Thousands riot against Belgrade pride and trash the city

Thousands of anti-gay hooligans tried without success to stop the first LGBT pride parade in nine years in Belgrade, Serbia, Oct. 10.

However, the rioting anti-gays laid waste to parts of the capital city and injured more than 130 police officers by throwing bricks, rocks, bottles
and Molotov cocktails.

They burned cars, hijacked a bus, broke windows, looted, set alight the
ruling party’s headquarters, and attacked and damaged other political
parties’ offices, the state television building and embassies.

They chanted, “Death to homosexuals.”

More than 5,000 police officers kept the marauding gangs from making
contact with the 1,000 LGBT marchers. More than 200 of the rioters were
arrested.

“Inside the (secure) zone (of the parade) it was peaceful, with most of
the pride participants unaware of the battles going on,” Andy Harley of UK
Gay News said from the scene.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said the hooligans all will be arrested and
brought to justice.

“No one threatening public order, attacking police and destroying public
property will go unpunished,” he said.

The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and
Intersex Association said: “ILGA-Europe wants to express its gratitude to
Serbian police for impeccable conduct of their duty. We express our
deepest sympathy to those police representatives and their family members
who suffered injuries.”

The group also said it is “concerned that despite heavy police protection,
the March for Equality was shortened and participants of the march were
completely isolated from the general public.”

“We believe the next challenge for the Serbian authorities and the police
will be to ensure the proportionality of security measures with the true
spirit of free assembly — delivering a message which on this occasion was
compromised,” ILGA said.

Last year’s planned pride march was canceled under pressure from police

and the government, who said they couldn’t protect the marchers from

thousands of anti-gays who planned to attack the event.

The first Belgrade pride parade, in 2001, ended with dozens of marchers
injured by marauding nationalists, skinheads and soccer fans.