US Troop Surge Will Not Help Gay Iraqis

President Bush’s plan to deploy an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq will do little to stop the death squads that continue to hunt gays, according to exiled gay Iraqis and organizations monitoring the violence there.

Gay Iraqi citizens have been the victims of increased attacks and killings since the U.S. invasion began in 2003, insiders told The Washington Blade.

“Before the invasion, we never experienced any kind of trouble being gay in Iraq,” said Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi living in London. “Saddam was a tyrant. But while he was in power, discrete homosexuality was usually tolerated. There was certainly no danger of gay people being assassinated by religious fanatics.”

An unknown but reportedly substantial number of gay Iraqis have died since Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a top Shiite cleric, called on his followers in October 2005 to kill gays in “the worst, most severe way” possible.

Sistani, an influential figure in contemporary Iraq, later removed the command from his web site. But the order apparently stands, and attacks and killings of gay Iraqis continue to be reported.

“For the foreseeable future, Iraq will remain very unsafe for lesbians and gays,” said Peter Tatchell, spokesperson for the British gay rights group OutRage.
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