IRAQ: Sexual cleansing - Gov't denies gays are targets of killings

[jmc247]

Source: IRIN

The Iraqi lesbian and gay community and NGOs dealing with gay issues have called for urgent action to protect gays and lesbians in the country.

The groups say that the number of victims of "sexual cleansing" is growing on a daily basis. "In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated - sometimes with signs of rape," said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.

"Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion," Salim added. RLO was set up in 2005, and Salim claims that since then they have recorded more than 230 cases of abuses against gays and lesbians, including more than 64 deaths - with the last three months being the most bloody.

"The gay community continues to be subjected to systematic terror by Shia militias, especially the Mahdy Army controlled by the religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The government of Iraq is refusing to offer protection," he added. In an interview, one member of the Mahdy Army, Ali Hassany, said that the militia will target Iraq's gays and lesbians. They deserve death. Those people are an embarrassment to our society.

Read more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/eb2cc16d5d349e470d0f57f2079a761b.htm

[xchrom]

1. falls on deaf ears with bushco....

let's face it -- it just fits with bush, pace, rumsfeld, etc worldview.

[closeupready]

2. Sad but true.

:(

[ejbr]

3. Can they apply for asylum? n/t

[xchrom]

4. you can in britain or the eu for anti-gay

violence and discrimination -- but not here that i know of.

[closeupready]

6. You could apply for asylum in the US at one time.

I think the policy may have changed around 1999 or 2000, however. I don't really understand how these things work, but from what I can recall, the Clinton administration had a policy explicitly dealing with gays and lesbians applying for asylum from repressive regimes, and when Bush came into office, asylum for gays and lesbians became harder in terms of the fact that certain facts on the ground had to be proven by applicants, as opposed to the previous system, under which those facts were implicitly recognized by the applicant and the government.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. Yes if you can somehow make your way to a country that'll take you

I don't think you can just show up at the French embassy for example and ask for amnesty. You have to find your way to France, or wherever. So tough luck for most persecuted gay Iraqis.

[KamaAina]

5. So good to see freedom on the march.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[saigon68]

7. Yes, Freedom is on the March

</sarcasm>

[MadMaddie]

9. Yea...Freedom only for certain Iraqi's.....