In response to violence against participants in the "Different Families, Same Rights" Pride march in Split which led to the event having to be stopped, Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International's Director for Europe and Central Asia said that "It is a disgrace that the police failed to adequately protect participants of today's march."
"The authorities must hold an immediate investigation into what happened. The police have to make absolutely clear that discriminatory violence is a criminal offence and will not be tolerated," the AI said in the statement.
"The Croatian authorities need to act to stop this happening in future. A first step would be for all political leaders to state unequivocally that everyone has the right to peacefully demonstrate and express their identity."
The statement reads that "according to one of the march organizers who spoke to Amnesty International, at least five Pride participants were injured when counter-demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. One was hospitalized with a head injury."
The police arrested 137 people, including 25 underage protesters who caused incidents during the parade in Split. Eight persons were injured in violence, the Split police said at a news conference on Saturday evening.
Local police officials said that the police had done their job well, they had ensured a route for the pride parade of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community and saw to it that the event could be performed as planned on the Riva main waterfront promenade.
According to the police estimates, the march brought together 150 participants, while nearby streets were packed with 10,000 people with 8,000 of them protesting against the parade.
After the LGBT parade, the police drove the parade participants in police cars to a bus taking them to their homes.
The police also used a helicopter and a police boat to control the situation during the parade from 1400 to 1630 hrs Saturday.