Iran Exports Anti-Gay Pogrom to Iraq

By Doug Ireland

Shiite death squads in Iraq are carrying out a campaign that targets gay men for murder. This so-called “sexual cleansing” is happening under the nose of the U.S. military—but American authorities in the Green Zone have refused to do anything about it.

The highly organized campaign of beatings, kidnappings and murders of Iraqi gays follows a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the 77-year-old Iranian who is supreme spiritual leader of all Shia Muslims in Iraq. The fatwa, available on Sistani’s official Web site, puts it this way, “The people involved [in homosexuality] should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

This reign of terror represents the importation into Iraq of the anti-gay killings being carried out in the Islamic Republic of Iran (see “Iran’s Anti-Gay Pogrom,” January). The Iraqi murders are the work of the Badr Corps, the military arm of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). The largest political formation in Iraq’s Shia community, SCIRI was headquartered in exile in Tehran until Saddam Hussein’s fall.

The SCIRI’s Badr Corps wear the uniforms of Iraqi police, which is under the nominal control of the Interior Ministry. But the Interior Ministry has been heavily infiltrated by Iran. Moreover, the Badr Corps’ salaries are paid by Iran—as a counselor of Sistani’s, Ali Debbagh, who is a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, confirmed in a Feb. 17 interview with Le Monde.

“We are receiving regular reports from our extensive network of contacts with underground gay activists and gay people in Iraq—intimidation, beatings, kidnappings and murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence,” says Ali Hili, a 33-year-old gay Iraqi exile in London. Five months ago, Hili, along with some 30 other gay Iraqis who have fled to the United Kingdom, founded the Iraqi LGBT U.K. group to document this persecution and support the victims. The group is accumulating evidence that Iranian agents are advising SCIRI. He says there are reports that Iranian agents have been involved in interrogations, questioning those arrested in Persian through translators.

Also, as in Iran, “Badr militants are entrapping gay men via Internet chat rooms,” Hili says. “They arrange a date, and then beat and kill the victim. Males who are unmarried by the age of 30 or 35 are placed under surveillance on suspicion of being gay, as are effeminate men. They will be investigated and warned to get married. Badr will typically give them a month to change their ways. If they don’t, or if they fail to show evidence that they plan to get married, they will be arrested, disappear and eventually be found dead. The bodies are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes and bullet wounds to the back of the head.”

Tahseen, a 31-year-old photography lab technician and underground gay activist, told me by telephone from Baghdad that, “Just last week, four gay people we know of were found dead. I am afraid to leave my room and go out in the street because I will be killed.” He said that men who seem obviously gay “cannot walk in the street. My best friend was recently killed for being gay.”

Tahseen also described the Badr Corps’ Internet entrapment program, noting that “since Sistani’s fatwa, the violence and killings have gotten much, much worse.” Tahseen lives in a Baghdad apartment with his two brothers. “Right now, I have five gay men hiding in my room in fear of their lives,” he said, the anguish audible in his voice. One man given refuge by Tahseen is Bashar, a 34-year-old stage actor, who was forced into hiding after he and his family received death threats. He said that before he went underground, his house was raided several times by the Badr Corps. Fortunately, he was not at home.

“We desperately need protection!” Tahseen pleaded. “But, when we go to the Americans, they laugh at us and don’t do anything.”

According to Hili, “These assaults and murders have been reported by underground gay activists in Baghdad to the Green Zone, but the Americans don’t want to upset the religious authorities, and so they do nothing and treat gay Iraqis with contempt or as an object of humor.”

An April 10 report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed that gay Iraqis have been targeted for kidnapping and murder because of their sexual orientation. A week later, the BBC also carried a report, interviewing several victims. But U.S. major media have so far turned a blind eye to this systematic murder of gays in Iraq—and to the refusal of the U.S. occupier to do anything to stop it.

The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to communicate information about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.

Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of honour killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses and food), and assist efforts help them seek asylum abroad.

Iraqi LGBT UK do not yet have bank account. We are working closely with the LGBT human rights group OutRage! in London.

Donations to help Iraqi LGBT in the UK and in Iraq should be made payable to "OutRage!",with a cover note marked "For Iraqi LGBT", and sent to :

OutRage!, PO Box17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK

Solidarity!

U.S State Dept. ‘troubled’ over anti-gay violence in Iraq (Gay)

U.S. embassy in Baghdad willing to meet with gay groups

By LOU CHIBBARO JR
25 May 2006

The U.S. State Department said it is “troubled” by reports of increased violence against gays in Iraq and said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is interested in meeting with gay rights groups to address the problem.

The Bush administration announcement came in response to a request by the U.S. based International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemn a rash of anti-gay killings in Iraq and to “ask that U.S. military and civilian personnel in Iraq call these abuses to the attention of Iraqi authorities.”
In an April 20 letter to Rice, Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC executive director, urged Rice to “demand a response” from the Iraqi authorities over the anti-gay killings.

In a May 11 reply to Ettelbrick’s letter, L. Victor Hurtado, acting director of the State Department’s Office of Iraq Affairs, said the U.S. is working with the Iraqi government to promote the protection of human rights.

“We are very troubled by these reported incidents of threats, violence, executions, and other violations of humanitarian law against members of the gay and lesbian community in Iraq,” Hurtado said in his letter.

Hurtado said the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad “is interested in further dialogue on this issue” with non-governmental groups, including the Iraq-based group Rainbow for Life, which monitors human rights abuses against gays.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, told the Blade last week that reports of killings of Iraqi gays come at a time when other Iraqi groups are being targeted for assassinations and kidnappings. Among them, he said, are college professors, doctors and owners of liquor stores.

“We try to stop killings and assassinations regardless of the motive,” Venable said. “Violence is violence. We want to see it reduced and eliminated.”
A spokesperson for the Iraqi Embassy to the United States in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Violence linked to fatwa

A London-based group of exiled gay Iraqis took credit last week for pressuring a powerful Islamic leader into removing from his website a fatwa calling for the killing of gays in Iraq.

“They didn’t expect a gay rights group could challenge their religious authority, and we succeeded in doing that,” Ali Hili, founder and spokesperson for LGBT Iraqis U.K., said in a telephone interview from London.

But Hili’s group quickly discovered that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, while removing the announcement of the fatwa from his website, did not revoke the death order itself. Sistani also chose to leave on the site a clause in the fatwa that targets lesbians.

“Conditions are still very bad for gays and lesbians in my country,” Hili said.
Hili’s claims about the removal of the fatwa and his organization’s role in that decision could not be independently confirmed.

The fatwa — which Sistani issued last October — declared that all people “involved” in homosexuality “should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”
Hili said it was too soon to determine whether Sistani’s decision to remove the fatwa announcement from Sistani’s widely read, Arabic language website would curtail a rash of death threats, kidnappings and assassinations of gay Iraqis. The killings increased sharply toward the end of last year, he claimed.

Death squads formed by Shiite Islamic militias have used Internet chat rooms established by gay Iraqis to arrange to meet gays in Baghdad and other cities, Hili said. In some cases the unsuspecting gays ensnared by this tactic have been abducted and shot to death, he said.
Gay Iraqis who have fled their country because of the threats have told gay rights groups in Europe that conditions had gotten so bad that entire categories of men — including unmarried men older than 30, anyone perceived as being effeminate or involved in the arts, and men with longer hair — have come under suspicion of being gay and are targets for death threats.
The Bush administration, while condemning Islamic clerics for threatening to execute a citizen of Afghanistan for converting to Christianity earlier this year, had remained silent over the anti-gay killings in Iraq.

However, during the past week, an official with the State Department and a spokesperson for the Pentagon said U.S. authorities in Iraq were troubled over a rash of assassinations and kidnappings waged by insurgents and Islamic militias against people in all segments of Iraqi society, including gays.

Hili said vague assurances by U.S. and British officials that they oppose violent acts against the Iraqi people have had little impact on the plight of Iraqi gays.
He said gay Iraqis have told his group through telephone and e-mail conversations that U.S. military officials repeatedly have turned down pleas for help by gays who show up at the U.S. military headquarters in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

“One guy went there and said, ‘I’m receiving death threats from the militias, please help me,’” Hili said. “They said we can’t help you, we can’t help all Iraqis. And the guy died. He’s been found shot — executed.”
Another call for help
The British gay rights group Outrage has expressed concern that Britain and the United States may be reluctant to condemn Sistani for his anti-gay fatwa because Sistani opposes the Iraqi insurgency and has backed the creation of an elected Iraqi government.
The 77-year-old Sistani has long called for Islamic law to supersede civil law in Iraq, in marked contrast to President Bush’s call for a constitutional form of government that includes the separation of church and state.
U.S. and other coalition nations haven’t challenge Sistani on human rights matters because he is viewed as the spiritual leader of the overwhelming majority of Iraqi Shiites.
Shiites make up the largest number of Iraqis and are expected to dominate the newly elected government.

According to reports by gay Iraqi exiles and others familiar with the turmoil in Iraq, a powerful militia supported by Iran and believed to be under the leadership of Sistani known as the Badr Corps has organized some of the death squads that target gays.

Hili, pointing to Sistani’s ties to Iran, calls him an Iranian “Trojan Horse” who wants to convert Iraq into the same type of “extremist” state that has taken hold in Iran.
He said he is convinced that the radical Islamic forces in Iran that are responsible for widespread executions of gays in that country prompted Sistani to issue his anti-gay fatwa in Iraq.

Hili said Sistani agreed to remove the fatwa from his website in response to pressure from international human rights groups. The pressure began after Hili’s group and others called attention to anti-gay persecution in Iraq.

He said Sistani’s organization opened negotiations with LGBT Iraqis U.K. through long-distance telephone conferences between London and Iraq and Iran, where the Iranian born Sistani has offices.

Hili said Sistani’s representatives expressed concern over allegations on LGBT Iraqis U.K.’s website that Sistani was misusing his religious authority in Iraqi affairs. Hili said his group used the influence his group’s website apparently was having on Sistani as a bargaining chip to seek removal of the fatwa from the Sistani website.

According to Hili, who said he is in contact with a clandestine network of gays in Iraq, at least two other ayatollahs have issued separate fatwas against Iraqi gays in the past several weeks.

A fatwa is a legal opinion or ruling issued by an Islamic scholar.

The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to communicate information about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.

Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of honour killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses and food), and assist efforts help them seek asylum abroad.

Iraqi LGBT UK do not yet have bank account.

We are working closely with the LGBT human rights group OutRage! in London.

Donations to help Iraqi LGBT in the UK and in Iraq should be made payable to "OutRage!",with a cover note marked "For Iraqi LGBT", and sent to :

OutRage!, PO Box17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK

Solidarity!

Gays flee as religious militias sentence them all to death

From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad
The Times 17th May 2006

THE death threat was delivered to Karazan’s father early in the morning by a masked man wearing a police uniform.

The scribbled note was brief. Karazan had to die because he was gay. In the new Baghdad, his sexuality warranted execution by the religious militias.

The father was told that if he did not hand his son over, other family members would be killed.

What scares the city’s residents is how the fanatics’ list of enemies is growing.

It includes girls who refuse to cover their hair, boys who wear theirs too long, booksellers, liberal professors and prostitutes.

Three shops known to sell alcohol were bombed yesterday in the Karrada shopping district.

In this atmosphere of intolerance and intimidation, the militias have made no secret of their hatred of homosexuals.

The man who threatened Karazan said that he was a member of the Thaib (Wolf) Brigade, a commando group reportedly infiltrated by the armed wing of the hardliner Shia party the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Its orders come from fundamentalist clerics.

With his skin-tight clothes and long blonde hair, Karazan, a 23-year-old arts student, stood out in the Shia neighborhood of al-Dura.

He told The Times: “A number of my gay friends have been murdered, so I took this warning seriously.” The family fled this month to a suburb north of the city centre.

Karazan cut his hair short and dyed it black, but he is still too frightened to venture out.

His partner is in the Iraqi Army. With little money and no valid passport, he does not know how he can flee abroad.

Ali Hili, who ran a gay nightclub in Baghdad but fled to Britain this year after receiving death threats, says that he knows of more than 40 men murdered in recent months. “Badr militants used chartrooms to lure them to a rendezvous and then kill them,” he said.

He described a co-ordinate attack on one couple: 38-year-old Karim survived a hand- grenade attack on his home in al-Jameha, but his partner, Ali, was shot dead when he tried to flee his house near by.

Haydar Faiek, 40, a transsexual, was beaten and burnt to death last September in Karrada’s main street. Ammar, 27, was abducted and shot in the head in January.

Meanwhile, a 34-year-old theatre actor, who would only give his name as Bashar, has gone into hiding after a death threat. Two close members of his family have been murdered by militants, who say they will carry on killing his relatives until he turns himself in.

The Interior Ministry says that it is investigating a claim by gay activists that a 14-year-old male prostitute was killed in al-Dura last month by men in police uniforms. The gunmen told the boy’s father that he was executed for “corrupting the community”.

A ministry spokesman said that the Government did not condone vigilante groups. However, Nouri al-Malaki, the Prime Minister-designate, has conceded that the Iraqi security forces have been infiltrated by militia extremists.

Mr. Hili claims that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered spiritual figure in Iraq, provoked the murders by saying on his website in April last year that homosexuals should be killed in the “worst, most severe way”.

He said: “Al-Sistani gave the militias a theological sanction to murder gays.” He added that the ayatollah was forced to lift the fatwa against gays following protests, but refused to remove the reference to the punishment for lesbians.
“These people are taking Iraq back to the Dark Ages,” added Mr. Hili, 33.

His nightclub, in the basement of the Palestine Hotel, was one of the best-known in the city. Restaurants and cafés along Abu Nuwas Street were also popular haunts for gays.

His organization, Iraqi LGBT, runs safe houses in the capital and an underground network to help people to leave the country.

He said: “We could never envisage this happening when Saddam was overthrown. I had no love for the former President, but his regime never persecuted the gay community.”

Upsurge of violence in capital claims dozens

GUNMEN killed five guards then blew up an oil tanker parked near a market in northeastern Baghdad yesterday, killing 19 people and injuring at least 37 others, police said. The blast was an apparent sectarian attack against a Shia neighborhood.

A United Arab Emirates diplomat was seized as he walked home from his embassy in the Mansour district of Baghdad. His Sudanese guard was shot and wounded.

Four workers at a US base in Taji were killed by gunmen in northern Baghdad. Three US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs, and six civilians died in crossfire when police and suspected insurgents fought in Baghdad.

The US military said that it killed a militant planting a bomb southwest of Baghdad.

From: The Times

Sistani removes 'death to gays' fatwa

Iraqi gay protesters win success

Sistani urged to condemn homophobic murders and scrap anti-lesbian fatwa

Plea for fatwa against all vigilante murders

London – 12 May 2006

Iraqi gays and lesbians are claiming success following the decision of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to remove from his website a fatwa calling for the killing of homosexuals in the "worst, most severe way possible" (see the fatwa text below).

The removal on 10 May follows protests to Sistani by the London office of the Iraqi gay rights organisation, Iraqi LGBT, which represents a clandestine network of lesbian and gay activists inside Iraq’s major cities, including Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Duhok and Basra.

Following two weeks of negotiations with Iraqi LGBT – UK, Sistani’s office agreed to remove the fatwa calling for the murder of gay men, but has curiously refused to remove the fatwa urging punishment for lesbianism.

Initially, Sistani’s office had demanded that Iraqi LGBT-UK delete their criticisms of Sistani from their website and apologise to the Grand Ayatollah for questioning his religious authority.

Iraqi LGBT-UK refused. It issued a counter-demand that Sistani remove his ‘death to gays’ fatwa from his website. After two weeks of sometimes tense negotiations, Sistani’s representatives in London and Najaf agreed to drop the homophobic fatwa from his website – except for the section calling for the punishment of lesbianism.

“We welcome the decision to remove the most murderously homophobic part of Sistanti’s fatwa from his website,” said gay Iraqi refugee, Ali Hili, who heads the organisation Iraqi LGBT – UK (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). Mr Ali is also Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the British LGBT movement, OutRage!, which works closely with Iraqi LGBT – UK.

“This decision does not go far enough. The fatwa has been removed from Sistani’s website only. It has not been revoked. We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians.

“Iraqi LGBT-UK urges Sistani to apologise and revoke his fatwa calling for the murder of homosexuals, and to issue a new fatwa condemning all vigilante violence, including vigilante attacks on gay and lesbian people.

“We believe that Sistani's fatwa has encouraged and sanctioned the current wave of execution-style assassinations of lesbians and gay men. He owes gay Iraqis an apology. He owes all Iraqis an apology for setting straight Iraqis against gay Iraqis.

“Endorsing the murder of other human beings is unIslamic. Our Muslim faith is one of love, compassion, tolerance and mercy. Hatred and prejudice have no legitimate place in our religion.

“Sistani’s encouragement of homophobic violence provokes negative views towards the Islamic faith and towards Muslim people.

“Iraqi LGBT-UK holds Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement.

“Evidence we have received from our underground gay contacts inside Iraq shows rising levels of homophobic threats, intimidation and violence by fundamentalist supporters of Sistani. These attacks have intensified since Sistani issued his anti-gay fatwa.

“Grand Ayatollah Sistani is the spiritual leader of all Shia Muslims in Iraq and around the world. He is also the spiritual leader of Iraq’s main Islamic fundamentalist movement, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which plays a leading role in the Iraqi government.

“SCIRI’s armed wing is the Badr corps, which is responsible for much of the sectarian and fundamentalist violence in Iraq today.

“The Badr Corps is a terrorist organisation and uses terrorist methods against political, religious, sexual and ethnic dissidents. It is behind much of the sectarian violence in Iraq today, including suicide bombings, kidnappings and the assassination of Sunnis, moderate Shia, trade unionists, women’s rights activists, gay people and secularists.

“The government in Iraq consults regularly with Sistani on political, social and moral issues. He wields huge influence over Iraqi government policy and the over Iraqi Shia public opinion.

“Sistani is not even Iraqi. He is an Iranian national who has set himself up as a religious leader in Iraq. He wants to impose an Iranian-style theocracy on the Iraqi people.

“The British government paid for Sistani to have medical treatment in the UK in 2004, and fetes him as a revered Muslim leader.

“Despite Badr’s murderous record, the UK allows its political arm, SCIRI, to have offices and fundraise in the UK.

“The Badr Corps has instituted a witch-hunt of lesbian and gay Iraqis – including violent beatings, kidnappings and assassinations.

“Badr agents have a network of informers who, among other things, target alleged 'immoral behaviour'. They kill gays, unveiled women, prostitutes, people who sell or drink alcohol, and those who listen to western music and wear western fashions.

“Badr militants are entrapping gay men via internet chat rooms. They arrange a date, and then beat and kill the victim.

“Males who are unmarried by the age of 30 or 35 are placed under surveillance on suspicion of being gay, as are effeminate men. They will be investigated and warned to get married. Badr will typically give them a month to change their ways. If they don't change their behaviour, or if they fail to show evidence that they plan to get married, they will be arrested, disappear and eventually be found dead. The bodies are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes, and a bullet wound in the back of the head.

“Our sources inside Iraq report the murders of the following gay and bisexual men. All the killings bear the hallmarks of the execution-style murders for which the Badr organisation is notorious.

“These killings are just a few of the many we have been able to get details about. They are the tip of an iceberg of religious-motivated summary executions. Gay Iraqis are living in fear of discovery and murder,” said Mr Hili.

Karim, aged 38, survived a hand grenade attack on his house in the Al-Jameha district of Baghdad in 2004. The attack by members of the Badr Corps, left him with severe facial disfigurement and shrapnel in his body. Simultaneously, the Badr Corps murdered his partner, Ali, at his house, also in the Al-Jameha district. They shot Ali as he tried to escape.

Haydar Faiek, aged 40, a transsexual Iraqi, was beaten and burned to death by Badr militias in the main street in the Al-Karada district of Baghdad in September 2005.

Sarmad and Khalid were partners who lived in the Al-Jameha area of Baghdad. Persons unknown revealed their same-sex relationship. They were abducted by the Badr organisation in April 2005. Their bodies were found two months later, in June, bound, blindfolded and shot in the back of the head.

Naffeh, aged 45, disappeared in August 2005. His family were informed that he was kidnapped by the Badr organisation. His body was found in January 2006. He, too, had been subjected to an execution-style killing.

Ammar, aged 27, was abducted and shot in back of the head in Baghdad by suspected Badr militias in January 2006.

Bashar, an actor aged 34, who resides in Baghdad, has been forced to go into hiding, after receiving death threats against him and his family. Before he went underground, his house was raided several times by the Badr Corps. Fortunately, he was not at home, otherwise he fears he would have been kidnapped and killed.

A copy of Sistani's fatwa, with translation, follows below.

Further information:

Ali Hili in London

Mobile phone: + 44 (0) 79 819 594 53

Email: iraqilgbt@yahoo.co.uk

Weblog: http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

The text of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s fatwa, calling for the killing of sodomites, as it was shown on his website prior to its removal on 10 May 2006.

It was on the Sistani website

www.sistani.org

It was under the section Istiftaaat. You went to letter L in Arabic, and looked up the word Lewat which means (sodomy). See question 5.


5

§ السؤال : ما هو حكم اللواط والسحاق؟§ الجواب : حرام. ويعاقب فاعلهما بل يقتل فاعل اللواط اشد قتلة.


Direct link:
http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/main/index-istifta.php?page=4&lang=ara&part=4

Q5: What is the judgment for sodomy and lesbianism?
A5: Forbidden. Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way possible.

ENDS

Iraqi police 'killed 14-year-old boy for being homosexual'

Iraqi Police execute 'gay' child

Ahmed, aged 14, shot dead on doorstep

Murdered to cleanse the community

Fundamentalist police blamed – Ahmed, gone but not forgotten

London – 4 May 2006

Iraqi police are accused of executing a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura
district of Baghdad in early April.

Ahmed Khalil was accused of corrupting the community and creating a
scandal because he had sex with men.

Ahmed was, in fact, a victim of poverty. He sold his body to get money
and food to help his impoverished family survive.

"According to a neighbour, who witnessed Ahmed's execution from his
bedroom window, four police officers arrived at Ahmed's
house in a four-wheel-drive police pick-up truck. The neighbour saw
the police drag Ahmed out of the house and shoot him at point-blank
range, pumping two bullets into his head and several more bullets into
the rest of his body," said Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi who is
Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the London-based gay human rights
group OutRage!.

Mr Hili is also coordinator of the Iraqi LGBT – UK group, consisting
of more than 30 Iraqi gay exiles in the UK. They are in contact with
an underground network of gay people in Baghdad and other cities.

Mr Hili was given details of Ahmed's execution by his friends in
Baghdad, including J, a university graduate and professional, who
lives in the al-Dura area and who has spoken to eye-witnesses and
Ahmed's neighbours.

More details about Ahmed's life and death follow below.

Mr Hili said:

"Young Ahmed was a victim of poverty. He was summarily executed,
apparently by fundamentalist elements in the Iraqi police.

"According to our contacts in Baghdad, the Iraqi police have been
heavily infiltrated by the Shia paramilitary Badr Corps. They are
seeking to impose a fundamentalist morality on the people of Iraq.

"The murder of Ahmed follows a pattern of Badr executions of suspected
gays and lesbians in Iraq. Badr are using their members in the police
to enforce the violent homophobia of Sharia law.

"Badr's policy is to murder gay people, prostitutes, unveiled women,
sellers and consumers of alcohol and people with Sunni-sounding names.

"Inspired by the Shia spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, who has issued a death fatwa against lesbians and gays,
Badr is kidnapping and executing people suspected of homosexuality,
even young kids.

"Our gay contacts in Baghdad condemn the sexual exploitation of young
people. They are working to help rescue teenagers pressured into
prostitution by their impoverished circumstances," said Mr Hili.

"We are greatly indebted to Ali Hili and his gay friends in Baghdad
for investigating the tragic murder of Ahmed and other gays and
lesbians," added Peter Tatchell, campaign coordinator of OutRage!.

"They are taking great personal risks to expose the wave of
fundamentalist-inspired homophobic killings. Documenting these brutal,
barbaric murders takes time and money. Our gay friends in Baghdad are
surviving on tiny incomes. We are trying to get them funding to cover
transport, phone bills, internet and email access, and the purchase of
a computer," said Mr Tatchell.

* Ali Hili and the Iraqi feminist activist, Houzan Mahmoud, will
address a public meeting, Women, Gays & Secularism in Post-War Iraq,
co-sponsored by OutRage! and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association,
on Friday 19 May, 7pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1.
Further info: Brett Lock 0770 843 5917.

Donations to help Iraqi LGBT in the UK and in Iraq should be made
payable to "OutRage!", with a cover note marked "For Iraqi LGBT", and
sent to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK.

Further information:

Ali Hili, Iraqi LGBT UK and OutRage! – 077 - 5755 6946

--------------------

Ahmed's story – A cruel, barbaric death. Gone but not forgotten

Ali Hili, of OutRage! and Iraqi LGBT UK, was told about the execution
of Ahmed Khalil by gay friends in Baghdad. They knew Ahmed and his
family, and have collected eye-witness accounts from Ahmed's
neighbours, which they have relayed to Mr Hili in London.

This is Mr Hili's story about the execution of Ahmed, based on
firsthand accounts given by eye-witnesses and neighbours:

"Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the
southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara," said Mr Hili.

"The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great
poverty.

"After the 2003 US-led invasion, the Iraqi economy collapsed, causing
widespread unemployment and the disintegration of social services.

"With no income or welfare support in al-Ammara, Ahmed's family moved
to Baghdad a couple of years ago, after the fall of Sadaam Hussein.

"His father wanted to find a job to support his wife, two sons and
daughter. The family settled in al-Dura, a very poor southern district
of Baghdad.

"Ahmed's father worked as a night watchman on a building site for the
pitiful wage of 10 dollars a month, plus permission for him and his
family to live on the site until the construction of the new houses
was completed. They lived in the shell of the unfinished buildings. It
was a life of desolation and destitution.

"Ahmed was often bullied by the neighbourhood boys for being poor. He
had no one to protect him.

"It is unclear whether Ahmed was gay or not. He had sex with men,
often in exchange for small amounts of money and food. He did this in
order to help his family financially. Sometimes they were so
desperate, he had sex for a few potatoes or some bread.

"Ahmed's 'gay' reputation spread all over his neighbourhood, causing
great scandal. His behaviour was reported to the police by informants
in the community.

"In early April 2006, Ahmed was found dead on the doorstep of his
house. He had been shot, with two bullets in the head and several
bullets in the rest of his body.

"According to a neighbour, who saw Ahmed's execution from his bedroom
window, four uniformed police officers arrived at Ahmed's house in a
four-wheel-drive police pick-up truck. The neighbour saw the police
drag Ahmed out of the house and shoot him at point-blank range.

"Several other neighbours confirm this account, although they did not
see the actual shooting. They say they heard gunshots and saw the
police leaving the scene. They then found Ahmed's body lying on the
ground outside his house. It is believed by these neighbours that
Ahmed was executed by the police.

"Two days before Ahmed's execution, his father was arrested and
interrogated by the police. They demanded to know what he knew about
Ahmed's sexual activities and blamed Ahmed for corrupting the
community. Officers eventually released Ahmed's father. His son was
killed soon afterwards.

"Both Ahmed's mother and father wept over their sons' brutal killing.
Even though homosexuality is taboo, they did not agree he deserved to
die. The family see him as a victim of poverty and police murder.

"Because they are so poor, the family could not afford a funeral for
their son.

"The day after Ahmed was murdered, his family moved out of the area,
fearing police retribution and denunciation within the local
community. The family's whereabouts and fate is unknown.

"Ahmed is one of many hundreds of teenage boys and girls in Iraq who
sell their bodies to survive and support their impoverished families.

"Our gay contacts in Baghdad condemn the sexual exploitation of young
people. They are endeavouring to help rescue teenagers pressured into
prostitution.

"Iraqi LGBT in London and Baghdad call on the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross and Red Cresent and
international aid agencies to take action to aid poor Iraqi families,
so that children no longer feel obliged to resort to sex-for-money in
order to survive," said Mr Hili.

ENDS

Stop the antigay Iraqi killings now!

LGBT Iraqis are being slaughtered with the blessing of Islamic religious leaders. How can you help? Start by speaking up—in particular, by demanding that U.S. politicians do their duty to protect the people of Iraq

By Scott Rose27 April 2006

An anti gay pogrom is taking place in Iraq. Gratuitous killings of gays are permitted under Iraqi law, and it is a fact that George W. Bush approved the wording of the Iraqi constitution that makes it so.

Mainstream U.S. media are not reporting on the plight of Iraqi gays, nor are they discussing how to rescue them. This point out the urgent need for LGBT Americans to participate more in our democracy.

For those who have not yet learned of these circumstances, here is some background.
In August 2005, the United States was party to negotiations regarding the wording of the Iraqi constitution. The United States sanctioned the results, which included a change making Islam “the” rather than “a” main source of Iraqi law. Sharia Islamic law calls for homosexual people to be killed.

Some time around October 2005, the Ayatollah Sistani, writing in a question-and-answer section of the Arab-language version of his official Web site, issued an antigay fatwa. He was asked, “What is the judgment for sodomy and lesbianism?” He replied, “Forbidden. Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

Reports from gay Iraqi refugees in London who maintain contact with people in their homeland say that Sistani’s fatwa is being carried out. The Badr Brigade is said to be particularly active in anti gay persecution. According to the refugees and the Iraqis with whom they are in communication, identifiably gay people are attacked in the streets and beaten to death as surrounding crowds cheer on the killers. The same sources report that unmarried men approaching the age of 30 are given one month to marry a woman and then, if they fail to do so, they are murdered.

It is also reported that identifiably gay people, afraid for their lives, are hiding in the homes of sympathetic friends and relatives, much as Ann Frank sought refuge from the Nazis. They claim that even when Iraqi gays seek safe haven in the Green Zone in Baghdad, they are mocked and turned away by American soldiers. While tangential to the anti gay pogrom, further reports say that Badr Brigade members also are killing people perceived to have violated Islamic law—for example, unveiled women and people who don Western dress or listen to Western music.

Why is the Bush administration, which rushed to the defense of a single Christian convert threatened with death in Afghanistan, not saying anything about the anti gay pogrom in Iraq? We know that Bush himself is hostile to LGBT equality. We can also presume, with reasonable assurance of accuracy, that Bush’s true salient preoccupation is protecting the production-sharing agreements he procured for U.S. oil companies operating in Iraq, despite all his fine talk about democracy and freedom.

Yet one very major reason the U.S. media and the Bush administration are silent on the subject of the anti gay pogrom in Iraq is that LGBT Americans are not bothering to speak out on this issue. I know it can be hard to believe, given the realities of the Bush administration, that the United States is a democracy. But it is. And one of the curious aspects of any democracy is that the most important people in it, the people, have a responsibility but not an obligation to influence the course of their nation.

Presidents, cabinet members, and members of Congress have no choice; they are elected to do a job, and they must fulfill the responsibilities of their posts or suffer the consequences. The people, by contrast, are at liberty not to put one iota of their energy into giving direction to the government. There is no penalty of any sort for not writing to one’s elected representatives, apart from that of waking up one day to find that one’s country has been transformed into a hellish monster.

In the past six years, evangelical Christians have influenced the United States out of all proportion to their numbers, in ways that are even in conflict with our country’s constitution. That has not happened merely because the Republican Party meticulously cultivated evangelical leaders; it has happened because grassroots evangelicals do not hesitate to communicate their views to their elected officials.

More people than I care to think about justify their criminal laziness when it comes to communicating their views to elected officials with preposterous defeatism. The recurring theme of that preposterous defeatism is, “They aren’t going to listen to me.”
Well, guess what? A single message from one constituent will not likely produce results, but the same message received from 500,000 constituents certainly will. Every senator and member of the House has an office e-mail address. The messages sent to it are reviewed by office staff, and what they learn from the messages is regularly discussed in strategy meetings. If Senator Clinton’s office receives 30 messages about the antigay pogrom in Iraq, the matter will be considered too unimportant among the people to count for anything.

Like many career politicians, Senator Clinton stands for nothing except her own drive to remain in power. If 500,000 constituents sent to her office an e-mail saying that the pogo stick had to be declared the official means of transportation in New York State, we would be that much closer to such a ridiculous declaration. If 500,000 constituents sent her a message saying that the antigay pogrom in Iraq must be addressed with red hot urgency, it would be.

Traditional paper mail is a distinct tool for communication with elected officials. Unlike e-mail, a letter generally receives an acknowledgement, often a form letter but sometimes an explanation of the official’s position and record on the relevant matter of concern. Like e-mail traffic, paper mail registers on the recipient’s agenda. Can you imagine if, on top of 500,000 e-mails protesting the anti-gay pogrom in Iraq, Senator Clinton received 500,000 paper letters on the subject?

The antigay pogrom in Iraq is profoundly disturbing. That Bush-approved language for the Iraqi constitution making the indiscriminate killing of gays a legal activity is galling beyond all measure and beneath contempt. But it also is a call to Americans to fulfill their duties within our democracy. Beyond the tragedy befalling Iraqi gays lies the one befalling American LGBT people. If you don’t speak up to let them know you are there, they will act as though you are not.

The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to communicate information about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.

Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of honour killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses and food), and assist efforts help them seek asylum abroad.

Iraqi LGBT UK do not yet have bank account.
We are working closely with the LGBT human rights group OutRage! in London.

Donations to help Iraqi LGBT in the UK and in Iraq should be made payable to

"OutRage!",with a cover note marked "For Iraqi LGBT", and sent to OutRage!, PO Box17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK

Solidarity!