Vukovar: Bilingual signs removed and smashed

VUKOVAR - Members of the Headquarters for Defense of Croat Vukovar removed all bilingual signs in the city after the wreath-laying ceremony at the Memorial Cemetery to mark the constitution of the 204th Vukovar Brigade and offenders were brought in for questioning at the local police station.

Five individuals were placed under arrest, including one woman, the Zagreb-based daily Vecernji list reported.

According to the daily, two individuals first smashed the sign placed on the police station building and were immediately arrested, after which all other signs in Cyrillic and Latin scripts previously mounted in Vukovar were removed.

President of coordination of defender associations of the city of Vukovar Franja Soljic said that apart from the sign smashed on the police station, all other single bilingual signs in the city have been removed.

The defenders removed all other signs and took them to the office of the mayor so that he may return them to Zagreb.

Two individuals were arrested, one of whom is a disabled war veteran, and the other is a defender, Soljic said and added that citizens of Vukovar and defenders demonstrated unity on Tuesday and will remain united in the time to come.

After the latest incident concerning bilingual signs in Vukovar, citizens began gathering in front of the police station where several members of police intervention unit are deployed.

Since autumn 2013 until now, bilingual signs were forcefully removed and destroyed in Vukovar on several occasions, and the government re-mounted them every time on institution buildings as envisaged in the law.

Photo Tanjug, T. Valic (illustration, archive)