Sexual Cleansing: Government Denies Gays Are Targets of Killings
Iraqi Gay Groups Call for Urgent Action
BAGHDAD, April 16, 2007 (IRIN) – The Iraqi lesbian and gay community and NGOs dealing with gay issues have called for urgent action to protect gays and lesbians in the country.
The groups say that the number of victims of “sexual cleansing” is growing on a daily basis.
“In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated – sometimes with signs of rape,” said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.
“Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion,” Salim added.
RLO was set up in 2005, and Salim claims that since then they have recorded more than 230 cases of abuses against gays and lesbians, including more than 64 deaths – with the last three months being the most bloody.
“The gay community continues to be subjected to systematic terror by Shia militias, especially the Mahdy Army controlled by the religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The government of Iraq is refusing to offer protection,” he added.
In an interview, one member of the Mahdy Army, Ali Hassany, said that the militia will target Iraq’s gays and lesbians.
“They deserve death. Those people are an embarrassment to our society. Killing such people is a job for their families, but if they cannot do so by their own hands, we will do it,” Hassany said.
For security reasons, RLO has been keeping a very low profile. The whereabouts of its offices are unknown and it maintains clandestine contacts with victims and volunteers.
“Four of our volunteers have been killed since 2005 and many threats have been received, but we will not stop trying to help those people. They don’t have anyone to help them and even the government considers them victims of common violence rather than victims of special targeting,” Salim added.
The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior denies that the gay community is being singled out for violent attacks, and claims that the problem is general and related to sectarian violence.
“All Iraqis might be victims of violence. We cannot afford protection to a special group because the situation is delicate for all Iraqis and we cannot confirm that they have been targeted for being gays or lesbians,” said Lt. Col. Hussein Jaboury from the ministry.
The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) says that it agrees that gays and lesbians are being targeted by the militias.
“Armed Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile towards homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them,” a report released in January by UNAMI said.
“There have been a number of assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq. We were also alerted to the existence of religious courts, supervised by religious scholars, where homosexuals allegedly would be ‘tried’, ‘sentenced’ to death and then executed,” the report added.
SEE ALSO
Iraq - More Gays Executed. Iraqi lesbians and gays continue to be subjected a systematic reign of terror by Shia death squads, Ali Hili, the coordinator of the human rights group Iraqi LGBT, said in London this morning. (UK Gay News, April 4, 2007)
Ovation for Gay Iraqi at London ‘Faith’ Conference. The leader of the gay rights group Iraqi LGBT, Ali Hili, received a standing ovation from 250 delegates when he addressed the “Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights” conference in London on Saturday. (UK Gay News, February 19, 2007)
Five Gay Activists Kidnapped In al-Shaab District of Baghdad. Five gay activists were abducted at gun-point by Iraqi police in Baghdad on November 9 – and nothing has been heard of them since then. It is feared they may have been murdered by death squads – the armed wings of parties in the Bush and Blair-backed Iraqi government –operating under the cover of the Iraqi police. (UK Gay News, December 6, 2006)
Ahmed’s Story – A Cruel, Barbaric Death. By Ali Hili. Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara. The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great poverty. (UK Gay News, May 4, 2006)
Iraqi Police Execute “Gay” Child in Baghdad. Gay human rights group Outrage! has today accused Iraqi police of executing a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura district of Baghdad in early April. (UK Gay News, May 4, 2006)
Iraqi Gays Face Abuse and Murder. As Iraq wrestles with its planned constitution, the country’s gays and lesbians face blackmail, rape and murder, a LGBT human rights group charged today. (UK Gay News, August 8, 2005)
Focus on Teens Trapped In Commercial Gay Sex Trade in Iraq. Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty. “Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said. “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.” (UK Gay News, August 8, 2005)
(Αναδημοσίευση από το site UKGayNews )
Iraqi Gay Groups Call for Urgent Action
BAGHDAD, April 16, 2007 (IRIN) – The Iraqi lesbian and gay community and NGOs dealing with gay issues have called for urgent action to protect gays and lesbians in the country.
The groups say that the number of victims of “sexual cleansing” is growing on a daily basis.
“In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated – sometimes with signs of rape,” said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.
“Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion,” Salim added.
RLO was set up in 2005, and Salim claims that since then they have recorded more than 230 cases of abuses against gays and lesbians, including more than 64 deaths – with the last three months being the most bloody.
“The gay community continues to be subjected to systematic terror by Shia militias, especially the Mahdy Army controlled by the religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The government of Iraq is refusing to offer protection,” he added.
In an interview, one member of the Mahdy Army, Ali Hassany, said that the militia will target Iraq’s gays and lesbians.
“They deserve death. Those people are an embarrassment to our society. Killing such people is a job for their families, but if they cannot do so by their own hands, we will do it,” Hassany said.
For security reasons, RLO has been keeping a very low profile. The whereabouts of its offices are unknown and it maintains clandestine contacts with victims and volunteers.
“Four of our volunteers have been killed since 2005 and many threats have been received, but we will not stop trying to help those people. They don’t have anyone to help them and even the government considers them victims of common violence rather than victims of special targeting,” Salim added.
The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior denies that the gay community is being singled out for violent attacks, and claims that the problem is general and related to sectarian violence.
“All Iraqis might be victims of violence. We cannot afford protection to a special group because the situation is delicate for all Iraqis and we cannot confirm that they have been targeted for being gays or lesbians,” said Lt. Col. Hussein Jaboury from the ministry.
The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) says that it agrees that gays and lesbians are being targeted by the militias.
“Armed Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile towards homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them,” a report released in January by UNAMI said.
“There have been a number of assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq. We were also alerted to the existence of religious courts, supervised by religious scholars, where homosexuals allegedly would be ‘tried’, ‘sentenced’ to death and then executed,” the report added.
SEE ALSO
Iraq - More Gays Executed. Iraqi lesbians and gays continue to be subjected a systematic reign of terror by Shia death squads, Ali Hili, the coordinator of the human rights group Iraqi LGBT, said in London this morning. (UK Gay News, April 4, 2007)
Ovation for Gay Iraqi at London ‘Faith’ Conference. The leader of the gay rights group Iraqi LGBT, Ali Hili, received a standing ovation from 250 delegates when he addressed the “Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights” conference in London on Saturday. (UK Gay News, February 19, 2007)
Five Gay Activists Kidnapped In al-Shaab District of Baghdad. Five gay activists were abducted at gun-point by Iraqi police in Baghdad on November 9 – and nothing has been heard of them since then. It is feared they may have been murdered by death squads – the armed wings of parties in the Bush and Blair-backed Iraqi government –operating under the cover of the Iraqi police. (UK Gay News, December 6, 2006)
Ahmed’s Story – A Cruel, Barbaric Death. By Ali Hili. Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara. The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great poverty. (UK Gay News, May 4, 2006)
Iraqi Police Execute “Gay” Child in Baghdad. Gay human rights group Outrage! has today accused Iraqi police of executing a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura district of Baghdad in early April. (UK Gay News, May 4, 2006)
Iraqi Gays Face Abuse and Murder. As Iraq wrestles with its planned constitution, the country’s gays and lesbians face blackmail, rape and murder, a LGBT human rights group charged today. (UK Gay News, August 8, 2005)
Focus on Teens Trapped In Commercial Gay Sex Trade in Iraq. Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty. “Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said. “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.” (UK Gay News, August 8, 2005)
(Αναδημοσίευση από το site UKGayNews )
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