According to the Russian LGBT Network , the leading Russian non-governmental organisation in this field, a new wave of persecution targeting (allegedly) homosexual people was unleashed in the autonomous republic of Chechnya at the beginning of December 2018.
Igor Kochetkov, activist and head of the network, announced in a press release on 14 January 2019 that around forty people had been detained by police and military forces in Chechnya, which is part of the Russian Federation, and at least two people had been tortured to death. Since December 2018, an increasing number of those affected have contacted the network and reported the most serious human rights violations [2 ].
Headlines in the international press in early 2017 included: „Chechnya accused of ‚gay genocide‘ in ICC complaint“ [3 ], „After Anti-Gay Crackdown in Chechnya, a Witness Steps Forward“ [4 ], „Chechens tell of prison beatings and electric shocks in anti-gay purge: ‚They called us animals'“ [5 ] and „Authorities persecute and kill gays in Chechnya“ [6 ]. At the time, over a hundred Russian citizens were arrested and deported in several waves of persecution because of their (alleged) homosexuality. One survivor recalled the derogatory and inhumane words of an official who made no secret of the reason for the arrest and said: „You were brought here because you are faggots. You bring shame on our people: you shouldn’t exist. We will fight homosexuality in the Chechen Republic.“ [7]
In the (sometimes unofficial) detention centres, detainees were interrogated and cruelly tortured until they admitted their „non-traditional sexual orientation“ and gave the names of other people. As a result, some died as a result of the torture and several attempted to take their own lives in detention.
Since the beginning of the first major wave of persecution at the end of 2016, the LGBT network in question has evacuated around 150 people from Chechnya and some states have agreed to grant asylum to those persecuted. This includes Germany, where homosexuality was a criminal offence for decades and the Bundestag was only able to bring itself to rehabilitate the victims of state injustice in 2017 [8 ].
However, there is no doubt that the waves of persecution were and continue to be fuelled by the state authorities and the country’s autocratic ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov. In February 2017, Kadyrov proclaimed that all homosexual men would be eliminated by the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan (May 2017). [9 ] After the human rights violations committed came to light and he found himself increasingly in need of an explanation, he coldly announced in July 2017: „We don’t have such people. We don’t have any gays. And if there are, take them to Canada, far away from us, so that our blood can be cleansed.“ [10 ] In May 2018, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov reiterated Kadyrov’s statement and claimed before the UN Human Rights Council: „(…) [we] failed to confirm not only the existence of facts of violations of these rights, we were unableto find even members of the LGBT community in Chechnya.“ [11 ] A country like Russia, which has a domestic secret service (FSB) with around 350,000 employees, is supposed to have failed to locate the Chechen LGBTIQ community?
Meanwhile, an OSCE report published at around the same time as the latest wave of persecution revealed that the Russian authorities are not at all willing to initiate investigations. [12 ] Given the homophobic course that the Russian government has been pursuing for years under the leadership of Vladimir Putin and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, this is unfortunately hardly surprising.[ 13 ] The latest Human Rights Watch World Report 2018, which was published on 17 January 2019, states: „Authorities continued to enforce the discriminatory ‚gay propaganda‘ law.“ [14 ] Moscow’s reactions have obviously contributed to a climate of impunity, which has lowered the inhibition threshold for further human rights violations.
However, the question of the conditions of possibility leads not only to the authorities and those responsible, but also to the social conditions in Chechnya, which can be described as arch-conservative, patriarchal, familistic, heteronormative and religiously fundamentalist. They form the breeding ground for the widespread view that society needs to be „cleansed“ of LGBTIQ people. In fact, the state authorities and the family members of those persecuted often work hand in hand to put a stop to the „problem“. In some cases, there were even „honour killings“ – committed by the family members themselves, who were convinced that shame had been brought upon the family and that this was the only way to restore their reputation. It has also been documented that families have taken their homosexual relatives to the Centre for Islamic Medicine (Grozny), where the „devil“ was to be exorcised from them. [15 ] The family treatment of LGBTIQ people impressively demonstrates that not only the authorities are behind the waves of persecution, but also a deeply homophobic and heteronormative society.
Under these circumstances, Kadyrov has succeeded in staging himself as a preserver and defender of traditions. He shares this „success“ with an increasing number of autocrats worldwide who follow a backward-looking vision that can be described as „retrotopia“ by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. [16 ] There is of course no room for people who are considered „non-traditionally sexually orientated“ in this conservative vision, which is hostile to diversity. Therefore, as the activist and writer Masha Gessen emphasises, the mere existence of LGBTIQ people is seen as an affront to the vision and a declaration of war [17] .
The waves of persecution show unmistakably that the path orientated towards a retrotopia does not lead to human rights, but rather moves away from them bit by bit.
The attack on LGBTIQ people in Chechnya is an attack on human rights and therefore an attack on us all!
