Terrorists target gays in Iraq; hundreds dead

By TIARE RATH

BAGHDAD — Iraqi gays are being targeted and killed in what some human-rights organizations call the most brutal attacks against homosexuals in recent years.

At least 68 gay and transgendered men have been killed over the last four months, according to the London-based rights advocacy group Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). At least 678 people have been killed because of their sexual orientation since 2004, according to the group.

Officials with New York-based Human Rights Watch, which recently conducted field investigations on the violence, suspects the actual number of victims is much higher.

Brutal campaign

Scott Long, a senior Human Rights Watch representative, described the killings as an “extraordinarily brutal campaign” targeting gay, transgender and effeminate men in several provinces.

“I am so afraid that I will be killed,” said Samir, a 20-year-old gay Baghdad resident, who declined to give his last name. “People do not understand that I have been created like this. Those who claim to be religious are disgusted by me.” Rights organizations say they believe that Shia militias are the primary perpetrators of the violence and that the majority of killings have occurred in Shia-dominated areas.

“Sadr City was one of the areas where a lot of the killings appeared to be taking place. ... We talked to people in hospitals and morgues where bodies were coming in,” Long said.

But Jasim al-Jabiri, a Mehdi Army leader in Sadr City, denied that the militia has played any role in the killing.

Little sympathy

“The tribes to which the gays belonged killed them,” he said. “They consider them a shame on (the tribe).” Jabiri makes his view of homosexuals abundantly clear: “The Iraqi community rejects (gays) as disgusting and despicable.” For now, many gays in Baghdad are trying to keep a low profile.

The U.S. Embassy has condemned attacks on homosexuals and promised to raise the issue with senior Iraqi officials.

But most rights advocates see a bleak future for Iraqi gays, saying that their only option may be to seek asylum in the West.

X Tiare Rath is the Iraq service editor for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services