Yugoslavia: The treatment of homosexuals and the state protection available to them (January 2000 - December 2000)

A Washington Blade article posted 31 January 2000 on the Website of gay.net states:

Police found [29 December 1999] Dejan Nebrigic, the president and co-founder of the gay civil rights group Arkadija, "roped and strangled with a computer cord" in his apartment in the Belgrade suburb of Pancevo, according to Nebrigic's friend and fellow gay activist, Lepa Mladjenovic. ... "His lover was sitting there near him" when the police arrived, said Mladjenovic, and is reportedly in police custody. ...

Activists claim that the Serb government, which has been hostile to dissident movements including the country's fledgling gay civil rights lobby, is using Nebrigic's death to further both its anti-gay and anti-Western agenda. ... "Our information is that Nebrigic founded a movement of homosexuals who had access to various funds from abroad," investigating judge Nedeljko Maritinovic, who is handling Nebrigic's case, told the Serb pro-government tabloid Politika Express, according to Reuters. "The movement was, in effect, a 'gateway' for all kinds of sects conducting a special war against our country." Such comments initially led Nebrigic's friends and colleagues to believe that his murder was the result of a "personal vendetta" stemming from his activism.

Although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1994, being gay is still widely stigmatized in Serbia, especially in small towns like Pancevo. Unlike the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia, says the International Lesbian and Gay Association, the age of consent is higher for gay men in Serbia, gays cannot serve in the Serb military, and there is no law prohibiting anti-gay discrimination. Many report that NATO's recent campaign in Kosovo has scattered the gay civil rights movement and driven it even further underground.

A 22 January 2000 Radio B2-92 broadcast states:

There are around 500,000 homosexuals in Serbia and Montenegro, and their representatives are holding a convention in Novi Sad between 21st and 23rd January. Their main demand is the legalization of homosexual marriages. ... The participants in the convention are gay and lesbian organizations from Serbia, Montenegro and abroad, as well as representatives of NGOs and government organizations for the protection of human rights, which gathered in Novi Sad to give impetus to dialogue and on the acceptance of sexual minorities in our country. The conference organizer is the New Age NGO, whose representatives say that they will forward a strong demand to state bodies to define and include homosexual marriage in the legal framework. The New Age chairman, Atila Kovac, says that the status of sexual minorities is bad under Yugoslav law, and that the only step forward was made five years ago when the federal law banning homosexual relations between people over the age of 18 was annulled. Kovac said that, according to the available information ... their [homosexuals] situation was difficult owing to a lack of understanding and prejudice harboured by their environment and the authorities.

No information on the state protection available for homosexuals in Yugoslavia could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Radio B2-93]Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat]. 22 January 2000. "Yugoslav Homosexuals Demand Better Legal Rights." (BBC Worldwide Monitoring 22 Jan. 2000/NEXIS)

Washington Blade. 31 January 2000. Nick Napolitano. "Serb Dissident Found Strangled." [Accessed 7 Dec. 2000]

Additional Sources Consulted

Correspondence sent to one oral source.

IRB databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

Internet sites including:

Amnesty International

Central and East European Law Initiative

Gay Serbia: Serbian Gay and Lesbian Community

Gayzoo: Gay and Lesbian search engine

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia

Hokkaido University Slavic Research Centre

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

International Lesbian and Gay Association

Queer Europe

World News Connection