MACEDONIA: Hooded Mob Trashes LGBT Center In Nation's Capital Of Skopje

Via Balkan Insight:

Around 20 hooded hooligans tried to wreck the second birthday party of the centre for support of the LGBT community on Thursday in Skopje, vandalizing the “Damar” cafe in the Old Bazaar area, where the event took place. A woman was injured after the hooligans threw a bottle at her head. Witnesses said the attack only lasted around 10 minutes but had devastating effects. “The hooligans entered the cafe and started throwing everything, like bottles, crates… It was a stampedе. One girl was injured and was taken to the accident and emergency centre. She is fine, but still recovering,” Uranija Pirovska, director of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Macedonia, a host of the event, said. The victims of the homophobic rampage said they could not see the faces of the hooligans because they wore hoods. “They were well organized. They had an exact plan of how to enter, what to demolish and when to leave, before the police came,” a witness said.

The center is supported financially by the local Dutch embassy. Macedonia is one of six nations currently seeking membership in the European Union. Its application has been pending since 2004.