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Amnesty demands protection for Bosnian gay festival

by Rex Wockner

International News

Amnesty International demanded Sept. 18 that authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina protect participants in the first Sarajevo Queer Festival, which was scheduled for Sept. 24 to 28.
"The authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina must guarantee a climate free of intimidation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," the group said. "Gay rights activists will use this festival to take to the public their message for equality before the law and an end to discrimination."
The arts and culture festival was scheduled to offer exhibitions, performances, movies and public discussions.
Amnesty said that "in the run-up to the festival, certain parts of the media are unleashing a homophobic campaign which further cultivates deeply entrenched prejudices and may incite violence around the event."
"Many publications, including the popular SAFF and Dnevni Avaz, have used derogatory language in relation to lesbian and gay people," said Nicola Duckworth, the group's program director for Europe and Central Asia. "They have called for the organizers of the festival to be lynched, stoned, doused with petrol or expelled from the country. Death threats have been issued on the Internet against individual gay rights activists. Appeals have also been made to the public to disrupt the festival."
In addition, posters advocating "Death to Gays" appeared around Sarajevo in early September, and the festival has been denounced by some imams, who object, among other things, to its coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"We do not feel safe for ourselves or for our families," one of the event's organizers told Amnesty. "Some of us had to find new accommodation because our names and addresses were made publicly known. We are afraid to use public transport or go out alone."
Amnesty International USA also weighed in on the matter Sept. 18. The director of the U.S. organization's LGBT Human Rights Program, Ariel Herrera, said, "We are outraged that LGBT activists in Sarajevo now fear for their lives in a campaign to prevent them from standing up for their rights and organizing to end discrimination."
The rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are protected by a number of international treaties to which Bosnia and Herzegovina is a party, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

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