By BTL Staff
On April 17, The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission sent a letter to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, asking her to take measures to protect LGBT Iraqis from torture, inhumane treatment and execution. The letter was sent after recently released reports said that five or six members of Iraqi LGBT were sentenced to death or executed.
Then, on April 20, a news story was posted on UAE-based media network http://www.Alarabiya.com, which further confirmed suspicions of both the torture and execution of LGBT people in Iraq.
Among other things, the article asserted that an Iraqi human rights activist had confirmed the use of a painful form of torture called "Iranian Gum," used by Iraqi Militia to close the anuses of suspected gay men. Afterward, the men are forced to drink a substance that causes diarrhea, causing death for most men and severe injury in others. The gum requires surgery to remove, although many men who do survive the torture are denied assitance at hospitals.
An Iraqi LGBT group in London also confirmed to http://www.Alarabiya.com that 63 people have been attacked and tortured from the LGBT group in Shiite neighborhoods in Iraq, especially poor regions and remote areas.
A reporter from Alarabiya visited a Baghdad morgue and confirmed that there were seven bodies of homosexuals who had been dumped by vigilante groups after being tortured and shot. "We were not able to identify the culprits who dumped the bodies in front of the morgue and fled, without being seen," explained medical examiner Neman Mohsen. "There were bodies with gunshots in the head and chest and the rest of the body without any obvious causes of death."
IGLHRC has vowed to continue monitoring the situation and gathering more evidence to try to confirm the reports coming from Iraq and http://www.Alarabiya.com.
For more information, or to read the complete post from IGLHRC, visit http://iglhrc.wordpress.com.
