Public Administration Minister Arsen Bauk said on Monday that the placing of dual Latin and Cyrillic signs was in accordance with earlier announcements and agreements, and that today's events in the eastern town of Vukovar were politically motivated.
"Considering the fact that back in 2009 the Vukovar Town Council introduced bilingualism in the Town Statute with votes of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), the HSP (Croatian Party of Rights) and the SDSS (Independent Democratic Serb Party), which was a coalition partner at the time, I think that what is now going on is in a way politically motivated," Bauk told the press aboard a ferryboat on his way back from the southern island of Brac.
Bauk said he believed that in the days and weeks ahead "there will be enough time for a political debate" on the matter. He noted that the application of the constitutional law on the rights of ethnic minorities was being introduced gradually and in accordance with the 2011 census which showed that the Serbs accounted for 33.3 per cent of Vukovar's population.
Bauk said he expected the Vukovar Town Council to act accordingly and ensure "the equal use of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script in a way befitting the current situation and taking into account everything that Vukovar has gone through."
A spokeswoman for the Vukovar-Srijem County Police Department told the press that four police officers had been injured during a protest rally against the placing of dual-alphabet signs on public institutions in Vukovar. None of the protesters were detained by the police.
