Bosnian gay festival forced underground after 10 people hurt

BOSNIA: BOSNIA'S FIRST gay pride festival has been forced underground after at least 10 people were injured when protesters attacked visitors to its opening night.

A mob set upon partygoers and journalists covering the Queer Sarajevo Festival after its launch at the city's Academy of Art on Wednesday evening.

Dozens of young men chanting "kill the gays" punched, kicked and hurled stones at people leaving the event, which has been condemned by prominent members of Bosnia's Muslim, Serb and Croat communities.

Islamic leaders are angry that the indoor festival of art, films and workshops about sexual minorities is being held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but criticism of the event has also been fierce in some of Bosnia's mainstream media and internet forums.

"We are not interrupting the festival, but we will change the format. It will no longer be a public event," one of the lead organisers, Slobodanka Dekic, said, amid reports that the whole event could be cancelled. "The right people will have the right information about what is happening and where."

Gay pride festivals across former communist eastern Europe are regularly opposed by state or local officials and, when they do go ahead, a heavy police presence is required to counter often violent groups of protesters.

"We had guarantees from the mayor and police that there will be no violence . . . somebody will have to assume the responsibility for what has happened," Ms Dekic said.

Before the festival began, Amnesty International urged Bosnian officials to support the event and condemn attempts to stop it.

"Death threats have been issued on the internet against individual gay rights activists. A number of websites have called for the organisers of the festival to be lynched, stoned, doused with petrol or expelled from the country," the human rights group said.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times