Current Events > Chechnya builds "Concentration Camps" to jail accused homosexuals

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/chechnya-detains-100-gay-men-first-concentration-camps-since-holocaust-1616363

More than 100 gay men have been detained in concentration camp-style prisons in the Russian region of Chechnya, according to reports by local newspapers and human rights organisations.

The arrests are being made as part of a widespread anti-LGBT purge in the area. The prison camps are the first to be established for LGBT people since the Second World War.

A prison camp has reportedly been established in the town of Argun, according to eyewitness testimonies.

The press secretary for Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, described the report as "lies" and stated there were no gay people in Chechnya.

"If there were such people in Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning," he said.

Human rights organisations have corroborated the information published by Novaya Gazeta.

I was skeptical that concentration camp was being used for click bait but Ramzan Kadyrov is a bad hombre. The bolded phrase is especially worrisome. It makes it seem as if the feudal state of Chechnya aspires to make homophobia a staple of its culture going forward.

Kadyrov has already been accused of running a paramilitary organization that rapes, murders, kidnaps and tortures political opponents.