Crna Gora

This is, I think, the sixth time that I visit Montenegro. I am sitting in my hotel room, after we just arrived. Just called some people and set the schedule for this 3-day mission. Wednesday we will travel on to Albania.

The first time I came to Montenegro ('Crna Gora') was in May 2004. My mission was to find people who wanted to start a NGO on Lesbian and Gay rights. Initially this mission seemed to be succesful, but now, almost two years later, I am back in Montenegro with a similar mission. It is said to conclude that I can probably count the gays I have met here during the past years on two hands. To count the lesbians that I have met I don't even need one hand. It is not that people did not warn me: Montenegro is a post-conflict, post-communist, masculine and religious society, be carefull with what you do and who you meet.

During the first press confence we planned to organise, November 2004, the national football hooligans organised as 'Varvari', announced to react violently on our press conference. We decided to cancel it as we had to take the receveived treaths serious. The Ministry of Internal affairs first couldn't help us. Still a big group of people was searching for us in the city, and the police posted for my hotel that night. One day after I left two activists (one not gay, one not coming from Montenegro) showed up in a television show. (We had already done this when I was still there, but apparently nobody had watched that show). Over 50 'Varvari' surrounded the television studio, happily the police this time did react and protected the activists.

Montenegro is one of the nicest spots I know in Europe. It has a very well preserved nature. Due to the big differences in landscapes it has three different climates. When you land on Titograd Airport (the capital Podgorica was also named Titograd until the fall of the communicsm) you fly over Skadar lake, see the beautiful photo above. The contrast of such a beautiful country with people possessing a truth hate against different oriented people is still difficult to understand.