Chechnya: gay-out

The Chechen authorities continue to assure that gays are not pursuing in the republic, because they simply are not, and, meanwhile, LGBT refugees from Grozny reached for Moscow. They are afraid of both activists who help them, both journalists and other Chechens: each in their homeland has a family who can suffer for his son-geya if the information about him becomes public. Having talked with the rescued homosexuals, you understand: the hunt for them acquired the character of terror in Chechnya.

A source of Radio Liberty among Chechen homosexuals said: the raids on gays did not begin in February at all, but in December 2016-even then gays were kept in at least two secret prisons in Chechnya: in the Argun and Tsoci-Yurt, and the leadership of the district police department was engaged in the detentions, so that homosexuals fell into conclusion in the same way as other offenders.

The security forces had outdoors: the Chechen police and the military have long been engaged in the so -called "set -in", when they get acquainted with the victim, lure on a date, beat and humiliate, taking it to the phone, and then demand money for silence. The first homosexuals were detained precisely according to the old “dummy” base, they knocked out the names of their acquaintances under torture or simply checked the entire correspondence in the phone - thus, the number of victims grew in geometric progress. According to the RS source, the wave subsided by the New Year, but began to gain strength in February again, and in March the first corpses appeared, however, the police themselves allegedly did not specifically kill anyone, they could only accidentally score to death, but sometimes they set a condition that they would release a detainee of Gaia if they kill him themselves. RS told at least two similar cases that ended in the death of men, but it is not possible to verify these facts, since in cases of "murders of honor" the Chechen police does not start criminal cases.

Most often, gays were taken from the house, but there are cases when they came to work. Moreover, looking for information about one of the victims leading the Chechen state company, we found that CHGTRK completely deleted all the videos with this journalist, as if it simply did not exist, - Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov lives on the patterns of George Orwell.

"Promise you will kill me"

One of the refugees told the RS that in October last year, friends with whom he talked for a year and a half were framed. They visited him many times, openly spoke different topics, and then suddenly demanded 2.5 million rubles - it turned out that they recorded all the conversations on audio and video. The young man decided not to pay, he sold the car and first went to Krasnodar, and then to Moscow, telling everyone that he emigrated to Europe. However, for family circumstances, he had to return to Grozny in January, he spent only a couple of days in his parental house and left for business in Makhachkala, crawling out with police officers for several hours, who were familiar with the very "friends"-hastegas. “At first, my mother called and said that some military men were asking me. Then they got a phone from her and ask where I am,” says the RS interlocutor. “I say, in Krasnodar. He says, let me send the car for you now, come.” The young man understood what the interests of the security forces were connected with, refused to go, then the police took his brother hostage, threatening not to let go until he returned to Grozny.

I understood that he already knew, and tell him: I am gay. He says, I know, we have nothing left to kill you. I say, okay, I will come, but promise that you will kill me without approaching me

That evening, his sisters and other relatives phoned the guy, all persuaded him to return: “Mom did not know anything about me, asked what happened. I could not say at first, but then admitted that I was gay. She says it's okay, you just arrive. We know that you didn’t do anything bad, and they say that if everything they say about you, then they understood all the family members. What they want to lure me to get information from me, and then they would just kill me. ” One relative even called him one relative: “I understand that he already knew, and tell him: I am gay. He says, I know, we have no choice but to kill you. I say, okay, I will come, but promise that you will kill me without approaching me. He did not give me such a promise, because they understood that they needed the contacts of my friends.”

His uncle killed. I know for sure. He was 20 or 21 years old

The young man did not return home, today he in one of the European countries, but he stopped all the contacts with his family, he says that he had previously received news about his relatives through Grozny familiar, who said that his brother was actually detained, and the police and employees of the Terek came to him every day, who pressed him to his relatives, demanding that he persuade him to return. Unfortunately, the connection was interrupted with this acquaintance, so he does not know what was happening to his family, he cannot call his relatives - he fears wiretapping.

According to the interlocutor of the RS, many of his acquaintances in February-March disappeared from social networks, many, he is sure, lay on the bottom, others-because they themselves became victims of the security forces. “One friend of mine was detained in December, then released, he handed over all his friends. The last time I spoke with him two weeks ago, he cried that they came to him again and were looking for him. What is with him now, I don’t know,” he says. The military returned another friend to relatives on the condition that they would kill him: "His uncle killed him. I know for sure. He was 20 or 21 years old."

Dangerous dating

Another interlocutor of RS failed to avoid torture: he was detained in early March - for correspondence with a familiar gay. He spent the next ten days in one of the secret prisons: “We lived in a big hut, there were 15 gay people and 20 drug addicts were sitting with us. But when we appeared, the status of drug addicts rose a lot, they were allowed to mock us,” he says. In the Chechen sense, “drug addicts” are not consumers of severe drugs who are almost impossible to get in the republic, and more often those who were caught at the intake of “lyrics”, a drug with a narcotic effect. Not all the detainees were gays, moreover, some even managed to return home unharmed: for example, the interlocutor of the RS says that a neighbor of this friend, who wrote to him, who wrote him at the same time: they say, his wives did not, come in, sit down, drink. The police checked his phone, but did not find anything interesting: he actually drank secretly from his wife, inviting his neighbor, whose sexual orientation was not aware.

They constantly threatened that they would kill us, I understood that I could not go alive, but I would better die myself than destroyed someone else's life

According to the young man, in prison they were beaten daily, humiliated, called female names and forced to dance in front of the others, brought one one at a different room and beat again - with their feet and sticks, torture, attaching the terminals to the fingers and arms. He was asked by the contacts of acquaintances of gays, but he managed to remove all the information from the phone and did not give names: “They constantly threatened that they would kill us, I understood that I could not come out alive, but I would better die, which destroyed someone else's life,” the young man says. However, not everyone held on the same way, in addition, in the hands of the police there was the whole correspondence of the detainees, according to which new victims were found. Moreover, if earlier the Chechen law enforcement officers did not know about the existence of applications for dating such a “Hornet”, clinging to the victims in social networks, then since February they began to communicate from the accounts of people detained by them - thus, any communication on this topic in Chechnya became extremely dangerous.

Gays slept on the bare floor, drug consumers - on the beds. "It was hot for them, they opened the windows, and even outerwear was taken from us, there was nothing to take hide." The toilet was taken three times a day: in the morning, day and evening. It was also not easy for food: relatives found out where their sons and brothers are located, the next morning (the reason for the detention was reported, however, only four days later) and began to bring gearboxes with food. The jailers changed tags with gay names to the names of drug users, so there was nothing to the homosexuals. They survived due to the fact that the "lyrics" shared food with gays: "In general, they also beat us at the beginning, but then they somehow penetrated and began to relate better."

Simple policemen, investigators, and military - people in different forms took part in re -education

Despite the fact that the young man was almost immediately offered freedom for a million rubles (he didn’t have such money) who, in his opinion, were not the extortion of the main task: “They discussed among themselves that we need to deal with people like us, but we were not doing this anymore,” he recalls. “It was prevention so that there was no such [homosexual].” According to him, ordinary policemen, investigators, and the military - people in different forms who wanted to "work" with irregular elements took part in re -education.

Ten days later, homosexuals were built in a row in the same hut and began to give out one at a time, humiliating them in front of their relatives. The interlocutor of the RS was taken home, he disappeared into his room, and after some time a father appeared in the doorway with a metal pipe in his hands. "I tell him, wait. I take off my T -shirt and show that the whole blue is already - where else to beat? He left and did not talk to me anymore."

Waiting for the bruises of the bruises, he fled from Grozny. What happened to the rest of the detained gays, he does not know: they all removed their pages from social networks. I only read about one thing in the Caucasian public “VKontakte”, where his relatives were expressed by condolences: according to the interlocutor of the RS, he was most likely killed by his relatives.

Small planet

They literally burn under their feet, they do not know who can be trusted and where to go

According to the chairman of the Russian LGBT network Tatyana Vinnichenko , after publishing the material in Novaya Gazeta , when the LGBT network published an email address for the victims (kavkaz@lgbtnet.org), more than 30 appeals were received. “Every day we accept 4-5 people. Half are those who got into the February wave. They were released, they thought that they were all over for them, but then some signals went, that they could not be taken away. They didn’t want to return there because they were applied to them, and they fled with what they were in their pockets. The second part-those who managed to leave on their own at different stages of this campaign, when they began to disappear when they began to disappear. Familiar, when everyone began to close their pages in social networks. Those who decided to seek help are usually in hopeless situations, write to an unfamiliar ICIL for them - to overcome the barrier. “They don’t trust anyone, they believe that this is a setup, that they want to lure them somewhere, they cannot believe that some organization could puzzle and begin to provide real assistance. One here said that he wrote to us because he had nothing to lose, but he did not expect anything from us-at best, that we would not answer,” says Vinnichenko.

“The land is burning” because the Chechen LGBT refugees do not know where they will be safe: the Chechen diaspora is strong in Moscow, from which the Russian LGBT network saved two transgender people from Chechnya several years ago: “They did not need any fighters Kadyrov, they were offended by their own initiative, they caught these people to Chechnya. One there. He was sitting, ”says Vinnichenko. There may not be salvation in Europe, where refugees will fall into the centers of temporary accommodation along with other Muslims and the same immigrants from the North Caucasus. "They frantically sort out the countries where they want to leave: Canada, USA, Argentina, Mexico ... That is, even our continent is no longer considered." In order to protect activists and victims, LGBT networks use unprecedented security measures: the names of the fled Chechens are unknown to anyone, except for the person who buys tickets to them, activists also meet with them under fictional names, the addresses of apartments are unknown to those who are settled in them so that, in which case, they simply could not issue this information.

Russia is the island of Freedom

I did not sleep for several days, stood at night by the window, waited for me to come for me

Another refugee enters the Java apartment in Moscow. He was not dressed in the weather, in his hands - a small backpack with toiletries and a change of linen: in the morning he, as usual, left his parental house, but instead of work he went to Grozny Airport to leave Chechnya forever. He says that he read the post “VKontakte” about the mass detentions of gays back in early March, but at first he did not attach importance to this, he thought that we were talking about the same settings. “And then at the end of March, one woman called me, she cried, sobbed, said that she had a son disappeared, asked if he had him. I didn’t have him. He was 19 years old. He, too ... in the subject,” the young man initially explains with euphemisms, the word “gay” was taboo for him. At the same time, other familiar homosexuals began to disappear from social networks. "I did not sleep for several days, stood at night by the window, waited for me to come for me. In the afternoon, a piece did not climb in the throat ... We corresponded with this friend in" Votsap ", he had my number, they could come at any moment."

They shared me naked. One took me to the phone, the three were beaten. Beat with their feet, broke the jaw

He himself came across a set last fall: he met in VKontakte with a man, corresponded with him within a month, agreed on a meeting. Seeing him, he realized that the guy was not sending him his photos, but he explained this by what was afraid - for Chechnya this is normal. “He says, we’ll go to me. He says that he has an apartment in Grozny, but now she is not empty, but there is a summer house outside the city. I’m okay, let's go. We’ll go into the car. We’ll go. We’ll talk normally. There is nothing that they will substitute me ... and then he wrapped it in the forest and I see three people. I immediately understand that this is a stand, I don’t have to do it. We will discuss this now. " According to the guy, three in the forest were dressed in black military uniforms with chevrons and stripes - on the Internet, he identified the uniform of fighters of the Terek's fellow. "They divided me naked. One shot me on the phone, beat me. They beat me with their feet, broke their jaw. They said that he was gay, that there should not be such flaws in Chechnya." He was taken away from him, in which there were contacts of friends and relatives, threatened that the video with him would be posted on the network, for silence was asked for 300 thousand rubles - the amount for the young man is huge, but real: within a month of "friendly" communication, he managed to tell where the parents work and do. The guy explained the broken jaw at home with a fight, no one saw the bruises all over his body: in Chechnya it was not customary to walk around the apartment with a naked torso, but the ransom had to collect two months: he sold the computer, under various pretexts he took money from his relatives. “I have never met anyone from that case,” says the young man. “I can swear that I had no sex for four months.”

Any Chechen-homosexual can tell a story with settles-if it did not happen to him, then with his friends. One of the familiar interlocutor of the RS, the Grozny businessman, sold the car to pay for the silence, the other interlocutor of the RS wrote that he was caught 5 years ago, they were set up, dragged into a car, put some bag on his head, took somewhere, where they had a base, and they were beaten, they sometimes beat me very much, one wanted to shoot me with a pistol, but the other was a pistol. He stopped that they would have to clean the blood then! They beat me for 3-5 hours and then, putting on a bag on their heads again, put them in the car and drove back, said that they did not kill me and give me a chance. The fighters of the oil regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya were engaged in this, according to him.

It is dangerous to refuse to pay and escape from the republic - "if they find out, there will be a shame on the whole family." The shame is quite material: according to the interlocutors of the RS, their friends and other relatives will turn away from the family members, if someone works at good work, he will most likely lose her, girls from such a family are unlikely to find her husband, moreover, if one of the sisters of the discovered homosexual is already married, her husband’s parents can insist her returning home. At the same time, children stay with a man.

In Chechnya, everyone knows everyone and everyone knocks on everyone. Your neighbors can call the district police officer, say that you are drunk or somehow strangely behaving

However, gay hunting takes place according to the same patterns, according to which in Chechnya a variety of people are caught in Chechnya: for example, if they catch the seller of “lyrics”, they check all his correspondence, so that his customers are behind bars. At the same time, consumers can be kept in prison, and then show on local television, and the dealer is simply killed without trial. Alcohol is also out of the law, although it can be obtained from under the counter: store owners pay police bribes so that they do not arrange inspections, but those who are in a state of intoxication also risk getting to local TV. "In Chechnya, everyone knows everyone and everyone is knocking on everyone. Your neighbors can call the district police officer, say that you are drunk or behaving somehow strangely. Taxi drivers always knock on everyone." From this total surveillance, according to the interlocutor of the RS, Chechens, especially young ones, have been fleeing from the republic for a long time: “You come to Russia, here, even if you are not gay, you can go by the handle with the girl, you can drink, you are not afraid that you will be stuffed into the car at any time, they will take it into the forest and kill you, freedom!” - says the young man and sighs: for the Chechen gay, Russian freedom is still dangerous - you will have to go further.