Horrors in Chechnya

When I was about 16 years of age I read a book called The Men of the Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger. It described his treatment by the Nazis while detained in a concentration camp because he was Gay.

It was a horrific account of daily beatings, torture both physical and mental, in an effort to get him to ‘reform’ his delinquent ways.

The same thing is happening today in Chechnya, the press is full of reports of young men and it is always men being arrested by the Police and held in concentration camp conditions.

They are isolated and deprived of any contact with the outside world.

They are electrocuted daily and beaten regularly.

Their only crime is to live in a country that denies their existence.

There are horror stories of people being rejected by their families after visits by police, of young Gay men being thrown out of their homes with no support.

The leader of the Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov says that there are no Gay people in concentration camps as there are no Gay people in Chechnya.

He insists that there are no gay people in Chechnya to round up. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,”

Men who have escaped the camps are speaking to the world press in such numbers and such detail that it’s obvious that it’s the truth.

There is an unknown number of Gay men who have been murdered by vicious police thugs.

It appears that mop up exercises led by the security forces are happening all over Chechnya.

There is little doubt that we are dealing with crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile Putin looks on from the side lines saying and doing nothing, he turns a blind eye to the abuse of human rights.

Our foreign secretary Boris wrings his hands but offers no practical action.

There are groups in both Russia and Chechnya working to get survivors out of the country but they are being overwhelmed by the numbers of people wanting to leave this failing state.

So what can we do?

We can write to the Russian Ambassador in London.

You may have heard that the Ice Queen Teresa May is running scared of her back benchers and has called a general election.

You can ask all candidates for your vote from whichever party they belong to what they would do about Chechnyas clear abuse of human rights.

We must not let this issue that is effecting our Brothers and their rights to choose who they love to be buried and ignored.

Sheffield is a City of Sanctuary, let us send a message to the rest of the country.

Please tweet, Facebook, lobby politicians, keep this issue in front of people, we cannot let our Chechnyan brother suffer any longer.