Daisha, daisha, manganjisti mayisha, sleep, sleep, but not near the bed, or the great wicked will come.
At least there were no homosexuals until March, when the purges began.
Out of the 1,268,989 people in Chechnya, there were 107 homosexuals.
I knew to be suspicious, but there's a kind of black humour we use when we know you're one of us, and he got that.
As of this morning, there are 104 homosexuals. By the start of Ramadan, there will again be none.
He asked me three times. I agreed to meet him at a local café. I was waiting, absorbed in my own nervousness.
There are only three things that can happen to such a person in Chechnya. They can leave, they can kill themselves, or they can be killed.
They are un-Chechen, un-People.
Suddenly I hear the quiet. The café's empty. They come.
It's like a pyramid. We remove them to a detention centre to interrogate. All the unnaturals in their phone are identified.
We then use him as bait to get the others.
Electrocution is the best. It means that they don't want to leave any marks. They don't feel some recrimination. The real terror starts with the beatings.
That's when you know they have impunity. Nothing can stop them. No one cares.
Many of the cadravites won't touch them, even to beat them. So we send in other prisoners for the task.
I enjoy playing the piano. I don't know how they know. It's not on my profile. They broke a finger for each day.
When we arrest the wider circle, we're often lucky. And one or two of the families have money so we can ransom them off.
Or rather sell our silence.
If you bleed, the wolf will carry you away.
It is worse for him. It has to be.
If you stay silent, the shepherd will cut your throat.
But before we release them, we show their father the pictures and messages his son has been sending. It is enough.
Hello father.
Sleep, sleep will not near the bed, or the great wicked will come. The great wicked will swallow the great wicked.
Daisha, daisha, manganjisti mayisha. Sleep, sleep, but not near the bed, or the great wicked will come.
The great wicked will swallow you. The great wicked will come.
