International14 FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017

Russian, American two-man crew blasts off to ISS

BAIKONUR: A Russian and an American blasted off from the in yesterday, the first two- person launch to the International Space Station in over a decade. The Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft carrying veteran Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA rookie Jack Fischer shot into the sky in bright conditions at 0713 GMT. Russian space agency said the launch had been successful and that the crew was expected to arrive at the ISS at 1323 GMT. Manned launches to the ISS usually involve three crew members. But Russian space agency Roscosmos announced last year that in the near future only two cosmonauts would be on board the ISS rather than three as has been the case in recent times. The agency explained it is seeking to cut costs on supply missions prior to the installation of a new module to expand the Russian section of the orbital lab at the end of 2017 or in early 2018. Another Russian-American duo, Yuri Malenchenko and Edward Lu, undertook the last two-man mission to the ISS, in April 2003. Yurchikhin and Fischer are set to complete a five- month mission at the station and should join three , including NASA’s , on the orbital laboratory.

Breaking records In an emotional interview with NASA TV, Fischer, a 43-year- : Chechen gay men who fled persecution in their home ’s Muslim region of Chechnya due to his sexual-ori- old former US air force pilot, said he would be “thinking about entation, sits around a table in their flat in Moscow.—AFP Dad” as he enters orbit. When dying from cancer, Fischer said, his father encouraged him to pursue his dream of becoming an . Yurchikhin, 58, has racked up 537 days in space Facing death for being gay, over the course of four missions to the ISS, more than any US astronaut but some way short of the 879 days logged by record-holding compatriot Gennady Padalka. men flee Russia’s Chechnya Fischer and Yurchikhin will be on board the ISS to witness Whitson break the 534-day American record for cumulative days in space previously held by Jeff Williams. US President Authorities urge families to kill gay men Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump are expected to congratulate Whitson on her achievement in an Earth-to MOSCOW: Ilya looks tired and drawn. President Vladimir Putin-have long been said, speaking hoarsely. But after that he space call on Monday, according to NASA. Whitson also After being beaten and tortured by men accused by rights activists of carrying had to flee to Moscow anyway. “Some became the first woman to take charge of the ISS twice, hav- in military uniform in Russia’s Chechnya out kidnappings and beatings of his soldiers came to see my mother and ing inherited command of the lab for the first time from region, he fled to Moscow but still fears opponents. told her I was gay,” he said. “I’m terrified. Yurchikhin in 2007. for his life-because he is gay. Asked to comment on the Novaya I haven’t been able to sleep since I left.” She will return to earth in early September with both “In Chechnya, I had no choice but to Gazeta report, Kadyrov’s spokesman Another man who refused even to Fischer and Yurchikhin after NASA decided to extend her stay lie or die,” says the 20-year-old. He is claimed that such punitive treatment of give an alias said he left Chechnya two in space by three months. France’s Thomas Pesquet and Oleg now hiding out in a small house on the gay men in Chechnya was impossible weeks ago. He said he too has been Novitsky of Roscosmos will be the next members of the ISS edge of Moscow with five other since they “do not exist” in the region. unable to sleep since, haunted by the crew to return to Earth, with a landing scheduled for early Chechen men after they escaped what Kadyrov on Wednesday denied that any fear that his wife and his child will find June. Russia is currently the only country executing manned they say is a brutal campaign against homosexuals had been arrested, saying out he is gay. In March he was held “in space flights to the ISS, despite its space industry having suf- gay men by authorities in the Muslim “provocative articles about Chechnya an unofficial prison” for a week, the man fered a string of setbacks and launch failures in recent years. region of Russia’s North Caucasus. (have) reported so-called arrests. “It’s said. “There were other gay men in the The ISS laboratory, a rare example of American and Russian All refused to give their real names even embarrassing to talk about it. It’s cell. Some of them had been beaten international cooperation, has been orbiting Earth at about for fear of someone recognizing them said there have been what are called up,” he recalled. “When I was released, I 28,000 kilometers per hour since 1998.—AFP and tracking them down. “If any of my arrests, murders, (newspapers) have realised that meant I should leave as relatives realizes I’m gay, they won’t hes- even given the name” of one victim, he swiftly as possible.” itate a minute before killing me,” anoth- said. “But he is alive, in good health and er of the men, 28-year-old Nortcho, said. is at home.” Absolute tyranny “And if they don’t do it, they will get Reports of the abuses have drawn killed themselves for failing to uphold ‘I’m terrified’ international condemnation, as activists the family honor.” The Moscow branch of a Russian have accused the authorities in Russia of While casual homophobia is com- NGO called the LGBT Network is help- turning a blind eye for fear of upsetting mon in Russia, the problem is particular- ing Chechens to flee the region and Kadyrov in a region where Moscow ly acute in conservative Chechnya, receives “three or four requests for fought two bloody separatist wars. US where homosexuality is taboo and seen help each day,” said the branch’s Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki in many families as a moral failing that leader Olga Baranova. Nearly 20 peo- Haley said Monday she was “disturbed” should be punished by death. In late ple at risk have already moved to by the reports. Tanya Lokshina of March, the Novaya Gazeta liberal news- Moscow, she said. While Ilya is now Human Rights Watch said that in her paper-known for critical reports on more than 1,800 kilometers from the view: “It will only take a call from the Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s iron-fisted Chechen capital of Grozny, he still Kremlin to Kadyrov for the arrests to ruler for the last decade-published a jumps up every time a car drives close stop.” Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s shocking report that gay men had been by the house, which is surrounded by a office formally opened an investigation rounded up. fence. “By helping me, the Network has on Monday but Russia’s human rights The newspaper reported that the handed me a reprieve-but they’ll find ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova authorities had detained more than 100 me in the end,” he says quietly. told TASS state news agency there had gay men and urged their families to kill In October he was taken into a field been no reports of such missing people KAZAKHSTAN: Russia’s Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft carrying them to “wash clean their honor.” It said and beaten by three men in military uni- to police, investigators or prosecutors. Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astro- at least two had been killed by relatives form. A huge scar runs along the side of Lokshina of Human Rights Watch coun- naut Jack David Fischer, members of the main crew of the and a third died after being tortured. his jaw. “They filmed everything. They tered that “imagining people coming 51/52 expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), The accusations were taken all the more told me it would end up on social media forward with information without get- blasts off to the ISS from the launch pad at the Russian- seriously since the security forces con- unless I paid 200,000 rubles ($3,650). I ting any effective protection, any securi- leased Baikonur cosmodrome yesterday.—AFP trolled by Kadyrov-a fierce loyalist of borrowed the money and paid it,” he ty guarantee, is just impossible.”—AFP