Putin orders investigation into torture and abuse of Chechen gays
VLADIMIR PUTIN has ordered an investigation into reports of a murderous campaign of arrests and torture against homosexual men in Chechnya, days after Angela Merkel called on him to act.
In his first public comments on the issue, Mr Putin told Tatiana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsman, that he would ask the country’s chief prosecutor and interior minister to cooperate with her own inquires into what has been described as “purge” of Chechnya’s gay minority.
“Of course, I will have a talk with the general prosecutor and interior minister so they support you on the topic that you have raised on information, or rumours, we might say, about what is happening to sexual minorities in the North Caucasus,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Putin’s intervention came after Mrs Merkel, the German chancellor, urged him to investigate reports of detention, torture and murder of men suspected of being gay in the largely Muslim republic in Russia’s south.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden also sent a joint letter to Sergey Lavrov, their Russian counterpart, expressing concern.
Russian newspaper reported that police in Chechnya have rounded up more than 100 men suspected of homosexuality, at least three of whom were killed.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov re- cently denied that any homosexuals had been arrested and dismissed the media reports during an exchange with Mr Putin, according to Russian news agencies. Russian news agency Tass last month cited investigators as saying they had not received any complaints about the persecution of sexual minorities in Chechnya. Activists claim it is too dangerous for gays in Chechnya to speak out about their abuse.
Mrs Moskalkova asked Mr Putin to establish a working group of investigative agencies that would be able to hear evidence and testimony outside Chechnya and said a witness protection programme should protect those ready to testify. “If they are ready to testify, we will be ready to protect them,” she said.
When originally confronted with the allegations, Mr Kadyrov’s spokesman Alvi Karimov said it was not possible that gays had suffered abuse because homosexuals “don’t exist” in Chechnya.
He added: “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.”