Associations that are outspoken critics of introduction of Cyrillic as a second official alphabet in the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar have said that they will set up around-the clock guarding at the entrances to Vukovar as of Wednesday to express their disapproval of the installation of signposts with the city's name in Cyrillic script.
"We will be at all entrances to the City of Vukovar. We will not prevent anybody from setting up such signposts, we will be passive bystanders," activist Tomislav Josic said at a news conference in Vukovar on Tuesday, adding that according to an article in today's issue of the Novi List daily, Vukovar bi-alphabetical signposts would be set up on Wednesday.
As for Public Administration Minister Arsen Bauk's comment that the authorities would not put the road signs up secretly but that ceremonies would be held for that purpose, Josic commented ironically today that "it seem as if only riot police have been engaged for the ceremonies".
According to the 2011 census, local Serbs account for just over one third of the population in Vukovar, which enables them to exercise certain rights such as signs written in the alphabet this minority uses.
Opponents of bilingualism say that despite the constitutional provision on bilingualism, the Croatian executive authorities should also take into consideration that there is another constitutional provision envisaging that certain rights may be restricted if they are considered harmful in a given period.
These most vociferous opponents also warn that local Serbs, even those who participated in the aggression against and occupation of eastern Croatia in 1991, have in the meantime been amnestied and allowed to exercise many minority rights, which also enables that some of them may only formally be registered in Vukovar but their actual place of residence is in Serbia or Serb-populated areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and this has led to "a contrived image of the ethnic structure in Vukovar" and to the "current absurd situation" in the city.
