LONDON: Hundreds Protest Outside Russian Embassy As Chechen Gays Plead For Foreign Help [VIDEO]

April 13, 2017 Activism, LGBT News

NBC News reports:

Since news broke nearly two weeks ago of authorities in Chechnya arresting men suspected of being gay and torturing them in a secretive detention center, a Russian emergency hotline said it has received increasing pleas for help from people who have been targeted. “We have received about 30 unique messages since April 2,” said Natalia Poplevskaia, the International Advocacy Officer and Monitoring Program Coordinator with the Russian LGBT Network. She said the messages are “from residents or former residents of Chechnya who have already been evacuated through their channels.”

Poplevskaia told NBC News the organization set up the emergency hotline after learning about a law enforcement crackdown on Chechen men who are believed to be gay or bisexual. Police began arresting the men in late February and taking them to what Poplevskaia described as a former military barracks near the Chechen town of Argun, where the men have been severely tortured, with reportedly as many as 20 killed.

Men who were released from detention spoke with the Russian LGBT Network and the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which first reported news of the anti-LGBTQ “honor killings” in Chechnya on April 1. The men who escaped described rooms in which anywhere from 15 to 30 prisoners were held without food, tortured with electric shocks and beaten — sometimes to death. One source who called the hotline described seeing two well-known Chechen figures detained, including a local TV presenter. Other sources described being forced to give the names and numbers of other LGBTQ men to officers.

Crime Russia advises on how to help:

All Out and the Russian LGBT Network have launched a joint fund-raising campaign to help victims of the “preventive cleansing” affected by the Chechen authorities and to get the remaining homosexual men out of the region. “What is happening in Chechnya is outrageous. Our priority now is to help get as many people as possible to safety, before it’s too late,” said Matt Beard, Executive Director at All Out. “Our team is doing everything possible and impossible to achieve that. And we want Russian officials to intervene, to stop the killing and to start proper investigations. There are no excuses for silence when people are being kidnapped, tortured and killed,” added Svetlana Zakharova, Communications manager at the Russian LGBT Network.

The US State Department has issues two statements denouncing Chechnya and demanding that Russia intervene. Last night US House LGBT Caucus issued a letter calling on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to personally urge Putin to take action. GLAAD has issued a similar demand to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.



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