Linta: Fear production continues

BELGRADE - Head of the Coalition of Refugee Associations Miodrag Linta said on Wednesday the most recent incidents in Vukovar where cyrillic parts of bilingual signs were covered by Croatian flags were a continuation of the production of fear and an attempt to maintain a warlike atmosphere.

In a statement delivered to the media, he condemned the incident, which was perpetrated by the so called Vukovar Defence Headquarters as their way of marking the first anniversary of their anti-Cyrillic campaign.

The goal of the incident is to make life unbearable for the remaining Serbs in Croatia and force to to move out or be assimilated, he believes.

The Croatian Constitutional Court decided last month to place the feelings of the Croats who oppose the use of Cyrillic script above the law, Linta stressed.

"It practically means that every Croat who decides to take off a bilingual sign can do so freely because the Constitutional Court has decided that the police cannot intervene to protect government property, nor to apprehend the said individual," he noted.

Linta called on the EU to state clearly to Croatia that it is unacceptable for any of its members not to follow the principle of the rule of law.

According to the statement, the constitutional law on the rights of national minoritties and the law on the official use of languages and scripts of national minorities, national minorities have the right to use their language in the local governments where they make up more than a third of the population.

According to the latest census in Croatia, from 2011, Serbs make up more than one third of the population in 21 municipalities and two towns (Vukovar and Vrbovsko), the statement says.

The...