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Article: Human Rights Watch: Iraqi gays tortured and killed
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- August 17, 2009
- Author:
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Militiamen are torturing and killing gay Iraqi men with impunity in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to several other cities, a prominent human rights group said in a report.
Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to act urgently to stop the abuses, warning that so-called social cleansing poses a new threat to security even as other violence recedes.
The bodies of several gay men were found in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City earlier this year with the Arabic words for "pervert" and "puppy" _ considered derogatory terms for homosexuals in Iraq _ written on their chests.
The New York-based advocacy group said ...