Chechnya police: Kill your gay children before we kill them in torture camps
Chechnya’s police force has issued a chilling warning to the parents of gay men.
According to a survivor’s account, the authorities have instructed parents in the region to murder their gay children for “honour”.
Police are threatening parents with the line: “Either you do it, or we will,” one man who survived the brutality has said.
The man, whose identity has been protected for his own safety, told France 24 that he had managed to escape from one of the gay concentration camps set-up by Chechen authorities.
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Police told parents of gay men to “sort it out” or risk authorities taking matters into their own hands.
“They tell the parents to kill their child,” he told the news channel.
“They say, ‘Either you do it, or we will.’
“They call it ‘Cleaning your honour with blood,'” he explained.
Last week local news reported that four more concentration camps had been discovered, meaning there are now at least six camps holding gay and bi men.
The survivor says police gave family members an ultimatum: “They tortured a man for two weeks [then] they summoned his parents and brothers who all came.
“The authorities said to them: ‘Your son is a homosexual — sort it out or we’ll do it ourselves’.”
The victim added: “We’ve always been persecuted, but never like this.
“Now they arrest everyone. They kill people, they do whatever they want.”
A spokesperson for Russian president Vladimir Putin has claims there is no evidence for the attacks.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s Press Secretary, claimed that investigators have found no evidence to support reports of the purge, according to Associated Press.
Germany’s leader Angela Merkel challenged Putin to his face, calling for him to end the reported abuses.
It comes after Britain’s deputy foreign secretary revealed Chechnya’s President Kadyrov wanted the elimination of gay men in the region before Ramadan.
Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, told parliament: “Human rights groups report that these anti-gay campaigns and killings are orchestrated by the head of the Chechen republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.
“He has carried out other violent campaigns in the past, and this time he is directing his efforts at the LGBT community.”
“Sources have said that he wants the [LGBT] community eliminated by the start of Ramadan.”
The minister added: “Such comments, attitudes and actions are absolutely beyond contemptible.”
These allegations have been supported by human rights groups, and led to the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, UK and US governments to call for the Kremlin to investigate.
Editors of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, who exposed the human rights abuses, say they fear that the “entire staff” on the paper are at serious risk following the expose.
The paper’s staff have reported hundreds of gay men had been detained and some killed in the region of Russia.
