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A horrific new account about the ongoing persecution of gay men in Chechnya has revealed that authorities are asking parents to kill their own gay children.
According to one survivor who managed to escape the gay torture camps the country has set up, police are telling parents of gay men to “sort it out” or they will take matters into their own hands.
“They tell the parents to kill their child. They say ‘Either you do it, or we will,’” an unidentified male told France 24 News. “They call it: ‘Cleaning your honour with blood.’
“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.”
The Kremlin and Chechen government have both denied allegations that gay men are being detained and tortured in the region.
That’s despite Chechnya’s president, Ramzan Kadyrov, having publicly declared that he wants all LGBT+ people in the country to be eliminated by May 26, which marks the start of Muslim holiday, Ramadan.
Novaya Gazeta first reported in March that around 100 gay men had been rounded up by police and detained in what is widely being referred to as a modern-day ‘concentration camp’.
Moreover, Human Rights Watch later confirmed the horrific reports, adding that the information coming through was “consistent” with “numerous trusted sources” they had spoken to on the ground in Russia.
The British government has since condemned the “utterly barbaric” torture of gay men in Chechnya, with Sir Alan Duncan telling the House of Commons that the country’s actions are of the “utmost concern to the UK”.