has, however, denied the report though unwilling to acknowledge the rights of gay men. “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic,” said Kadyrov’s spokesman Alvi Karimov, adding, “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.”
