100 people demonstrated yesterday, at the 2nd of october in front of the serbian embassy in
athens. here is the text that we demonstrated and some photos.
Belgrade’s
Pride Parade for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender men and women
was organized to take place on Sunday, the 20th of September 2009, at
the main square of Belgrade. The day before the Parade, on Saturday
morning, the Pride’s organizing committee received a letter from the
Prime Minister which was informing them that the Parade was prohibited
for “security reasons”. The Serbian authorities refused to guarantee
the safety of the Parade’s participants by controlling the fascist
groups that had planned an anti-parade in order to disrupt the lgbt
demonstration. The police declared that they were not in position to
protect the Pride March of the lgbt and queer community and revoked the
permit.
During
this last month, and as Pride was approaching, the Serbian mass media
were giving voice daily to representatives of far-right groups, who
reproduced through hate speech a culture of hatred and threatened lgbt
and queer activists and their allies. The city’s streets were filled
with nationalistic and homophobic slogans, while groups of fascists
were threatening, terrorizing and attacking people that “looked
different” to them. Despite the situation the organizers were not
intimidated and did not step back; however, the Serbian authorities
did, as they chose in the end not to confront the fascist and
homophobic ideology on which a big part of Serbian society is based.
On
Sunday, the day of the arranged but now forbidden Pride Parade, the
city was overtaken by groups of fascists. The police arrested 46 people
who were carrying knives, iron knuckles and flashbang grenades, ready
for their “revenge hunt”.
This was the third attempt in eight
years to organize a public demonstration of lgbt and queer groups in
Belgrade. In 2001, the first time Belgrade’s lgbt community tried to
take the streets to fight for its visibility, fascist gangs attacked
and seriously injured people that were walking towards the meeting
place for the Parade; amongst them people that were just passing
through that area of the city. Back then the police was present and did
nothing to stop the beatings. In 2004, the second attempt was cancelled
by the organizers themselves, as the police refused to cooperate on all
levels and the threats of the fascists went beyond limits.
The
ideology of nationalism, of national purity and supremacy, is what arms
the violence against anyone who does not conform to the nationalistic
dogma. Those who do not align themselves with the vision of nationalism
are attacked because their life-practices refuse to reproduce the
values responsible for the structuring of a national identity. For us
this is of course a very familiar characteristic of greek society,
where institutions like religion and the nuclear family are the ones
that support ‘national coherence’. Identities like the ‘good patriot’,
the ‘faithful orthodox’, the ‘greek mother’ and the ‘virile man’ are
constructed according to institutional and social mandates and it is
them that safeguard social norms.
We stand in solidarity with
the comrades from Serbia, who are fighting for the freedom of
expression of sexual desire and self-determination of our bodies.
We stand with them against homophobia, conservatism, and the social apathy which supports terror and violence.
Open Assembly of Solidarity
Athens, 1/10/2009
Pride March 2009 Is Banned
Belgrade Pride 2009 Organizing Committee would like to declare that,
during the meeting with the Serbian Prime Minister today (19th of september), they were
issued an official decree signed by the Head of Serbian Police, Milorad
Veljovi?, which states that the public safety corps of the Republic of
Serbia are not able to ensure the Constitutional right for a peaceful
assembly on the Square in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in
Belgrade.
Even though the decree given by the Ministry of the
Interior is written in the form of a recommendation for the change of
location of the Pride March to the Belgrade estuary (Uš?e), or in front
of the Palata Srbije, a government building and home of many state
ministries, it is absolutely unmistakeable that the Pride March 2009
has been banned. Despite the declarations of support given by the
highest representatives of the government, in which they exalt the
freedom of any and all social groups, LGBT community included, to
publicly manifest their demands, the government did not put money where
its mouth is. There was no act to support the rhetoric.
This
decree is a formal admittance of the government sections of the
Republic of Serbia that they are not able to adequately prevent and
sanction the threats coming from the clero-fascist organizations, nor
are they able to ensure the constitutional rights and freedoms of the
citizens who publicly announced their legal assembly.
The
Organizing Committee states that despite this ban of the Pride March,
Serbian public has been given a clear answer to the question of
equality in our society. This epilogue presents an obligation for all
governmental and non-governmental structures, media, LGBT community,
and above all, the Public Prosecutors and Judicial corps of Republic of
Serbia, to form a strong platform of fight for attainment of LGBT human
rights, which were taken away by this ban. The government must
immediately and energetically prosecute persons and organizations which
committed the criminal acts of calling for a lynch of an entire part of
the Serbian population.
Now it is on the representatives of
the Government of the Republic of Serbia to fulfil the promise given by
the Prime Minister Cvetkovi? who said that, starting with Monday,
September 21st, a strong communication with the LGBT organizations will
be established. He also promised that a more positive atmosphere in the
society will be created and all relevant security prerequisites will be
fulfilled to ensure that the Pride March can be held at the same
location where it is being held in the rest of the world – in the
centre of the capital.
The State failed the fundamental test,
the next exam period is approaching fast. The Republic of Serbia has
capitulated, we have not.
Belgrade Pride 2009 Organizing Committee
see also (in german):
http://a3yo.noblogs.org/post/2009/08/17/belgrad-pride-2009
http://a3yo.noblogs.org/post/2009/05/27/sexuelle-orientierung-und-ffentlichkeit-in-s-dosteuropa
