Pride Week opens in Belgrade

Organizers said that this year’s Pride Parade would march down a different route through central Belgrade compared to earlier years citing security issues. To date the Pride Parade marched through the center of the Serbian capital down streets which would now bring the marchers past the so-called Caciland tent camp where regime supporters have been camping for months.

Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) official Sofija Todorovic told reporters that organizers and the police decided to change the route because of what she called “illegal camps” in front of state institutions. Caciland is in a park between the Serbian Presidency building and parliament.

The Pride Parade will start from the Manjez park in central Belgrade at 2:00 pm on Saturday and will take a round route past Belgrade University Law School (where the parade will stop for the 16 Minutes of Silence memorial for the victims of the Novi Sad Railway Station tragedy), the Serbian government headquarters and back.

Organizers said that this year’s pride is a protest.