Serbian police arrested greater than 30 folks as 1000’s of LGBTQI+ activists turned out for Belgrade’s EuroPride march on Saturday, regardless of a authorities ban.
The occasion had been supposed because the cornerstone occasion of the EuroPride gathering. However the inside ministry banned the march earlier this week, citing safety considerations after rightwing teams threatened to carry protests.
Though the march occurred with out severe incident, native media mentioned clashes broke out between counter-demonstrators and police.
The inside ministry had additionally barred any counter-protests, however some far-right teams vowed to rally in entrance of church buildings.
Serbia’s inside minister, Aleksandar Vulin, had warned in an announcement that “we is not going to tolerate any violence in Belgrade streets, any greater than unlawful marches”.
British mannequin and activist Yasmin Benoit mentioned she had been to many homosexual pleasure parades, “however this one is barely extra nerve-racking”. “I’m from the UK, the place everyone seems to be extra supportive and it’s extra industrial,” she instructed AFP. “However right here, that is actually what Delight ought to be,” she added, referring to the societal battle on the origins of the motion.
“We’re preventing for the way forward for this nation,” mentioned Luka, a Serbian collaborating in Saturday’s occasion.
Regardless of the official ban, demonstrators had been in a position to march within the rain a number of hundred metres between the constitutional courtroom to a close-by park, a a lot shorter route than organisers had initially deliberate.
Homosexual marriage just isn’t legally recognised in Serbia, the place homophobia stays deep-seated regardless of some progress through the years in decreasing discrimination.
The Balkan nation, a candidate for EU membership, had been beneath intense worldwide stress to permit the march. Greater than 20 embassies – together with the US, France and Britain – had issued a joint assertion urging the authorities to carry the ban.
There was a heavy police presence across the Delight rally, with officers pushing again small teams of counter-demonstrators waving crosses and spiritual insignia.
The inside ministry mentioned 31 folks had been arrested. The authorities gave no particulars on these detained, however AFP journalists noticed a number of counter-demonstrators being taken away.
In response to N1 tv, there have been scuffles between police and the counter-demonstrators, a few of whom threw smoke bombs on the officers and broken a number of autos.
The US embassy had urged its residents to keep away from the occasion “due to the potential for unruly crowds, violence, in addition to potential fines”.
Human rights teams and the EU had referred to as on the Serbian authorities to rescind the ban.
“The Serbian authorities’s determination to cancel EuroPride is a shameful give up to, and implicit sanctioning of, bigotry and threats of illegal violence,” mentioned Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT rights programme at Human Rights Watch.
At the very least 15 members of the European parliament introduced that they’d be part of the Delight march in a present of solidarity.
Belgrade Delight marches in 2001 and once more in 2010 had been marred by violence and rioting after far-right teams focused the occasion. Since 2014, the parade has been organised repeatedly with none notable unrest, however with a big legislation enforcement presence.
This 12 months’s ban got here simply days after 1000’s took half in an anti-Delight demonstration in Belgrade, with biker gangs, Orthodox clergymen and far-right nationalists demanding that the EuroPride rally be scrapped.