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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Sun Apr 23, 2017, 08:38 AM Apr 2017

'They Starve You. They Shock You': Inside the Anti-Gay Pogrom in Chechnya

By ANDREW E. KRAMERAPRIL 21, 2017

GROZNY, Russia — It was supposed to be a night out. But for the young man who calls himself Maksim, as for scores of other gay men arrested in a pogrom this month in Russia’s Chechnya region, it pivoted into nearly two weeks of beatings and torture.

Maksim said it had started with a chat room conversation with “a very good old friend who is also gay,” and who suggested that they meet at an apartment. When Maksim arrived, however, he was greeted not by his friend but by agents who beat him. Later, they strapped him to a chair, attached electrical wires to his hands with alligator clips and began an interrogation.

“They yelled, ‘Who else do you know?’” Maksim said, and zapped him with current from time to time. “It was unbearably painful; I was hanging on with my last strength,” he added. “But I didn’t tell them anything.”

Gay men have never had an easy life in Chechnya. But the targeted, collective punishment of gays that began last month under its pro-Kremlin leader, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, is a new turn in the region’s long history of rights abuses.

Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, first reported the pogrom, saying that at least 100 gay men had been arrested and three killed in the roundup. Human Rights Watch corroborated those findings.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/world/europe/chechnya-russia-attacks-gays.html?emc=edit_th_20170423&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284

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'They Starve You. They Shock You': Inside the Anti-Gay Pogrom in Chechnya (Original Post) DonViejo Apr 2017 OP
Don't feel bad. Behind the Aegis Apr 2017 #1
There is a bizarre one-way solidarity between elements of the prorgessive Left and Islam. EL34x4 Apr 2017 #2
I agree with your assessment. Behind the Aegis Apr 2017 #3

Behind the Aegis

(53,833 posts)
1. Don't feel bad.
Sun Apr 23, 2017, 12:45 PM
Apr 2017

The last two times this article was posted it got almost no views or posts, so.... After all, it is only the lives of gay men and they aren't even America ones.

Still waiting, for the world do actually do something more than "tsk-tsk" and let Russia say "it isn't happening", but I doubt anything will happen.

 

EL34x4

(2,003 posts)
2. There is a bizarre one-way solidarity between elements of the prorgessive Left and Islam.
Sun Apr 23, 2017, 01:36 PM
Apr 2017

And these progressives would prefer that accounts of the mistreatment of homosexuals in Islamic societies not get too much attention. When it does, they quickly blame "all" religion or marginalize it by saying, "Christian Republicans would do it here if they could!"

Anyhow, what should the world do about it? What can the world do about it? This is Chechnya.

Behind the Aegis

(53,833 posts)
3. I agree with your assessment.
Sun Apr 23, 2017, 08:43 PM
Apr 2017

The world can issue sanctions against Chechnya. They can provide amnesty to those being persecuted for their sexual orientation (not all countries do, but those that do should offer sanctuary). The UNHRC can pass a resolution against Chechnya and Russia. They can demand health care workers be allowed to assess the situation.

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