Gay Times Article on research mission to Serbia Bosnia and Kossovo
18/09/2007
By
ILGA-Europe
During its recent mission to Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Front Line met leading human rights defenders working for equal rights for LGBT people across the region. They all spoke of the pressures and dangers of working on LGBT issues and you can hear their own first hand experience in this article published in the September issue of the UK's Gay Times, Europe's largest gay magazine. Read the full text of the article below.
“ We are not living in peace – we are living in the absence of war”
Branka Inić Director, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.
It may be 40 degrees but Belgrade is a cool city. The boulevards are full of smartly dressed people checking each other out and watching the world go by from the terraces of cafés. But while Belgrade may at first glance appear like any other city basking in the summer heat the shadows of the war in the - as it was then - Former Yugoslavia - are never far away . Certainly Serbia's dark side did not disappear with Milosovic and you don't have to scratch very hard to find it .
Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders based in Dublin, traveled recently to Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo to assess the risks for human rights defenders and in particular looked at the threats to women's groups, journalists and LGBTIQ activists.
Belgrade is very pleasant provided of course that you don't rock the boat. If you are white, Serbian, nationalist, straight and orthodox then you shouldn't have any problems . If however you insist on challenging the government to bring those responsible for war crimes to justice or if you are a journalist foolish enough to investigate the murky links between government, big business and organized crime then you could be in trouble. If you belong to a women's rights group or are active on issues for lesbian, gay or transgender people then the risks increase exponentially, particularly if you cross ethnic lines..
Serbia is a deeply homophobic society where to be openly gay is enough to attract the attention of right wing and neo-fascist groups. While the new constitution is considered by many to be a very progressive piece of legislation it makes no explicit mention of sexual orientation and whatever slim zone of tolerance applies to general human rights defenders does not apply to members of sexual minorities.
Despite 25 years of LGBT activism homosexuality was criminalized until 1994 and there are no more than a max of 10 members of the LGBTIQ who are publicly out. As a result the pressure and aggression therefore falls mainly on a small group of human rights defenders. In recent months gay people have been regularly attacked. Boris Milićević is the Director of Gay Straight Alliance and because he is one of the few gays who are publicly out has been spat at in the street, refused service in restaurants and on occasion attacked. He and a friend had been to a party in a restaurant when a group of skinheads recognized Boris from television and attacked them. They were both injured but could not make a complaint because his friend was not out to his family.
When he complained to the owner of the restaurant, the reply he got was, "what do you expect - this is not New York". A recent survey of gay people showed that 70 per cent of those interviewed had been physically assaulted or knew someone who had.
But there is resistance to the intimidation. As Boris says, "we have to step out of the moment of fear . . . we have chosen the course we want to pursue. We know that the people who oppose us are very strong, but we rely on the support of the people."
One gay defender received death threats on her phone and these were also written on her apartment door and on the walls near where she lives. She approached the police three times but each time they said it was nothing to do with them. In fact the only thing they seem interested in was finding out if there were any gay police officers. The only solution for gay rights defenders is to make such a public fuss that the authorities have to do something. As a general rule the police don't go into gay bars in Belgrade but in smaller towns like Nis they regularly go in and look for id. The police justify this on the basis that they have to keep a watch on all “subversive groups”. All too often this information “leaks” into the hands of rights wing groups and then people find themselves outed or out of a job . There is even a part of the new constitution that says that the police can forbid any event that is “against moral values”.
Women in Black have often provided a safe space for transsexual and transgender people to be active in opposition to the politics of the war. As a result Women in Black are a particular bug bear of the right. In January 2007 a group of skinheads attacked Violeta Djikanović and Milos Urosevnić who were distributing human rights material. One of the attackers said of UrosevnićLook at him - what a faggot. He's from Women in Black............... In the attack Violeta Djikanović was thrown down the stairs and suffered head injuries.
As we were driving out of Belgrade en route to Sarajevo a flurry of text messages began. News had just broken that a gay man in Novi Sad (about one hour from Belgrade) had just announced plans to hold a gay pride event to coincide with the Exit music festival which attracted about 35,000 people from all over Europe. Almost immediately the neo-fascist web sites began to hum with e-mails about how they were all going to go to Novi Sad “to kill the faggots”.
The road to Sarajevo leads through Srebrenica, Visegrad and Bratunac all sites of massacres, rape centers and mass graves respectively. The horrific memories evoked contrast with the spectacular scenary. Sarajevo is picture post card pretty with cobbled streets, minarets and a hum of foreign languages in contrast with the occasional bullet riddled building and the ruin of the once beautiful National Library.
It seems that there are no overt threats to human rights defenders but when discussing the possibility of having pride in Sarajevoit gradually emerges that there is a fear that even if there is no outright violence there may be a very negative reaction which could be counter productive. Foundation Cure are trying to set up a network of local groups throughout Bosnia Herzegovina so that young gay people can feel safe and which might create the circumstances in the future for them to come out.
The activists with Q in Sarajevo have recently published a book of 25 stories of people from different backgrounds discovering their sexual identity. Svetlana and Boba explain how they don't see any really direct threat. Then they go on to explain that they had to leave their last office because of hassle from neighbours. As one of the few publicly out members of the community in Sarajevo Boba will only go out on her own with her cross looking dog. “ he's sweet really but the important thing is that he looks cross so that people don't approach you in the street”. The events they organize are fairly low key such as party nights and photo exhibitions. When they organize more public events they have to organize security. In the past when their address was on the web site they got threats that neo-fascists were going to come and smash up the offices. Svetlana is worried about her mother who is more vulnerable. At a recent public lecture organized by a “wahabi” group the speaker said that “all gay people and those who support them should be killed - thrown off the tallest building”.While the threat may not be very generally explicit at the moment there is a fear that if they get a higher public profile the various religious groups may unite against them .The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights is one of the few organisations which will publicly support them while some of the new wave feminists complain that “people call us lesbians”. Lack of solidarity among ngos is one of the main problems for human rights defenders.
“In Kosovo it is very easy to get killed”
Almost every building between the Kosovo border and the capital Pristina is in the process of
being rebuilt. Even the capital looks in severe need of reconstruction. Qesh is a small gay rights organization which has chosen not to register yet because if they do they have to show their membership list to the authorities. They focus mainly on awareness raising campaigns and see the threat to them as coming mainly from society not the government. However as the government is at the moment totally preoccupied with the issue of possible independence for Kosovo this may change in the future.
At New Year 2005 two gay men were badly beaten up and robbed in Pristina. When the police eventually came they were abusive and one of them said “I wish I'd been there to see it. And when they went to the hospital he said “we brought you some faggots”.Recently members of a Wahabi group have been targeting cruising areas. They will place a younger man in situ and if he is approached will come out with sticks and knives. While the response of the police is still sporadic the police in Kosovo have now made lgbt discrimination a disciplinary offense and have set up a separate liaison unit so that if gay people are attacked they do not have to go through the normal police procedures. Since then one police officer has been dismissed and others disciplined. However attacks on gay people continue and few of them make it to court either because people don't want to be outed or through fear of further harassment. Often attacks on gay people are reported as muggings so the number of cases is under reported.
Recently a young man, who was one of the first to come out publicly in Pristina, committed suicide. He had appeared on a youth programme on TV and since then had suffered repeated discrimination and harassment. He was also refused service in a local café . Because he was considered effeminate many gay people did not want to be seen with him either in case they would be outed too so he suffered double discrimination. Human Rights Defender KZ received extremely graphic threats from someone who signed himself “sharp knife”. The police said the threat was not serious and even though they did eventually initiate an investigation KZ felt he had no choice but to leave the country. A friend of his had his throat slashed in a Pristina bar and he too has had to leave the country.
Across the region LGBT people are at the bottom of the political pile along with members of ethnic minorities and those who want to investigate abuses and war crimes from the past. Members of parliament, certain sections of the media and religious leaders are overtly homophobic and help to create a climate in which violence against lgbt people is tolerated and even actively encouraged. It is no surprise then that attacks occur regularly and that gay people are extremely cautious about putting their heads over the parapet.
“ We are not living in peace – we are living in the absence of war”
Branka Inić Director, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.
It may be 40 degrees but Belgrade is a cool city. The boulevards are full of smartly dressed people checking each other out and watching the world go by from the terraces of cafés. But while Belgrade may at first glance appear like any other city basking in the summer heat the shadows of the war in the - as it was then - Former Yugoslavia - are never far away . Certainly Serbia's dark side did not disappear with Milosovic and you don't have to scratch very hard to find it .
Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders based in Dublin, traveled recently to Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo to assess the risks for human rights defenders and in particular looked at the threats to women's groups, journalists and LGBTIQ activists.
Belgrade is very pleasant provided of course that you don't rock the boat. If you are white, Serbian, nationalist, straight and orthodox then you shouldn't have any problems . If however you insist on challenging the government to bring those responsible for war crimes to justice or if you are a journalist foolish enough to investigate the murky links between government, big business and organized crime then you could be in trouble. If you belong to a women's rights group or are active on issues for lesbian, gay or transgender people then the risks increase exponentially, particularly if you cross ethnic lines..
Serbia is a deeply homophobic society where to be openly gay is enough to attract the attention of right wing and neo-fascist groups. While the new constitution is considered by many to be a very progressive piece of legislation it makes no explicit mention of sexual orientation and whatever slim zone of tolerance applies to general human rights defenders does not apply to members of sexual minorities.
Despite 25 years of LGBT activism homosexuality was criminalized until 1994 and there are no more than a max of 10 members of the LGBTIQ who are publicly out. As a result the pressure and aggression therefore falls mainly on a small group of human rights defenders. In recent months gay people have been regularly attacked. Boris Milićević is the Director of Gay Straight Alliance and because he is one of the few gays who are publicly out has been spat at in the street, refused service in restaurants and on occasion attacked. He and a friend had been to a party in a restaurant when a group of skinheads recognized Boris from television and attacked them. They were both injured but could not make a complaint because his friend was not out to his family.
When he complained to the owner of the restaurant, the reply he got was, "what do you expect - this is not New York". A recent survey of gay people showed that 70 per cent of those interviewed had been physically assaulted or knew someone who had.
But there is resistance to the intimidation. As Boris says, "we have to step out of the moment of fear . . . we have chosen the course we want to pursue. We know that the people who oppose us are very strong, but we rely on the support of the people."
One gay defender received death threats on her phone and these were also written on her apartment door and on the walls near where she lives. She approached the police three times but each time they said it was nothing to do with them. In fact the only thing they seem interested in was finding out if there were any gay police officers. The only solution for gay rights defenders is to make such a public fuss that the authorities have to do something. As a general rule the police don't go into gay bars in Belgrade but in smaller towns like Nis they regularly go in and look for id. The police justify this on the basis that they have to keep a watch on all “subversive groups”. All too often this information “leaks” into the hands of rights wing groups and then people find themselves outed or out of a job . There is even a part of the new constitution that says that the police can forbid any event that is “against moral values”.
Women in Black have often provided a safe space for transsexual and transgender people to be active in opposition to the politics of the war. As a result Women in Black are a particular bug bear of the right. In January 2007 a group of skinheads attacked Violeta Djikanović and Milos Urosevnić who were distributing human rights material. One of the attackers said of UrosevnićLook at him - what a faggot. He's from Women in Black............... In the attack Violeta Djikanović was thrown down the stairs and suffered head injuries.
As we were driving out of Belgrade en route to Sarajevo a flurry of text messages began. News had just broken that a gay man in Novi Sad (about one hour from Belgrade) had just announced plans to hold a gay pride event to coincide with the Exit music festival which attracted about 35,000 people from all over Europe. Almost immediately the neo-fascist web sites began to hum with e-mails about how they were all going to go to Novi Sad “to kill the faggots”.
The road to Sarajevo leads through Srebrenica, Visegrad and Bratunac all sites of massacres, rape centers and mass graves respectively. The horrific memories evoked contrast with the spectacular scenary. Sarajevo is picture post card pretty with cobbled streets, minarets and a hum of foreign languages in contrast with the occasional bullet riddled building and the ruin of the once beautiful National Library.
It seems that there are no overt threats to human rights defenders but when discussing the possibility of having pride in Sarajevoit gradually emerges that there is a fear that even if there is no outright violence there may be a very negative reaction which could be counter productive. Foundation Cure are trying to set up a network of local groups throughout Bosnia Herzegovina so that young gay people can feel safe and which might create the circumstances in the future for them to come out.
The activists with Q in Sarajevo have recently published a book of 25 stories of people from different backgrounds discovering their sexual identity. Svetlana and Boba explain how they don't see any really direct threat. Then they go on to explain that they had to leave their last office because of hassle from neighbours. As one of the few publicly out members of the community in Sarajevo Boba will only go out on her own with her cross looking dog. “ he's sweet really but the important thing is that he looks cross so that people don't approach you in the street”. The events they organize are fairly low key such as party nights and photo exhibitions. When they organize more public events they have to organize security. In the past when their address was on the web site they got threats that neo-fascists were going to come and smash up the offices. Svetlana is worried about her mother who is more vulnerable. At a recent public lecture organized by a “wahabi” group the speaker said that “all gay people and those who support them should be killed - thrown off the tallest building”.While the threat may not be very generally explicit at the moment there is a fear that if they get a higher public profile the various religious groups may unite against them .The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights is one of the few organisations which will publicly support them while some of the new wave feminists complain that “people call us lesbians”. Lack of solidarity among ngos is one of the main problems for human rights defenders.
“In Kosovo it is very easy to get killed”
Almost every building between the Kosovo border and the capital Pristina is in the process of
being rebuilt. Even the capital looks in severe need of reconstruction. Qesh is a small gay rights organization which has chosen not to register yet because if they do they have to show their membership list to the authorities. They focus mainly on awareness raising campaigns and see the threat to them as coming mainly from society not the government. However as the government is at the moment totally preoccupied with the issue of possible independence for Kosovo this may change in the future.
At New Year 2005 two gay men were badly beaten up and robbed in Pristina. When the police eventually came they were abusive and one of them said “I wish I'd been there to see it. And when they went to the hospital he said “we brought you some faggots”.Recently members of a Wahabi group have been targeting cruising areas. They will place a younger man in situ and if he is approached will come out with sticks and knives. While the response of the police is still sporadic the police in Kosovo have now made lgbt discrimination a disciplinary offense and have set up a separate liaison unit so that if gay people are attacked they do not have to go through the normal police procedures. Since then one police officer has been dismissed and others disciplined. However attacks on gay people continue and few of them make it to court either because people don't want to be outed or through fear of further harassment. Often attacks on gay people are reported as muggings so the number of cases is under reported.
Recently a young man, who was one of the first to come out publicly in Pristina, committed suicide. He had appeared on a youth programme on TV and since then had suffered repeated discrimination and harassment. He was also refused service in a local café . Because he was considered effeminate many gay people did not want to be seen with him either in case they would be outed too so he suffered double discrimination. Human Rights Defender KZ received extremely graphic threats from someone who signed himself “sharp knife”. The police said the threat was not serious and even though they did eventually initiate an investigation KZ felt he had no choice but to leave the country. A friend of his had his throat slashed in a Pristina bar and he too has had to leave the country.
Across the region LGBT people are at the bottom of the political pile along with members of ethnic minorities and those who want to investigate abuses and war crimes from the past. Members of parliament, certain sections of the media and religious leaders are overtly homophobic and help to create a climate in which violence against lgbt people is tolerated and even actively encouraged. It is no surprise then that attacks occur regularly and that gay people are extremely cautious about putting their heads over the parapet.
