On 1 May 1985, Đorđe Martinović, a 56-year-old resident of the Kosovar town of Gjilan, arrived at the local hospital with a broken bottle wedged in his rectum. He claimed that he had been attacked by two Albanianmen while he was working in his field. After being interrogated by a Yugoslav People’s Army colonel, Martinović reportedly admitted that his injuries had been self-inflicted in a botched attempt at masturbation.

The “Martinović affair”, as it became known, turned into a cause célèbre in Yugoslav politics. Although the facts of the incident remained in dispute for years afterwards, it played a role in worsening ethnic tensions between Kosovo’s Serb and Albanianpopulations.

The other way around: the way the case was handled clearly demonstrated to the Serb population that if someone were to assault them, nobody would care. Even in this case, even 30 years later, instead of “they denied him treatment unless he signs a confession” the story is shared as “haha gay lol”.