In Iraq: Men are being killing for looking "Emo"

Men who identify as Emo or look Emo are being killed in Iraq. An anti-gay movement is leaving young men dead and people in fear for their lives.

To Iraqis, "Emo" is widely synonymous with "gay." John Drake, an Iraq specialist for the British-based AKE security consulting firm, said Iraqi Emos are getting their hair cut so they aren't immediately identified, and therefore targeted, in the wake of the new threats.

In the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a mostly-Sunni area, 35-year-old Hassan is afraid to leave his home. He plans on cutting his shoulder-length hair soon, but fears that his hormone-injected breast enhancements will be detected if he is stopped and patted down at one of the ubiquitous security checkpoints across the city.

"Today I went out of my house with a friend but we were severely harassed – some people told us that we need the double blocks," said Hassan, referring to the cement blocks that attackers use to beat people. "I was scared so we returned home to hide."

Hassan's friend, a man who identified himself as 26-year-old Mustafa, called the recent hate crimes "the strongest and deadliest campaign against us."

58 men has been killed in the last six weeks alone.

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President Obama: All U.S. troops to leave Iraq

He ain't playing:

The Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training.

President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke Friday morning to cement that agreement in a scheduled telephone call, according to people familiar with the agreement who spoke on the condition of anonymity. White House officials have yet to disclose the contents of the call, but Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement at 12:45 p.m. on the agreement.

Wow!

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A Police Raid on Karbala Safe House raises serious concerns for Irqai Gays

Several international students were discussing this issue today.

Some of them mentioned their concerns of the Iraqi gay community after a police raid at a Karbala safe house last week.

Here's the story:

Last week, twelve police officers are reported to have burst into the safe house, and then violently beat up, and blindfolded the six occupants sheltering there before bundling them off in three vans.

According to a source who witnessed the raid, the police also confiscated computer equipment before burning down the house, the London group said in a statement.

According to reports reaching London, one of the arrested people has turned up in hospital. However, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the other five individuals, which include two gay men, one lesbian and two transgender people.

It is feared they may have been taken to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, where, it is reported, many gay people have been tortured and executed in the last two years.

Government forces have previously sized people particularly at roadblocks and handed them to militias who have then tortured them and their bodies have later been found.

None of the previous occupying powers have taken any action or delivered any criticism for these atrocities.

Iraqi LGBT feels that the reason that both the British and United States governments in particular have not criticised the Iraqi government is “because of the legacy of the occupation”.

He US and UK have both criticised Malawi and Uganda over LGBT human rights. There is strong religious opposition to homosexuality in both African countries — as there is in Iraq, Iraqi LGBT pointed out.

“Since the fall of Saddam, militias loyal to Shi’a clerics Grand Ayatollah al Sistani and Muqtada al Sadr, both of whom have called for homosexuals to be put to death, have been only too keen to carry out their leaders’ wishes,” the group says.

“Over 720 LGBT people have disappeared or been murdered, many of whom have been tortured to death.

“There is strong evidence that the government is colluding with these militia groups, by rounding up known homosexual and transgender people.”

A small number of safe houses, set up for LGBT people to live in relative safety, have been funded by Iraqi LGBT. In the current climate, these homes have been life-savers for those taking refuge in them.

The house which was raided on last week had been established in January this year.

With the arrests and the seizure of computers last week, activists fear that the government will step up efforts to round up more of the country’s LGBT population.

“The UK media and politicians have been too quiet for too long about the violence LGBT people in Iraq,” said Ali Hili, leader of Iraqi LGBT.

I was told it matters like this that push many LGBT people to stay quiet or figure out a way to get to the US. Very sad really.

For info on the LGBT Iraqi community, please go to their website

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LGBT Iraqi people are in Danger!

This is very disheartening to hear. Over at JoeMyGod, I read about LGBT Iraqi people being executed!

Here at the IRAQI LGBT blog, I found this message:

Urgent action is needed to halt the execution of 128 prisoners on death row in Iraq. Many of those awaiting execution were convicted for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality, according to IRAQI-LGBT, a UK based organisation of Iraqis supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq.

According to Ali Hili of IRAQI-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. IRAQI-LGBT urgently requests that the UK Government, Human Rights Groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission intervene with due speed to prevent this tragic miscarriage of justice from going ahead. “We have information and reports on members of our community whom been arrested and waiting for execution for the crimes of homosexuality,’’ said Mr Hili. “Iraqi lgbt has been a banned from running our activities on Iraqi soil.”

“Raids by the Iraqi police and ministry of interior forces cost our group the diapering and killing of 17 members working for Iraqi lgbt since 2005,” added Mr Hili. “Death penalty has been increasing at an alarming rate in Iraq since the new Iraqi regime reintroduced it in August 2004.

In 2008 at least 285 people were sentenced to death, and at least 34 executed. In 2007 at least 199 people were sentenced to death and 33 were executed, while in 2006 at least 65 people were put to death. The actual figures could be much higher as there are no official statistics for the number of prisoners facing execution,” he said.

IRAQI LGBT is concerned that the Iraqi authorities have not disclosed the identities of those facing imminent execution, stoking fears that many of them may have been sentenced to death after trials that failed to satisfy international standards for fair trial. Most are likely to have been sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI), whose proceedings consistently fall short of international standards for fair trial. Some are likely to have.

Allegations of torture are not being investigated adequately or at all by the CCCI. Torture of detainees held by Iraqi security forces remains rife. Iraq’s creaking judicial system is simply unable to guarantee fair trials in ordinary criminal cases, and even less so in capital cases, with the result, we fear, that numerous people have gone to their death after unfair trials.

The Iraqi government must order an immediate halt to these executions and establish a moratorium on all further executions in Iraq, particularly since due process cannot be guaranteed. The state executing people for ‘morals’ crimes is also obviously unacceptable and deplorable. Amnesty International has called on the Iraqi authorities to make public all information pertaining to the 128 people, including their full names, details of the charges against them, the dates of their arrest, trial and appeal and their current places of detention.

This is frightening to think about. Hopefully as we rebuilt Iraq, we can stop this madness from continuing.