The world's first concentration camp for homosexuals has been opened in Chechnya where gay men are allegedly being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death.
The news comes following claims of 100 gay men being detained and three killed in Chechnya last week, the Daily Mail reported. Meanwhile, Novoya Gazetaon reported that authorities have set up many concentration camps where homosexuals are being killed or forced to promise that they would leave the Chechen Republic. The former military headquarters in Argun reportedly houses one of the camps.
Svetlana Zakharova, from the Russian LGBT Network, told the Daily Mail: "Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region. Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death."
A prisoner, who escaped the camp, told Novoya Gazeta that prisoners were being thrashed and forced to reveal names of other members of the gay community, IANS reported.
Alexander Artemyev from Amnesty International in Russia told the Daily Mail: "We can only call on the Russian authorities to investigate the allegations. Homosexuals in Chechnya are treated very harshly and prosecuted daily and they are afraid to talk about it."
Sources were quoted by IANS as saying that Chechen President Razman Kadyrov allegedly ordered the clampdown. However, his regime has officially denied the arrests. Kadyrov had introduced Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority region and has also been previously accused of human rights violations.
