Chechnya denies LGBTQ people even exist per spokesman
As word continues to spread about concentration camps that are used to detain and torture gay men in Chechnya, a subject of the Russian Federation, a Russian emergency hotline said it has received increasing pleas for help from people who have been targeted.
NBC News reported the following:
“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.”
According to the report, Poplevskaia shared with NBC News the organization has set up an emergency hotline after “learning about a law enforcement crackdown on Chechen men who are believed to be gay or bisexual.”
Public reporting suggests that police began arresting men who were suspected of being gay in late February and hauling them off to what Poplevskaia described as a “former military barracks” close to the Chechen town of Argun. This is where allegations of men being severely tortured have taken place.
Reportedly, there may have been as many as 20 killed.
More from the NBC report:
“Poplevskaia said the Russian LGBT Network has begun helping gay and bisexual men flee Chechnya but did not want to describe details of the evacuation program out of safety concerns.
People are very intimidated and not eager to talk. They are hesitant to even talk to us,” explained Poplevskaia, who said the organization was not connecting victims with reporters for interviews at this time. “The people who have been targeted by the campaign need some time to get back to normal life.”
Last week, the State Department released a statement about the situation.
“We are increasingly concerned about the situation in the Republic of Chechnya, where there have been numerous credible reports indicating the detention of at least 100 men on the basis of their sexual orientation,” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said in the April 7 release.
“We are deeply disturbed by recent public statements by Chechen authorities that condone and incite violence against LGBTI persons,” Toner continued. “We urge Russian federal authorities to speak out against such practices, take steps to ensure the release of anyone wrongfully detained, conduct an independent and credible investigation into these reports, and hold any perpetrators responsible.”
A spokesperson for Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, flat-out denied the existence of LGBTQ people in Chechnya, telling the Interfax news group, “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic.”
As reported by Gay Star News, a protest was held on April 12 in London over the increasing concerns about the situation happening in Chechnya.
h/t: NBC News
