prijava
SARAJEVO, September 2 (FENA) - Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić believes that the Pride March that is to take place for the first time in Sarajevo on September 8, 2019, is a first-class political event for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“In the case that the event does not take place, if any kind of violence happens, trust me, this will cost us more than the statement made by Kolinda Grabar Kitarović that "there are 10,000 terrorists returning from Syria to BiH," Komšić warned in an interview for the new issue of Start magazine.
He urged the people who are against the event to think carefully about the core issue here and what is at stake, because the first Pride March in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not an ordinary but a first-class political event.
Komšić emphasizes that Bosnians and Herzegovinians are tolerant people and that in our country people can live their own way and how they choose, and this also includes the LGBTIQ community.
“It is about the fact that we in Sarajevo are in a situation where we constantly have to prove and show to someone our tolerance and transparency, and that we are not the way we have been presented in the region and in some media - that we are not terrorists or anything alike. That was something we had to do continuously during the war and even after the war, to prove ourselves to others who we are and what is in the core of our being,” stressed Komšić, who did not want to confirm or deny his participation in the Pride March on Sunday. He just said: “You will know my decision when the time comes.”
The Pride March will be organized under the slogan “Ima izać!” (Come Out!). The organizers announced that the March is primarily being organized as a protest against inequality and human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people. It represents the fight against violence asking for equal access to public spaces, available to all other citizens, that is, the right to freely hold a protest.
By holding a pride march, LGBTIQ persons in BiH are fighting not only for their freedom but also for all persons and groups who suffer violence, discrimination and are in any way excluded from society.
At the same time as this event is taking place, protests have already been announced by informal groups in the neighborhoods of Sarajevo, not far from where the pride march should take place.
The Cantonal Police announced that it will engage a sufficient number of police officers and has asked the BiH Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, the FBiH Police Directorate and police officers from four other cantons to assist them in securing the event.
(FENA) S. R.
