Gays Being Tortured With Glue In Iraq

International News, By Christian Taylor, 21st April, 2009

A prominent Iraqi human rights activist alleges that Iraqi militia are torturing gay men to death, by closing their anuses using an Iranian manufactured glue and then inducing diarrhoea.

The report originated from Alarabiya.net, an online media resource based in the United Arab Emirates. The story has been translated by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). As yet the organisation hasn’t been able to independently verify all the allegations made in the original article, but they say it is consistent with the human rights violations that have been recently reported from within Iraq.

“Yina Mohammad told Alarabiya.net that, ‘Iraqi militias have deployed an unprecedented form of torture against homosexuals by using a very strong glue that will close their anus.’” says the translation. “According to her, the new substance ‘is known as the American hum, which is an Iranian-manufactured glue that if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery.

“After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhoea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhoea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile cellphones in Iraq.’ According to this human rights activist, for the past three weeks a crackdown on homosexuals has been going on based on a religious decree that demands their death; dozens have been targeted. She says that the persecution of homosexuals is not confined to the Shiite clerics. Some Sunni leaders have also declared the death penalty for sodomy on satellite channels.”

Last week IGLHRC wrote to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Salim, requesting that she takes specific measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iraqis and prevent hate crimes against those perceived to be gay. IGLHRC’s letter, written to coincide with Ms. Salim’s visit to Washington D.C., responds to a recent wave of violent crimes against Iraqi citizens perceived to be gay.

On April 17, according to IGLHRC, an Iraqi group identified as “Fazilat” (Virtue) posted flyers threatening gays with death on walls in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood. The flyers listed the actual names of some of those targetted, who have since gone into hiding.

On April 2 this year two men were found dead in the same part of Baghdad. An official said that they’d been killed by members of their tribe to restore their family honour. As yet, nobody has claimed the bodies, and no investigation into their deaths has been ordered by authorities. On March 25 four men were shot dead in Sadr City. They had the words ‘pervert’ and ‘son of a bitch’ written on their chests. A coffee house, also in Sadr City, that was popular among gay men was also burnt down.

The BBC recently published grainy footage of police surrounding a young Iraqi man who was forced to strip, [pictured] revealing that he was wearing women’s underwear. When asked why, he said that his family forced him to do it, as they have no other way of making money. The broadcast also included footage of a hermaphrodite being inspected at a police checkpoint, their breasts exposed and fondled.

According to the BBC, gay activists allege that more than 60 gay men have been killed in Iraq since December 2008. Brig. Diah Hussein Sahi from the Police Criminal Investigation Branch told BBC that that there is no law in Iraq that allows authorities to arrest gays, for them to be arrested they must be committing public indecency.

UK based human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told Pinknews.co.uk back in February that the fall of Saddam Hussein has made things much harder for gay, lesbian, bi and transgender people in Iraq.

“The western invasion of Iraq in 2003 ended the tyrannical Baathist dictatorship. But it also destroyed a secular state, created chaos and lawlessness and allowed the flourishing of religious fundamentalism. The result has been an Islamist-inspired homophobic terror campaign against LGBT Iraqis.

“Queers are being shot dead in their homes, streets and workplaces. Even suspected gay children are being murdered. They killers claim to be doing these assassinations at the behest of the ‘democratic’ Iraqi government, in order to eradicate what they see as immoral, un-Islamic behaviour.”