HQ for Defense of Vukovar in anti-Cyrillic campaign

ZAGREB - Headquarters for the Defense of Vukovar, a right-wing organization campaigning against official use of the Serbian Cyrillic script in Croatia, announced on Thursday that it will tour the country to convince the citizens that the referendum on bilingualism is neither unconstitutional, nor contrary to the position of the European Union.

The organization's officials presented the initiative at a panel discussion in Zagreb, following Wednesday's announcement that the debate on their initiative to hold the bilingualism referendum will take place in the Croatian parliament (Sabor) next Wednesday.

In late 2013 the Headquarters for the Defense of Vukovar collected and submitted to Sabor 650,000 signatures in favor of the referendum.

According to the law on national minority rights, Serbs in Croatia are entitled to official use of their language and script in municipalities where they account for more than 30 per cent of the population.

However, Croatian war veterans are trying to restrict the use of minority language and script only to local communities where members of minorities constitute 50 per cent of the population, and demand a referendum on amendments to the law.

In Vukovar, where Serbs account for 35 per cent of the population and where, according to the valid law, they have the right to use their own language and script, bilingual signs with the Cyrillic script have been constantly vandalized, removed and torn down since September 2013.

Photo Tanjug/IVA