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masked_killerIraqi human right activists have claimed that an unidentified group are kidnapping and murdering members of the gay community, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights website.

The killings are said to be targeted, with the group posting online death threats against “the adulterous individuals” in the predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and Basra who were perceived to be gay. The threats gave the individuals, whose names and ages were listed, four days to stop their behaviour or else face the wrath of God, and were to be carried out by the Mujahedin.

According the IGLHRC and their sources inside Iraq, since threats were first made in early February 2012, close to 40 people have been kidnapped, brutally tortured and murdered, with the Iraqi authorities neither responding to nor publicly denounced the violence.

It is widely believed that these atrocities are being committed by a group of the Shiite militia.

The executive director of IGLHRC, Cary Alan Johnson, has released a statement saying: “Today the Government of Iraq represents a fully sovereign and democratic country. As such, it must protect all of its citizens including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from hate-filled violence and death at the hands of armed militias. Vigilantes who perpetuate the targeted killing of those perceived to be gay or lesbian must not be tolerated in a new Iraq. We have seen these atrocities before. In 2009 vigilantes murdered hundreds of Iraqi individuals for their perceived sexual orientation. There are no excuses for such heinous human rights violations. We demand that the Iraqi Government put a stop to the wanton persecution and killing of gay people, and that the perpetrators punished.”

 

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