Gay activist Andrejs Visockis attended last month's gay festival in Bosnia, and was one of the ten people injured by anti-gay nationalists. He recently took to his blog to tell his tale:

I suddenly saw with the back of my eye that a group of people were running at us and a second later we were attacked from behind. I tried to turn around to defend myself and get away from them but fell and found myself surrounded by what seemed to be four young guys who started kicking the living daylights out of me from all sides. Somehow, I managed to get back on my feet and get out of the circle, so I started running all I could without looking back. As I was running, I noticed I was basically blind on my left eye and my hands were covered in blood.
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This was pure terrorism and not many ordinary people in Sarajevo seemed to care.

No, we don't imagine they do. Nor does much of the world.

Legendary American rocker Iggy Pop canceled an upcoming concert in Sarajevo following violence at the city's first gay festival.

Activists there were forced to retreat last week after a gang of nationalist trouble-makers attacked the festival's opening night, sending ten people to the hospital. Obviously displeased over the upset, Pop says he will not be appearing:

"The concert is canceled," Rajko Bogdanovic, an organiser, told Reuters on telephone. "The main reason lies in negative images that went out of Sarajevo in the past days."
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Sarajevo is still on the list of the world high-risk places," said Bogdanovic, the director of the Art Zone agency. He added that ticket sales were also poor.

Yeah, we can't really see Bosnia's nationalists or Muslim activists going for Pop's flamboyance…

Bosnia's zealots got their way.

After ten people were hurt last night in an attack on the nation's first gay festival, organizers have announced they're canceling the next three day of events. Organizer Svetlana Djurkovic remarked, "We cannot guarantee the safety of visitors. The festival is closing down."

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights' Srdjan Dizdarevic called the attacks uncivilized and blasted the perpetrators' fascist rhetoric. Many nationalists and Muslim leaders insist we gays go against their way of life, which obviously includes being party poopers.

Making good on their word, dozens of homophobic Bosnians attacked the nation's first gay festival in Sarajevo yesterday.

Chanting "Kill the Gays" and ""Allahu Akbar (God is Great)," the mob struck outside the city's Academy of Fine Arts, punching, kicking and generally beating the men and women who gathered for the festival's opening night.

Local journalist Pedja Kojovic recalls, "When I was getting out of the academy, I was suddenly struck in the back. Three other people then came running and beat me up." Another journalist attempted to help Kojovic, but ended up getting beat down, as well.

Police, who tried to keep control over the situation, say about 50 people showed up for the festival. Nine of them are currently being treated for injuries. A cop was also hurt in the scuffle.

Update: We've added one more injury, as the tally has gone up.

Bosnia has been on edge all week ahead of the country's first ever gay festival, which begins tomorrow.

Sarajevo, the capital, has been littered with homophobic posters as of late and nationalist groups are promising violence against attendants. A number of media types have come out in support of the homo happenings - and are receiving death threats for their trouble.

Three radio stations and an independent weekly magazine were receiving threat letters for offering "unbiased and ethical" reports about the four-day Sarajevo Queer festival which is to open on Wednesday, [a journalists'] association statement said.

"Letters containing open and very serious threats are an attack on personal safety of the employees of these media outlets as well as safety of their family members and their property," it said.

Police assured worried citizens they would be in full effect to protect this "high risk" festival.

Two Bosnian imams are in an absolute tizzy over a gay film and art festival going down in Sarajevo next month.

Seid Smajkic and Sulejman Bulgari of Mostar are not only angry that the gays are going to flaunt their stuff, but they're doing so during the holy month of Ramadan, a big holiday in Bosnia, which is 85% Muslim.

While they don't advocate violence, the men have come out to condemn the homo happenings:

"We will not grab them by the neck on the street, but we have to say: This is immoral … a promotion of ideas that are in violation with religion," Seid Smajkic, an imam from the southern city of Mostar, was quoted as saying in Friday's Dnevni Avaz, a daily newspaper.

Another local imam, Sulejman Bulgari, said on television Thursday night that the Quran forbids homosexuality and that the holy book is clear about that.
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Several posters have appeared in the streets of Sarajevo this week, saying "Death to Gays." Police quickly removed them.
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Slobodanka Dakic, an activist of the Bosnian Q Association, a festival organizer that promotes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual rights, said there was no plan to antagonize anyone. But she also said the event will not be canceled nor rescheduled because of Ramadan.

Bosnia is supposed to be a secular society in which events are not planned according to religious calendars, she said at a news conference in Mostar.

Mustafa Ceric, the leader of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, has remained mum on the matter.

Wow. What an unbelievable shit show ABC aired last night.

We're talking, of course, about the Democratic Debates in Pennsylvania. Host Charlie Gibson talked up the event in his introduction, highlighting the city's resounding history. Too bad Gibson and cohost George Stephanopoulos couldn't think of anything historic to discuss. Rather than ironing out the issues ahead of the April 22nd primary vote, the ABC news men stuck to past scandals, readdressing Jeremiah Wright, Hillary Clinton's Bosnia trip and why Barack Obama doesn't wear a flag pin.

It wasn't until over an hour into the overhyped event that we actually got to hear about real issues, like Iraq and capital gain reform. By this point, however, we'd already zoned out and could only wonder, "Why are we watching this shit?"

While we deride ABC for their lackluster showing, we were intrigued by Hillary Clinton's Bosnia defense, in which she kind of, sort of admitted to lying (she, naturally, phrased it more politically). The Senator also mentioned that she apologized for claiming she came under sniper fire, but we don't recall that ever happening. Whatever, she was probably just dumbstruck by the shear inanity of last night's event.

The Clintons simply can't get their stories straight!

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