Belgrade - Eight years after the first and only gay pride parade in Belgrade ended in beatings and street violence, gay activists in Serbia plan to hold another one on Sunday, despite the warnings of extremists, the Orthodox Church and certain politicians. The parade is seen as a test for the country's pro-Western politicians, who are promoting the country's future membership in the European Union and greater tolerance.
The Serbian government said in a statement Thursday that authorities will defend the right of every citizen to freedom of expression and urged calm during the event
The government promised to provide several thousand police officers for protection after several ultra right wing groups threatened to break up the march and beat the participants, as they did during the last parade in 2001.
Dragan Djilas, the mayor of Belgrade, expressed disagreement with the aims of the parade but defended the right to free expression.
"We are calling the authorities and representatives of all institutions in Serbia to join us because September 20 will be the test of democracy for Serbia," Dragana Vuckovic, one of the organizers, told journalists in Belgrade.
So far only the leader of the small opposition Liberal Democratic Party, Cedomir Jovanovic, said he and his family will participate.
In the highly traditional and conservative Serbian society, homosexuals are considered "ill" and "abnormal," and the gay pride parade is seen as a provocation to extremist groups, which have gained in strength during the country's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy.
"Everyone knows what will happen if they go ahead with that parade of shame, and the responsibility for that will be of those who organized it," Mladen Obradovic of the extremist nationalist movement Obraz told local media. "If they think they can poke the entire Serbian people in the eye, they are gravely mistaken."
Another extremist group, 1389, plans to hold a counterdemonstration of all "straight and sane" people of Serbia. The group is named after the date of the Battle of Kosovo, in which Serbia lost to the Ottoman Empire.
Both 1389 and Obraz, along with several other groups, torched the US Embassy in Belgrade last year after the Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence. Members of these groups were also responsible for torching mosques in Belgrade and Nis in 2004. They also took part in the beatings of participants in Belgrade's 2001 gay pride parade.
Extremists got a boost earlier this week from the influential Orthodox Church, which called the event a "parade of shame" and compared it to Sodom and Gomorrah, the two Biblical cities known for their sinful ways.
Bishop Amfilohije, who has been the acting head of the church since the patriarch fell ill last year, said in a statement that "gay and lesbian love leads to death and suicide." He added, however, that the church could not condone violence.
The daily Danas echoed the sentiments of the parade's organizers.
In a commentary Friday, the paper said: "This event will be an important test for the country and the society in which we live. It will show how much we honour human rights, how tolerant we are, how much we are willing to accept the civilized norms of Europe to which we strive, and how normal we are in the end."
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic warned that the upcoming march is a high-risk event and that clashes are possible. He said that some 5,000 police officers will be deployed to protect the participants.
Serbian media reported that hundreds of extremists and football fans from all over Serbia and Serb parts of Bosnia are planning to attack participants and police with Molotov cocktails and rocks.
The parade has caused a lot of controversy in the Serbian government and parliament. A majority of the opposition and some ruling coalition partners have openly spoken against it.
"Serbia needs no gay parade. It will destroy all family and moral values," Dragan Markovic, leader of a small United Serbia party, said earlier this week.
Belgrade Mayor Djilas called on the authorities and the citizens to protect their city from being destroyed.
"I do not agree, nor do I understand this need to show someone's sexual orientation, but I believe that everyone has a right to make their stance in line with all the rules in the city and the state," Djilas told B92 television.
He called on everyone to "save Belgrade from a new brutal destruction hidden behind fake patriotism."
Organizers of the parade said that the event is not "parading one's sexual orientation," but a march against violence and discrimination."
The Swedish EU presidency and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe welcomed Belgrade's gay pride march.
"The right to freedom of peaceful assembly is a basic human right and as such should be protected," Tom Moore, the head of the OSCE mission in Serbia, said in a statement.
