The families of gay men allegedly being held in detention camps in Chechnya are reportedly being encouraged to kill their gay sons ― and according to survivors, many are complying.
Throughout the course of April, different reports from Russia media claimed that gay men were being rounded up and held in “concentration camps” in the republic of Chechnya, with detainees subjected to torture and death.
France24 spoke with anonymous survivors of the camps, who claim that the families of prisoners are being told to kill their gay sons or the state will.
“They tell the parents to kill their child,” one survivor states in the above video. “They say: ‘Either you do it or we will.’ They call it: ‘Cleaning your honor with blood.’
He went on to say that he witnessed the torture of a man who went on to die at the hands of his own family.
“They tortured a man for two weeks. They summoned his parents and brothers who all came. They said to them: ‘your son is a homosexual. Sort it out or we’ll do it ourselves.’ They replied: ‘It’s our family, we’ll do it.’ The family took him and killed him in the forest. They buried him there. They didn’t even give him a funeral. If I go home my own family will kill me.”
World leaders have begun trying to draw attention to the alleged atrocities gay men are being subjected to in Chechnya, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel asking Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference on Tuesday to “use his influence to ensure the rights of such minorities.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also spoken out and demanded that President Donald Trump condemn the persecution of gay Chechens, with the American leader continuing to remain silent about the reports.