Gay bar in Budapest suffers arson attack amid concerns about Pride

By Tony Grew • June 27, 2008 - 15:35

The chief of police in Budapest has said he is anticipating disruptions to this year's Pride

3 Comments on Gay bar in Budapest suffers arson attack amid concerns about Pride

Gay rights activists in Hungary have spoken of their concerns about extreme right-wing violence in the country after a gay bar in the capital Budapest was set on fire with a petrol bomb.

The bar, called Action, was attacked yesterday.

In a chilling reminder of a tactic sometimes used by terrorist groups, a telephone warning, allowing the bar to be evacuated.

Just after the basement bar was cleared, a petrol bomb exploded - it is unclear from reports whether it was thrown - and the foyer was destroyed in the fire.

Activists said it could be the work of a group who use a website called kuruc.info.

Described as "an extremist nationalist hate site targeted against gay people, liberals, Jewish people," the phone numbers and other details about gay activists are regularly posted on the site.

"This site, although Hungarian, is hosted in a US server, so there is nothing we can do to stop them," a Hungarian activist from Budapest told PinkNews.co.uk this morning.

"Yesterday this site put out an address list of all the gay bars in Budapest, the first in the list being Action. Later that night, it was set on fire."

The chief of police in Budapest has said he is anticipating disruptions to this year's Pride march on July 5th.

Last year at Budapest Pride, a gang of ultra-nationalists, skinheads and fascists attacked marchers along the 7km (4.3 mile) route.

Pride organisers said that the police had failed to take appropriate action:

"Contrary to a number of reports and the statement of the Interior Ministry, items capable of causing grievous bodily harm were thrown at the marchers: beer bottles, smoke bombs and molotov cocktails," they said.

"The counter-demonstrators continuously shouted: "faggots into the Danube, followed by the Jews," "soap factory" and "filthy faggots.""

After last night's arson attack on a gay venue, there is concern that fascist and nationalist extremists are planning more violence against the city's gay community.

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