First Queer Sarajevo Festival � Chrystal Night in Sarajevo

25 September 2008

The threats issued against the organizers of the first Queer Sarajevo Festivala over the last month or so culminated and materialized last night, during the opening ceremony.

Instigation to hatred and the attacks on the organizers were initiated by Dnevni Avaz daily and its obstinate emphasis on the fact that the Festival, scheduled to coincide with the Month of Ramadan religious holiday, was an insult to Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reporting was then spiced up by statement of political, religious and health officials over the next several days.

Vehabis and Police in front of ALU (Photo: AP)

Although some media, NGOs and the international community condemned the hate speech of such statements, no sanctions followed, which ultimately resulted in an open violence against Queer Festival and the LGBTQ population in general. The State Telecommunications Regulation Agency reacted only after threatening letters were received by several media that reporting on the festival in an objective and impartial manner.

The threats culminated yesterday, when all tram stops in Sarajevo were covered with posters quoting the Qur`an inciting hatred against homosexuals and another poster quoting a `scientific survey` on homosexuality from 1940, taken from the Family Research Institute, which was translated and published on Zdravodrustvo website that was registered only yesterday, directly inciting hatred and intolerance of homosexual persons.

Also yesterday, a protest against the Queer Fest was scheduled to take place at 17:00 hours. Some 30 young men gathered there who dispersed after about half an hour of insults and curses against reporters who wanted to take their statements. The Police didn`t have information who organized the gathering nor did it ask the participants to present some form of identification.

The opening ceremony of the QSF started at 19:30, with a press conference held at the gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts (ALU) in Sarajevo. About 250 citizens of Sarajevo, members of the diplomatic corps and foreign guests appeared at the ceremony, all of them elated with the turnout, considering the numerous threats issued against the Festival and its organizers.

Before the start of the ceremony, several dozen members of the so-called Vehabi movement gathered in front of ALU, while 50 or so young men that appeared at the protest against the Festival earlier, gathered on the other side of Miljacka River. They chanted slogans like `kill the fagots` and `we will kick your ass`. The guests at the opening ceremony greeted their chants with an applause, which their future actions, as it turned out, would certainly not deserve. At that moment, literally just 15 policemen were present in front of ALU, and the internal security at the ceremony was provided by a private security agency.

After the inaugural speeches by the Dutch Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the organizers, the First Queer Sarajevo Festival officially opened with the `okreni oqueer` (note: an almost untranslatable pun literally translated as turn the frame around). Then, the positive energy and the love that prevailed at the ceremony had to give way to the hatred and insults that greeted them at the ALU entrance.

In fact, the Police has allowed a greater number of Vehabis, including women wearing chadors, to gather at the very entrance of the building, several metres from the door. Seven members of the regular police prevented them from entering the building, while eight other policemen from the riot-police unit just stood on the steps. The special police didn`t react even after the physical attacks on the guest and participants. The mob in front of ALU used every opportunity to provoke a reaction from the guest of the festival that would justify their physical aggression.

The participants and guests of the opening ceremony didn`t respond to the provocations. Some of them wanted to photograph the protesters, an action seen as provocation that led to attacks on several guests that found themselves on the steps at the entrance of the building. One of the five policemen who tried to prevent the riot was injured at that moment.

Only after the people in the building started commenting that the Police had no intention to protect them and tried to record their actions on video, and the news arrived that journalists were attacked at a nearby crossroads, the riot-police arrived in force and started pushing the mob away from the entrance.

`The Police has noted this Festival as a high risk event, but didn`t act on it. They allowed 100-150 football hooligans and Vehabis to reach the entrance of the facility and left it to the private security to deal with the extremists. The Police didn`t even try to disperse the gathering that wasn`t even properly registered with the authorities. Again it misread the situation, didn`t recognize who was under threat, and the violence was not only allowed, but supported`, says LBGTIQ activist Zoe Gudović.

Meanwhile, the surrounding streets were scenes of total terror and atmosphere of a witch-hunt. The guests of the Festival quickly left the scene and went home. Some of them were followed by organized groups and were attacked in front of their homes. Three persons were injured during one such attack, one of them seriously and had to be hospitalized. The final outcome is eight injured persons and several hundred scared and traumatized guests at the opening ceremony, reactions in the international media condemning the events and even greater determination of the organizers to continue with the festival programme to the end.

`What horrified me was the news this morning that people were taken out of their cars and beaten up, all over the city. This is worse than a witch-hunt. I couldn`t imagine something like this in my worst nightmares. Ramadan is the month of peace and no violence is tolerated. I think they crossed the line last night`, comments Dino Djipa from CEPOS.

The Festival continues today, as planned. We hope that the Police will offer far more adequate protection to the festival, having in mind that the inadequate and too soft actions list night were the main cause of the riots in front of ALU and on the streets of Sarajevo.