Protesters clash with police at Romania gay parade

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09656251.htm

BUCHAREST, June 9 (Reuters) - Romanian riot police detained dozens of militant protesters on Saturday as hundreds tried to violently break up a gay rights march in the capital, Bucharest.

Around 500 gay activists marched through the city to demonstrate against discrimination in this essentially conservative country and to call for the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

Police fired tear gas to hold the protesters at bay after hundreds threw stones and attempted to break through protective cordons manned by 700 officers.

Gays are viewed with hostility by much of the public as many people in the country of 22 million largely accept the powerful Orthodox church's view of homosexuality as a sin and a disease.

"No one was hurt during the parade, we detained dozens of violent (any-gay) protesters," police spokesman Christian Ciocan told Reuters.

"We deeply regret that our opponents use violent ways to express themselves. Our march was peaceful," Florin Buhuceanu, one of the parade organisers told Realitatea TV.

Although homosexuality is legal in Romania, which joined the European Union this year, thousands were jailed during the communist era after a 1968 ban.

Hundreds more were sent to prison after the 1989 bloody revolution which ousted Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Bucharest gay-rights marchers attacked, police intervene

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=9659

The counter-protestors, many of whom were hooded or masked, pelted the gay-rights parade with cobblestones, rubbish, eggs and tomatoes, and 108 people suspected of involvement in the violence were arrested.
There were no initial reports of injuries.
Police said that about half of the people arrested were juveniles, and most of the suspects were expected only to face fines on charges of disturbing public order. The attackers were not identified as part of any organized group.
At least 300 people were taking part in the march, which was part of a cultural event, Gay Fest 2007, in the city. The marchers were under the protection of at least 400 police officers.
The march was organized by Accept, a Romanian gay-rights advocacy group.

Comments by Maxim Anmeghichean, ILGA-Europe's Programmes Director from Bucharest Pride

A counter march took part in the morning of Saturday with some 300 people, extreme right, neo-nazis and Orthodox priests together screaming "no to faggots" and carrying homophobic slogans. They were met on the way of the march by left activists (not ACCEPT) with posters saying "All Different - All Equal". This is where the clashes occured.

The march itself started at 17:00, and some 400 participants took part, LGBT and their supporters, protected by some 800 policemen. It lasted for 1,5 hours, and attempts were made by extreme right to "intervene" in the march and attack the participants. But the police did a very professional work, and being in the march one could only hear the incidents and not see them. The participants were guarded by tall iron police trucks on one side, which, being literally half a meter behind each other, formed a protection fence, behind which most of the violence occured. And hundreds of policemen stood on the other side of the march, also forming a "live fence of protection". Knowing that most of the attacks on the LGBT community happened last year in the metro stations after the end of the march, the police was heavily present there, and before alloing pride participants to get down into the metro, "cleared" it from neo-nazis and ensured safety. As of the end of Sunday, no reports of attacks on pride participants after the march were received.

The day's aftermath after both marches is some 100 neo-nazis arrested. Police promissed to bring charges against all of them, both criminal and administrative. ACCEPT's vice-president Florin Buhuceanu in conversation with me said that the police this year performed its job very professionally. Having been there, I can say that the pride march was a big success (although due to fear of attacks participants were fewer by a hundred in comparison to last year), very colorful, empowering, and protected with much professionalism (one could really see the effort) by the police.

Romanian example shows that prides can take place in hostile environments with minimal risks for its participants, if there is a political will. Russia, Moldova and a number of other countries certainly have a lot to learn. Great progress decriminalisation of homosexuality in Romania only in six years!

More news items in Romanian at ACCEPT website: http://www.accept-romania.ro/