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FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
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INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 001080 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR EUR/SCE (PETERSON) AND DRL/AE (NADEL) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: PRIDE PARADE CANCELLED AS GOVERNMENT LOSES NERVE 
 
REF: BELGRADE 207 
 
Summary 
 
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¶1.   (SBU) Organizers for the September 20 Belgrade Pride Parade 
reluctantly cancelled the event at the last minute after the 
government, citing security concerns, banned the event at its 
desired location and proposed what the organizers deemed 
unacceptable alternative venues.  Although government officials 
argued that this Solomonic decision prevented bloodshed and 
destruction of property, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and 
transgender (LGBT) community and its supporters in civil society 
maintained that the government effectively capitulated in the face 
of threats by right-wing nationalist organizations and soccer 
hooligans.  The fierce rhetoric against the event and the 
collective sigh of relief when the event was cancelled clearly 
demonstrated that Serbia failed to pass an important litmus test 
for tolerance and the value system promoted by the law against 
discrimination adopted in March.  Of equal concern is that these 
developments once again underlined the broader unwillingness of the 
government to move from declaratory words of support to decisive 
action.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
Parade "Approved" for Socialist-Era Location 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.   (SBU) Although parade organizers announced their intentions 
several months in advance, contracted a local security expert to 
provide an assessment of risks associated with the event, and 
finalized a date in July, the government and its ministries 
developed a severe case of cold feet as September 20 approached. 
In a series of meetings with the organizers during the week before 
the event, government and police officials attempted to persuade 
the LGBT community to cancel, postpone, or move the parade to a 
different location. While Interior Minister Ivica Dacic announced 
publicly that the police were prepared to protect parade 
participants, he repeatedly termed the event "one of the riskiest 
ever," playing into a media frenzy that significantly ratcheted up 
tensions.  During a chance encounter on September 17, Minister for 
Labor Rasim Ljajic and Security Information Agency head Sasa 
Vukadinovic told us that the government was concerned about 
violence and the ability of 4,000 policemen to protect 200-500 
Pride participants from attacks by 10,000 hooligans, but stressed 
that the government was determined to protect the event.  However, 
Ministry for Human and Minority Rights State Secretary Marko 
Karadzic (strictly protect) told us on September 16 that it was his 
distinct impression that the government did not want the parade to 
take place and that his own Minister had censured him for 
contacting Pride organizers. 
 
 
 
¶3.   (SBU) During a meeting on the morning of September 19, Prime 
Minister Mirko Cvetkovic passed parade organizers a decision, 
signed by Director of Police Milorad Veljovic, that the authorities 
could not guarantee the safety of participants at the originally 
proposed location, a plaza in central Belgrade.  Instead, the 
government, evidently based upon a recommendation by the Interior 
Ministry, "approved" holding the event in either Usce park or 
outside the Palace of Serbia in New Belgrade. Parade organizers 
interpreted this recommendation as a de facto ban on their original 
plans and cancelled the event.  They argued that holding the parade 
in an alternate location would defeat the purpose of Pride events 
worldwide, which is to demonstrate that sexual minorities can 
freely enjoy their rights, and that the government's decision 
undermined their confidence that the authorities could provide 
protection for participants even at an alternate location. 
 
 
 
Late Government Reaction Emboldened Nationalists 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
 
 
 ¶4.  (U) The government's lukewarm attitude in the run-up to the 
parade provided ample opportunity for opponents ranging from 
 
BELGRADE 00001080  002 OF 003 
 
 
extremist organizations to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) to 
express their opposition.  Right-wing, nationalist organizations 
such as the Serbian Popular Movement 1389, Obraz, and Nasi openly 
threatened violence against the participants, with Obraz leader 
Mladen Obradovic repeating for Politika and B92 the group's message 
spray-painted throughout Belgrade: "Cekamo Vas" (We are waiting for 
you).  Representatives of 1389 sent a letter to the press offering 
to buy close-up photographs of parade participants for future 
posting online so that "parents will be able to recognize sexually 
deviant persons and protect their children from this harmful 
influence."  The acting head of the SOC Metropolitan Amfilohije of 
Montenegro and the Coastlands called the event "the Shame Parade, 
the Parade of Sodom and Gomorrah," while Holy Synod member Bishop 
Irinej of Backa issued a statement emphasizing that, as during the 
March debate on the law against discrimination (reftel), the SOC 
and other "traditional" religious communities "oppose the right to 
public expression of sexual orientation, especially when it 
violates the right of citizens to privacy, family life, religious 
beliefs, and the inviolability of personal dignity." 
 
 
 
¶5.   (U) On September 17, prodded by Interior Minister Dacic's 
criticism that the state could not remain silent on such an 
important political issue, the government took a public stance on 
the parade at its weekly cabinet meeting.  In part, its statement 
announced that "it was concluded that state institutions must 
guarantee the free expression of individuality and diversity. 
Serbia is a democratic state with high standards of human rights, 
and it is the right of every citizen to express his constitutional 
freedoms.  The government calls on citizens to respect the 
Constitution and democratic values by not disrupting public order 
and peace and not threatening the safety of other citizens." 
 
 
 
¶6.   (U) President Tadic followed suit, issuing a public statement 
on September 18.  Referring both to the Pride Parade and to an 
incident in which supporters of the Partizan soccer team attacked 
and seriously injured a French citizen, President Tadic emphasized 
that the state would react to violence and would not allow an 
atmosphere of chaos to be created.  The president then declared 
that the government would do everything in its power to protect 
citizens, regardless of their ethnic, religious, sexual, or 
political orientation, denouncing those who would resort to threats 
or violence or take justice into their own hands and thereby 
jeopardize the lives of those who think differently or are 
different. 
 
 
 
Common Sense or Capitulation? 
 
----------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶7.   (U) In the aftermath of the parade's cancellation, government 
officials worked quickly to spin the outcome as a disappointing but 
necessary development.  Appearing on B92's popular weekly talk show 
Impression of the Week on September 20, Justice Ministry State 
Secretary Slobodan Homen told the host that "common sense had 
triumphed," while expressing hope that through "step-by-step" 
progress such an event could be held in the future.  Human and 
Minority Rights Minister Svetozar Ciplic argued in vain on the same 
show that the government had not lost its showdown with extremist 
elements but rather that "we [the government and parade organizers] 
simply bowed out from the test." Homen announced that his ministry 
intended to propose a ban on organizations that advocate violence, 
and the police on September 20 arrested 37 people, including Obraz 
leader Obradovic and 1389 leaders Misa Vacic and Radojko Ljubicic, 
for violating a ban on public gatherings when they sought to 
assemble in downtown Belgrade to "celebrate" Pride's cancellation. 
However, despite strong police presence in downtown Belgrade, 
supporters of right-wing groups managed to walk down the main 
pedestrian street and to the St. Sava church. 
 
 
 
¶8.   (U) In contrast, the vast majority of civil society, human 
rights defenders, and progressive political parties decried the 
parade's cancellation as a symbol of the government's weakness. 
The Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) and Social 
Democratic Union characterized developments as capitulation of the 
state, while the NGO Forum for Security and Democracy issued a 
statement in which it asserted that "postponement of the Pride 
Parade is above all a new and strong wind blowing at the sails of 
 
BELGRADE 00001080  003 OF 003 
 
 
all those formal and informal groups to whose darkness and 
backwardness there has been no answer since the day of [former 
Prime Minister] Zoran Djindjic's assassination."  The Liberal 
Democratic Party (LDP) stated that this turn of events should 
motivate all of society to join in the battle for the victory of 
freedom over fear and terror, and the Helsinki Committee for Human 
Rights in Serbia equated cancellation with Serbia's inability to 
distance itself from chauvinistic forces in society and with the 
latest in series of developments demonstrating the weakness of the 
current government. 
 
 
Comment 
 
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¶9.  (SBU) Despite Serbian officials' game effort to portray their 
role in the cancellation of the Belgrade Pride Parade as the only 
rational course of action in face of legitimate threats of 
violence, the reality is that this decision again demonstrated the 
government's lack of leadership in the face of difficult issues. 
It was not the first time that a government which identifies itself 
with European values chose to take the easy way out rather than 
confront a real or imaginary bogeyman.  Instead of taking a 
decisive and courageous stance in support of freedom, the 
government limited itself to belated declarations of support and 
allowed extremist groups to dictate state policy.  End Comment. 
PEDERSON