Chechnya opens world's first concentration camp for homosexuals

Chechyna has opened the world's first concentration camp for homosexuals, where campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death, the media reported.

It comes after it was claimed 100 gay men had been detained and three killed in Chechnya last week, the Daily Mail online reported on Monday.

A report by Novoya Gazetaon said authorities had set up several camps where homosexuals are killed or forced to promise to leave the republic.

One of the camps is reportedly at the former military headquarters in the town of Argun.

Svetlana Zakharova, from the Russian LGBT Network, told the Daily Mail: "Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region."

"Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death," Zakharova added.

One of those who escaped told Novoya Gazeta that prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community.

Alexander Artemyev, from Amnesty International in Russia, told the Daily Mail: "We can only call on the Russian authorities to investigate the allegations. Homosexuals in Chechyna are treated very harshly and prosecuted daily and they are afraid to talk about it."

According to sources, President Razman Kadyrov allegedly ordered the clampdown, although officially his regime denied the arrests.

Kadyrov, who introduced Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority region, has been accused of earlier human rights violations.

--IANS

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