IRAQ FREEDOM CONGRESS
Working For a Democratic, Secular and Progressive Alternative to both the US Occupation and Political Islam in Iraq
Massacring Gays in the Open Is the New Islamic forces' Means to Impose their Hegemony Over the Society
April 23, 2009
For more than a month in Iraq, the LGBT community has been facing death at the hands of Islamic militias. These militias have also prevented the LGBT victims' families from holding funerals for their loved ones, and threatened families members so as to prevent them from re-claiming their loved ones’ dignity through criminal prosecution.
Through these latest episodes, the Islamic militia (Mehdi Army), which was defeated by government militiamen in the last year, is attempting to reinvent itself and impose its inhumane laws through abusing and killing homosexuals. Even more serious is that these crimes are being committed before the eyes of the government. The government claims in its election campaign that a “State of Law” exists and makes misleading statements that it is proud to bring back security and stability, amid claims that the law is above all.
The killing of homosexuals in the streets and alleys of the city of Althawra (currently called Sadir), the escalation of killings and assassinations in Basra and Baghdad, and the car bombings in several Iraqi cities are an integrated series of events. These attacks reflect the political struggle in Iraq and the intensification of conflicts among sectarian and nationalist forces hoping to extract as much authority, privilege and influence as they can.
The “State of Law” that the current sectarian government is so arrogantly proud of cannot prevail without getting rid of its sectarian ideology and hitting with an iron fist all the forces that violate human rights and dignity. This current government is ignoring such crimes against homosexuals and sending weak messages to those who must be prosecuted. Instead, the militias are gaining power and influence.
The timid appeals made by the Iraqi Human Rights Commission on the killing of Iraqi homosexuals reflects the weakness of this government and its poor reaction to the violation of human rights and its disrespect to the values of human dignity in “the New Iraq.”
The State of Law will not take form without a secular non-ethnic government that defines human beings on the basis of human identity. The Iraq Freedom Congress condemns the criminal acts committed against homosexuals and appeals to the progressive forces in the world to put pressure on the Iraqi government to take the necessary measures to protect the right of homosexuals to enjoy full human rights and to arrest the criminals that commit such crimes.
Iraq Freedom Congress
23-4-2009
http://www.ifcongress.com/English/News/2009/0409/gays-assasin.htm - The above is a public statement released by the Iraq Freedom Congress and is not copyrighted material -