Extraordinary Violence Mars Staging Of Serbian Gay Pride Parade; Hundreds Of Riot Police Protect Participants; Damages Estimated At Over One Million Dollars

Violence marred Sunday’s gay pride protest in Belgrade, Serbia Sunday, hundreds of far-right nationalists attempting to hijack the parade, officials, according to a report from the Associated Press saying that more than 100 were injured. Thousands of the police officers had sealed off the streets along the parade route; however extremist hooligans repeatedly attempted to rupture the security cordons. Rioters fired shots and threw petrol bombs at the headquarters of the ruling pro-Western Democratic Party, setting buildings on fire. Several shops along the route were damaged, parked cars overturned and set on fire. The thugs chanted “death to homosexuals!” while hurling bricks, firecrackers, glass bottles, Molotov cocktails, and rocks at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas and deployed armoured vehicles to disperse the charging anti-gay protesters, who, at one point, overtook a city bus, ordered the driver and all the passengers off, and drove it down a steep city street before it hit an electric pole in Belgrade’s main square. Police report that 78 officers and at least 17 citizens suffered injuries. They added that at least 100 people were arrested, 53 remaining in custody. One of the organizers of the gay pride parade Lazar Pavlov said that the staging of the parade was an “historic event,” condemned the violence, but said that the hateful hooliganism and the extraordinary security required underlines the daily dangers gay Serbians confront. Serbian President Boris Tadic condemned the “vandalism” and offered an assurance that the extremists will be arrested and punished to fullest extent of the law, saying “Serbian will guarantee human rights for all its citizens, regardless of the differences among them, and no attempts to revoke these freedoms with violence will be allowed.” The right-wing groups argue that gay events contradict Serbian family and religious values, those groups populated with members of the neo-Nazi party and other extremists. Democratic Party spokesperson Jelana Trivan said “These riots obviously have nothing to do with the gay parade or any moral values. These hooligan gangs which must be punished severely.” Vincent Degert, the head of the European Union mission in Serbia, addressed the estimated 1,000 gay activists and their allies who assembled at a park in downtown Belgrade park, surrounded by riot police and armoured vehicles, said “We are here to celebrate this very important day ... to celebrate the values of tolerance, freedom of expression and assembly.” As a part of her Balkan tour, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intends to visit Belgrade, Clinton an outspoken advocate of gay rights.