Violence – In the Name of What?
03/10/2008
Submitted by
Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities
The Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities fiercely condemns the terrifying and gruesome events that took place on Wednesday, September, the 27th, 2008 in Sarajevo during the opening of the first Queer Sarajevo Festival and characterizes them as a radical expression of violence and an extreme case of violation of human rights and ethical and humane priciples.
On the 29th of September, the first ever Queer festival in Bosnia, organized by the NGO “Udruzenje Q” – “Society Q”, was open in the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Bosnia, under the motto “okreni okvir” – a pun literally translated as turn the frame around.
The basic aim of the festival was the promotion of differences, equality and struggle against discrimination against LGBT population and all marginalized groups by means of art and culture.
This Queer Festival in Sarajevo was historic not only for the courage of its organization to go through with the first edition of the festival, but also for the unfortunate horrifying events which accompanied the opening. A mob of 150 people, most of them young cheerleaders, hooligans and members of the Muslim sect Vehabi, armed with stones, knives and guns, issued brutal physical aggression on the guests at the opening of the festival, at the moment of their exiting from the Academy. According to Vehabis’ statements, the attack was motivated by the insult issued on their feelings with organizing this kind of festival during the holy month of Ramadan. Although organizers publicly pointed out that the festival has no intention of offending anybody, and that the purpose of the festival is to raise consciousness through arts and culture, the outcome was monstrous. There were at least eight people injured, six of which were hospitalized with severe injuries, including journalists, foreigners and one police officer.
People were being forcefully dragged out of their cars and severely beaten, while in the background slogans were shouted promoting hatred speech, such as “Alahu Akbar” – “God is the greatest” and “Kill the fagots”. A large group of people/attackers pelted stones on the people who were arriving at the opening ceremony. All these people were brutally attacked, beaten up and severely injured. A young man was brutally kicked, that he had his nose broken; nevertheless, the attacker continued to beat him with a gun until he lost consciousness. Several other people had their heads injured, while one man suffered from internal bleeding. The police, 15 in number, were not able to tackle the attackers, and did not take any special measures to stop the attack and protect the guests present at the opening. This horrible event was the materialization of the proliferation of hatred speech and homophobia by most influential Bosnian media, politicians, religious fanatics, nationalists and bloggers.
The private addresses of the organizers of the festival were published, and this was followed by personal threats to organizers. A day before the festival, Sarajevo was inundated with posters containing Qur’an quotations encumbered with hatred speech against homosexuality and posters with references to a homosexuality survey of 1940, from the Family Research Institute. The same survey was translated and published on the Zdravodrustvo website created only a day before the festival, thus directly inciting hatred and intolerance towards homosexuals.
The Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities appeals to the Macedonian public, the media, NGOs, artists, cultural workers and government representatives to publicly condemn the events in Sarajevo and to address Bosnian authorities and international representatives to investigate and condemn the attacks, threats and all kinds of violence against homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender people and other marginalized groups.
The coalition is raising the question for revision of traditional and dominant values that which result with hatred and violence, and calls for triggering public consciousness for equality, difference and respect towards all the people regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, physical disability, social status, ethnic and national background, health status, political affiliation, religious conviction and so forth. At the same time, we are posing the question of which lives are to be considered worth living and for how long? What kind of violence will be recognized as such? Whose sorrows and loves will be recognized and acknowledged? And, ultimately, if love, God and ethics exclude violence, then in the name of what can such violence be approved of?
On the 29th of September, the first ever Queer festival in Bosnia, organized by the NGO “Udruzenje Q” – “Society Q”, was open in the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Bosnia, under the motto “okreni okvir” – a pun literally translated as turn the frame around.
The basic aim of the festival was the promotion of differences, equality and struggle against discrimination against LGBT population and all marginalized groups by means of art and culture.
This Queer Festival in Sarajevo was historic not only for the courage of its organization to go through with the first edition of the festival, but also for the unfortunate horrifying events which accompanied the opening. A mob of 150 people, most of them young cheerleaders, hooligans and members of the Muslim sect Vehabi, armed with stones, knives and guns, issued brutal physical aggression on the guests at the opening of the festival, at the moment of their exiting from the Academy. According to Vehabis’ statements, the attack was motivated by the insult issued on their feelings with organizing this kind of festival during the holy month of Ramadan. Although organizers publicly pointed out that the festival has no intention of offending anybody, and that the purpose of the festival is to raise consciousness through arts and culture, the outcome was monstrous. There were at least eight people injured, six of which were hospitalized with severe injuries, including journalists, foreigners and one police officer.
People were being forcefully dragged out of their cars and severely beaten, while in the background slogans were shouted promoting hatred speech, such as “Alahu Akbar” – “God is the greatest” and “Kill the fagots”. A large group of people/attackers pelted stones on the people who were arriving at the opening ceremony. All these people were brutally attacked, beaten up and severely injured. A young man was brutally kicked, that he had his nose broken; nevertheless, the attacker continued to beat him with a gun until he lost consciousness. Several other people had their heads injured, while one man suffered from internal bleeding. The police, 15 in number, were not able to tackle the attackers, and did not take any special measures to stop the attack and protect the guests present at the opening. This horrible event was the materialization of the proliferation of hatred speech and homophobia by most influential Bosnian media, politicians, religious fanatics, nationalists and bloggers.
The private addresses of the organizers of the festival were published, and this was followed by personal threats to organizers. A day before the festival, Sarajevo was inundated with posters containing Qur’an quotations encumbered with hatred speech against homosexuality and posters with references to a homosexuality survey of 1940, from the Family Research Institute. The same survey was translated and published on the Zdravodrustvo website created only a day before the festival, thus directly inciting hatred and intolerance towards homosexuals.
The Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities appeals to the Macedonian public, the media, NGOs, artists, cultural workers and government representatives to publicly condemn the events in Sarajevo and to address Bosnian authorities and international representatives to investigate and condemn the attacks, threats and all kinds of violence against homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender people and other marginalized groups.
The coalition is raising the question for revision of traditional and dominant values that which result with hatred and violence, and calls for triggering public consciousness for equality, difference and respect towards all the people regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, physical disability, social status, ethnic and national background, health status, political affiliation, religious conviction and so forth. At the same time, we are posing the question of which lives are to be considered worth living and for how long? What kind of violence will be recognized as such? Whose sorrows and loves will be recognized and acknowledged? And, ultimately, if love, God and ethics exclude violence, then in the name of what can such violence be approved of?
