Late on Saturday, a group of rights activists were assaulted in Banja Luka, the Serb-run part of Bosnia, shortly after a planned LGBT event was banned by the local police. The activists were leaving a meeting at the Bosnian branch of Transparency International when they were chased through the streets by a group of around 30 men who hurled insults and punches. The activists reported that several individuals were injured, and one required medical attention. The police escorted the activists to the station to take their statements and were searching for the perpetrators.
The planned LGBT event was supported by several rights groups from across Bosnia and was to include a movie screening followed by a panel discussion. However, it faced a strong homophobic backlash, including from Bosnian Serb president Milorad Dodik, who referred to LGBT people as “harassers” and expressed the hope that “official bodies will prevent them from gathering both in closed venues and in the open”. The mayor of Banja Luka, Drasko Stanivukovic, also denounced the event, stating that the LGBT community should restrict itself to the country’s capital, Sarajevo.
- Advertisement -
Bosnia remains highly conservative, with deep-seated homophobia, and is still divided by ethnic tensions stemming from the 1992-95 war involving Bosnia’s Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks. Despite some progress in reducing discrimination, the LGBT community still faces significant challenges. An annual pride parade has been held in Sarajevo since 2019 without significant unrest but with a large police presence.
The violence in Banja Luka has been widely condemned by international organizations, Western embassies, and European Union officials. The EU mission to Bosnia tweeted that “words have consequences” and that verbal attacks against civil society activists and journalists create “a climate where physical attacks can follow”. The British Ambassador to Bosnia, Julian Reilly, described the attack as “shocking” and “showed the real impact of hate speech”. The US Embassy in Sarajevo called for the Bosnian Serb authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible.
