Cops, Protesters Clash at Belgrade Gay Pride Parade

BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 10, 2010 — -- With rainbow flags and balloons everywhere, and Village People songs playing, Belgrade's gay pride parade today looked much like such celebrations everywhere, but in the Serbia capital 6,000 police officers in full riot gear and armored vehicles were there to protect the marchers.

The violent clashes between parade opponents and police less than half a mile from the city's first gay pride parade in nine years, served as a reminder that Serbia is not quite the United States, Holland or England when it comes to gay demonstrations.

Before, during and after the 15-minute march, hundreds of right wing demonstrators with bricks, flares, Molotov cocktails and bottles repeatedly clashed with police.

More than 140 people, most of them policemen, were injured and taken to hospital.

Hooligans also trashed the seat of the ruling Democratic Party of Serbian president Boris Tadic, setting one part of the building on fire.

The entrance to the Serbian state television building RTS was also trashed, as well as the seat of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party, whose current leader Ivica Dacic is also country's interior minister.

More than 200 people were arrested and police in heavy riot gear used tear gas and armored vehicles at several points to block the protesters.

The clashes left central Belgrade looking like a war zone with broken street signs, smashed windows, destroyed vehicles, garbage bins, lost shoes and sneakers strewn on the pavement.

The authorities had halted public transit starting Saturday evening.

The security preparations for "a small number of gays" matched those for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who visited Belgrade last year, or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is due to visit the city in two days.

Antigay sentiment is strong in Serbian society, but the attacks are believed to have been organized by small extreme nationalist groups.