Liberal International, 13.04.2017

Following news that there have been mass killings and targetter represessions against LGBTI people in Chechnya, the Chairman of LI LGBTI Rights Working Group Frank Van Dalen has called for international condemnation of the barbaric actions of the Russian government.

In a statement released for LI Van Dalen said: “The disturbing news from Chechnya on the alleged abuse and imprisonment of LGBT people in camps does not only reminds us of the disgusting condemned practices that took place during the second world war but is also a very grave infringement of many basic Human Rights. The world should not turn a blind eye but needs to speak up against these doomed practices and the Russian government should adhere to the international agreements it signed related to Human Rights in every region of its federation.”

According to the latest reports the reprisal is the result of the intention of LGBT activists from the central part of Russia to hold pro-LGBTI rights public actions in the North Caucasus.

The Chairman of Yabloko (LI’s full member party in Russia) Emilia Slabunova, has echoed LI’s statement underlining the urgency of an independent investigation into the murders and unlawful detentions. “A murder is the gravest crime, which is severely punished by the Criminal Code of Russia, but a murder of a minority group is nothing else but a genocide regardless of the number of victims and has a character of a crime against humanity, which is imprescriptible. The Investigative Committee of Russia must immediately investigate all the facts of these murders if there is the least possibility of a sudden death of a person regardless of whether the victim’s relatives report about it or not. All those found responsible must serve a punishment strictly in accordance with the Law.”

The leader of the Liberal Democrats (LI full-member), Tim Farron, has also condemned the genocide in Chechnya urging the UK government to strongly condemn the “disgusting violence and use every possible opportunity to raise this with the Russian government, as well as at the UN and other international bodies.”

The All Out organisation has initiated an online petition calling on the Russian Prosecutor General to investigate the murders and torture of LGBTI people in Chechnya which can be signed by clicking here.
Source http://www.liberal-international.org/site/Chair_of_LI_LGBT_WG_condemns_Chechnyas_homosexual_concentration_camps.html