It would be tempting to point to the economic deprivation that always seems to provoke ultra-right violence. At least we might find some logic in that. Neo-nazis always choose relatively weak, easily indentifiable scapegoat targets for their mindless violence – it can be Jews, Non-whites, Roma, whatever. In this case, foreigners in Belgrade are a small minority who stand out from the crowd. Maybe there is no more conspiracy involved than that.

The problem with this logic is that the criminal thugs who attacked and brutally murdered a completely innocent Frenchman apparently came from ‘middle-class’ backgrounds, not the deperately poor fringes of society. What is that about? God only knows.

I have a suspicion that the bigoted minority who were looking forward to a bloodbath with the Gay Parade found themselves all fired up, with no fight to go to, so they simply created one of their own.

We can only hope that this terrible tradegy provokes the vast majority of good people in Belgrade to stand up and be counted. Serbia deserves better.

And, for pity’s sake, let’s leave the Kosovo issue out of this. It has nothing whatsoever to do with that. I have come to love the Balkans and its people, but sometimes, this insistence on re-running history in an endless blame game frustrates the hell out me. It’s now that matters, and that fundamentally means that anybody – of whatever race, nationality, religion, creed or football team – who is sitting peacefully with friends and a drink has the right to do so free of the fear of attack. Otherwise, there is no future worth having for any of us. For that reason alone, I will be joinig the march later today.

One other explanation could simply be that this is Serbia’s version of the neo-Nazism that a lot of East European countries went through during transition, mostly caused by disaffection, unemployment etc. It’s not good for Serbia, whatever, and I hope decisive action is taken soon…