by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
Iraqi gays are being shot to death by militias and anti-gay family and tribe members, allegedly executed by the government, and – in the latest twist – are having their anuses glued shut by death squads.
Human Rights Watch on April 20 confirmed the newest method being used to cull the Iraqi gay population.
Gay men are captured, their anuses are superglued with something called "American gum," they are forced to ingest a diarrhea-causing substance and they sometimes die.
Mobile phone videos of the gruesome practice are said to be circulating in Iraq.
Reports said the special glue can only be removed surgically, and HRW said it had communicated with doctors who were aware of the practice.
"The glue stories appear to be true – we've collected several accounts of them," said Scott Long, director of HRW's LGBT Rights Division, speaking from Iraq.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 25 gays have been murdered in Baghdad by militias or tribe members who have disowned them. And the group Iraqi LGBT says at least 63 of its members have been tortured.
In addition, five or six members of the group reportedly have been sentenced to death by the government for the alleged crime of belonging to a banned organization. According to U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., at least one of the condemned men has been executed and one managed to escape custody.
"Massive abuses are taking place in Baghdad, and apparently in other cities in the center and south," HRW's Long said. "What's not clear yet is which forces are responsible, and the government's exact role in the violence. We may never know the full sweep and scope of the killings so far, amid a pervasive insecurity that brutalizes innumerable people and devastates multiple communities; but we are doing everything we can to determine and document accountability, something which can best be ascertained through the direct experience of the survivors."
For this column's previous reports on the ongoing anti-gay nightmare in Iraq, see http://tinyurl.com/c2kapu and http://tinyurl.com/cnl4y6.
