Anti-Cyrillic Protest Intensifies In Croatia

Croats are intensifying their protest against the introduction of the Serbian Cyrillic script for official use in the town of Vukovar. On Sunday Croats will take to the streets again in mass, this time on Zagreb’s main ban Jelacic square and a Croatian war veterans organisation says it wont stop with just Sunday’s protest if the Serbian Cyrillic signs are erected in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar.

“We are organised in every city, in every place, and groups of people are ready if need be to immediately head to Vukovar if they put the Cyrillic signs up. In Dalmatia we have formed a group who can be in Vukovar within 6 hours,” said leader Tomislav Zelic, adding that over 200,000 veterans are in support.

The group says that Sunday’s protest will be “louder, stronger and more intense” than protests which took place in Vukovar recently where 20,000 people turned up.

The group is pressuring the Croatian government to back down with plans to introduce Serbian Cyrillic on all signs as part of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities.The law allows for ethnic minorities, where they made up more than a third of a city’s population, to be entitled to have their language used for official purposes. Around 35% of Vukovar’s population made up of Serbian nationals.

50,000 people are expected to protest on Zagreb’s main square from 12.05 on 7 April.