Croatian capital gears up for Gay Pride after Split violence
21/06/2011
Submitted by
ILGA-Europe
Original article: http://www.france24.com/en/201106...ears-gay-pride-after-split-violence#
AFP - Croatia's capital Zagreb is gearing up for its 10th Gay Pride Parade on Saturday a week after a similar event in provincial Split ended in violence, with organisers predicting it will escape trouble.
"We hope that everything will go peacefully, joyfully and with dignity. We only demand that the police act in accordance with Croatian law" and prevent attacks on the participants, organiser Franko Dota told AFP Friday.
"We expect the biggest Gay Pride Parade held here with more than 1,000 participants" who will march through downtown Zagreb, he added.
Police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said the participants would be accompanied by the largest police escort so far. He refused to elaborate on numbers but said police would react swiftly and immediately detain those who might try to provoke an incident.
Croatia's first pride parade was held in 2002, when more than a dozen participants were beaten up afterwards.
Since then, parades have been held in the capital annually without major incidents, but always under heavy security.
Last Saturday, a dozen people, including four journalists, were injured in the attacks on some 200 participants of the first Gay Pride parade in Split, a stronghold of nationalist conservatives in southern Croatia.
Some 10,000 opponents of the event hurled stones, bottles, bricks, cigarette lighters and stones at the marchers, who had to be eventually evacuated by police vehicles.
Police have arrested some 28 people suspected of taking part in the violence that occurred just a day after the European Commission gave the Balkan country the green light to complete EU accession talks and become the bloc's next member on July 1, 2013.
The violence in Split was strongly condemned by President Ivo Josipovic, who said the Zagreb march would be "another test for a democratic Croatia," as well as by main opposition parties, politicians, public figures, non-governmental organisations and Western ambassadors here.
The United Nations representatives here called on "all parties to show tolerance and respect for diversity during the Zagreb Pride."
"The UN in Croatia is convinced that the violence and aggressive behavior demonstrated by protesters in Split ... is not the true face of Croatia," a statement said.
Croatia's society is still largely patriarchal and the powerful Roman Catholic Church has publicly branded homosexuality a "handicap" and a "perversion."
Commenting the violence in Split, a well-known local theologian said gays "got what they were looking for."
However, the Croatian Bishops' Conference condemned "any kind of violence" and stressed that "no one has to right to justify violence with belonging to the Catholic Church or Catholic religion."
Almost 88 percent of the former Yugoslav republic's population of 4.4 million are Roman Catholics.
AFP - Croatia's capital Zagreb is gearing up for its 10th Gay Pride Parade on Saturday a week after a similar event in provincial Split ended in violence, with organisers predicting it will escape trouble.
"We hope that everything will go peacefully, joyfully and with dignity. We only demand that the police act in accordance with Croatian law" and prevent attacks on the participants, organiser Franko Dota told AFP Friday.
"We expect the biggest Gay Pride Parade held here with more than 1,000 participants" who will march through downtown Zagreb, he added.
Police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said the participants would be accompanied by the largest police escort so far. He refused to elaborate on numbers but said police would react swiftly and immediately detain those who might try to provoke an incident.
Croatia's first pride parade was held in 2002, when more than a dozen participants were beaten up afterwards.
Since then, parades have been held in the capital annually without major incidents, but always under heavy security.
Last Saturday, a dozen people, including four journalists, were injured in the attacks on some 200 participants of the first Gay Pride parade in Split, a stronghold of nationalist conservatives in southern Croatia.
Some 10,000 opponents of the event hurled stones, bottles, bricks, cigarette lighters and stones at the marchers, who had to be eventually evacuated by police vehicles.
Police have arrested some 28 people suspected of taking part in the violence that occurred just a day after the European Commission gave the Balkan country the green light to complete EU accession talks and become the bloc's next member on July 1, 2013.
The violence in Split was strongly condemned by President Ivo Josipovic, who said the Zagreb march would be "another test for a democratic Croatia," as well as by main opposition parties, politicians, public figures, non-governmental organisations and Western ambassadors here.
The United Nations representatives here called on "all parties to show tolerance and respect for diversity during the Zagreb Pride."
"The UN in Croatia is convinced that the violence and aggressive behavior demonstrated by protesters in Split ... is not the true face of Croatia," a statement said.
Croatia's society is still largely patriarchal and the powerful Roman Catholic Church has publicly branded homosexuality a "handicap" and a "perversion."
Commenting the violence in Split, a well-known local theologian said gays "got what they were looking for."
However, the Croatian Bishops' Conference condemned "any kind of violence" and stressed that "no one has to right to justify violence with belonging to the Catholic Church or Catholic religion."
Almost 88 percent of the former Yugoslav republic's population of 4.4 million are Roman Catholics.
