Iraqi LGBT - Stop the killing!

Submitted by cathy n on 23 February, 2007 - 9:52

Around 250 people attended a “Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights” conference in London on Saturday 17 February 2007. Ali Hili from Iraqi LGBT and OutRage! spoke at the conference. Here is part of his speech.

Iraqi LGBT is an underground network of LGBT activists that we have established inside Iraq. Our members - and all Iraqi LGBTs - are at daily risk of execution by the Shia death squads of the Badr and Sadr militias.

Members of these militias have infiltrated the Iraqi police and are abusing their police authority to pursue a plan to eliminate all homosexuals in Iraq.

This is happening with the collusion of key ministers in the Iraqi government.
The Badr and Sadr militias are the armed wings of the two main Shia parties that control the government of Iraq.

These governing parties - particularly the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq - are complicit in the widespread execution of Iraqi LGBTs.

What is happening today in Iraq is one of the most organised and systematic sexual cleansings in the history of the world.

Attacks have escalated into unprecedented levels of homophobic violence, including targeted assassinations.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has recently, for the first time, confirmed that there are organised campaigns to kill gays in Iraq. These killings are taking place on the order of Iraq’s Shia leaders.

The UNAMI Human Rights Office recently reported that it was “alerted to the existence of religious courts, supervised by clerics, where alleged homosexuals would be ‘tried’, ‘sentenced’ to death, and then executed.”

One of the self-appointed religious judges in Sadr City believes that homosexuality is on the wane in Iraq. “Most [gays] have been killed and others have fled,” he said, insisting that the religious courts have “a lot to be proud of. We now represent a society that asked us to protect it not only from thieves but also from these [bad] deeds [same-sex relationships].”

Iraq’s government strongly criticised the UNAMI report on human rights abuses; condemning it for discussing issues that are considered taboo in Iraqi society, such as homosexuality, and the systematic murder of LGBTs.

“There was information in the report that we cannot accept here in Iraq. The report, for example, spoke about the phenomenon of homosexuality and giving them their rights,” said Mr al-Dabbagh (a spokesperson for the Iraqi regime). “Such statements are not suitable to the Iraqi society. This is rejected. They (the UN) should respect the values and traditions here in Iraq.”

I will give you just one example of the homophobic terror Iraqi LGBTs are facing.
Five activists in Baghdad were discovered in a safe house and abducted at gunpoint on 9 November last year. Nothing has been heard of them since then. It is feared that death squads operating within the Iraqi police may have murdered them.

The kidnapped men all were members of our group Iraqi LGBT.
For the previous few months these activists had been documenting the killing of lesbians and gays, and relaying details of homophobic executions to our office in London. I have no doubt that they were targeted - not just because they were gay - but also to stop them exposing to the outside world the anti-gay pogrom that is happening in Iraq today.

The Iranian Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the world leader of Shia Muslims, clearly states that gays and lesbians should be executed.

This gives direct religious sanction to the murder of LGBTs by the Badr and Sadr death squads. Sistani is giving the killers divine authority.

In spite of the world unity against the unlawful war on Iraq, the United States and its allies, including the government of the United Kingdom, chose to go ahead with the invasion of Iraq and cause the deaths of so many innocent lives.

The everyday loss of innocent lives in Iraq does not seem to matter to the western media today, especially when the victims are minorities like LGBTs.

The urgency now is to protect LGBT people in Iraq. We need action by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and by other international aid agencies and human right organisations.

The UNHCR is failing to support Iraqi LGBTs who have fled to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It should be providing them with shelter and subsistence. It should be giving them travel documents, so they can seek refuge in safe western countries. So far, this is not happening.

The West, which caused much the current chaos in Iraq, should be giving refuge to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iraqis. Right now, the US and Britain are turning down asylum claims by Iraqi LGBTs.

We need funding to enable our activists inside Iraq to continue to document the killings, acquire more safe houses, and to assist LGBTs to escape to neighbouring countries.

We are working closely with OutRage!. Please send a donation payable to OutRage!, with a cover note stating that it is “For Iraqi LGBT”.

* www.iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/
* www.outrage.org.uk

Faith, homophobia and human rights

By Maria Exall

Delegates at the inaugural Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights Conference agreed a statement that calls for a united response across faith and secular communities against homophobia, discrimination and prejudice and to promote human rights.

This declaration was ratified by the 250 people from over 50 organisations who attended the one-day conference held in London on 17 February 2007. Speakers at the event included Chris Smith, Vic Codling of the Gay Police Association, Revd Giles Fraser, broadcaster and president of Inclusive Church; and Kay Carberry, Assistant General Secretary, TUC. Ali Hili, an Iraqi LGBT activist received a standing ovation after a passionate speech outlining the onslaught of murderous anti-gay religious fundamentalism in post-war Iraq.

Organiser Richard Kirker of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) explained: “Members of the world’s six largest religions, as well as humanists, secularists, agnostics, and atheists, from a wide variety of political parties, trade unions, and community groups drawn from the whole of Britain, showed they wanted to work more closely together in the face of threats from religious fundamentalists.”

The Conference Steering Group will be writing to a large number of faith and public bodies, includinmg the newly formed Commission for Equality and human Rights, to draw their attention to the wishes of the conference and inviting them to act on key recommendations.

* www.lgcm.org.uk / lgcm@lgcm.org.uk

Comments

Submitted by martin on Wed, 30/05/2007 - 10:37

114. Even though homosexuality is not condoned in Iraqi society, homosexuals are
protected under Iraqi law. Attacks on homosexuals and intolerance of homosexual practices
have long existed yet they have escalated in the past year. The current environment of impunity
and lawlessness invites a heightened level of insecurity for homosexuals in Iraq. Armed
Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile towards homosexuals,
frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them. There have been a number
of assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq. At least five homosexual males were reported to have
been kidnapped from Shaab area in the first week of December by one of the main militias.
Their personal documents and information contained in computers were also confiscated. The
mutilated body of Amjad, one of the kidnapped, appeared in the same area after a few days.
HRO was also alerted to the existence of religious courts, supervised by clerics, where
homosexuals allegedly would be “tried,” “sentenced” to death and then executed.[NOTE]
115. According to the Iraqi LGBT society, twenty-six of their members have been killed
since 2003. This include the murders in 2006 of two minors, eleven-year-old Ameer and
fourteen-year-old Ahmed, because of their alleged sexual orientation even though both were
reportedly forced into child prostitution. Another two young women were murdered in Najaf
also because of their allegedly sexual orientation. Allegedly, three Fatwas would have been
issued by Islamic clerics authorising “good Muslims” to hunt and kill homosexuals.

[NOTE]
According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, “the trials, presided over by young inexperienced
clerics, are held (…)in ordinary halls. Gays and rapists face anything from 40 lashes to the death
penalty.(…) One of the self-appointed judges in Sadr City, believes that homosexuality is on the wane in
Iraq. "Most [gays] have been killed and others have fled," he said. Indeed, the number who've sought
asylum in the UK has risen noticeably over the last few months. (…) He insists the religious courts have a
lot to be proud of, "We now represent a society that asked us to protect it not only from thieves and
terrorists but also from these [bad] deeds.” Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Baghdad Gays Fear for
Their Lives (20 October 2006), (http://www.iwpr.net)

http://www.uniraq.org/aboutus/HR.asp

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