Report: Iraq police abduct gay men at gunpoint

Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Ten gay men who were taken by the Iraqi police are feared to be dead, five from the activist group Iraqi LGBT, the group reported December 1. The activists were held at gunpoint while holding a secret meeting in the al-Shaab district of Baghdad on November 9, their Web site said.
Ali Hili, a gay Iraqi Muslim living in Britain, said that gays in Iraq have been the target of threats and executions. He was on the phone with the men during the abduction.
"Suddenly, there was a lot of noise and then the connection ended," he reported on Iraqi LGBT's Web site.
The site also reported that another man, Haydar Kamel, 35, was taken near his home in Sadr City. The alleged kidnappers are members of the Mahdi army, a militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr.
The other four men were employees of the gay-popular Jar al-Qamar barber shop in Baghdad's al-Karada district, said Tris Reid-Smith on the same site.
None of the men who have been abducted have been heard from since. It is assumed, the site said, that they are all dead.
Peter Tatchell, from Hili's group Outrage, said Iraqi LGBT has establishes a network of activists working in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla and Basra.
"These courageous activists are helping gay people on the run escape to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon," Tatchell said. "The world ignores the fate of gay Iraqis at its peril. Their fate today is the fate of all Iraqis tomorrow." (The Advocate)