"Ongoing campaign against Serbs in Croatia"
SOURCE: BLIC
ZAGREB -- Cyrillic is being proclaimed "the script of an aggressor," while Serbs in Croatia are accused of falsely registering during the census, says Milorad Pupovac.
(Wonder what sort of false registration that is considered here... Considering the FACT that there are 400 000 less SERBS in Croatia today then there were in 1991... (!) note by Den Galna Serben)
In an interview for the Belgrade-based Blic newspaper, the leader of the Autonomous Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) added that "although some are assuring us that there was no campaign against the Serbs or the Cyrillic script in Croatia, too much has been said to confirm that such a campaign is being lead."
Pupovac is coming to Belgrade to participate in a meeting organized by the Institute for Language of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). He is expected to speak about language ideologies, politics and intolerance in "the post-Yugoslav countries," the daily said.
"After the meeting between (Croatian) Prime Minister Zoran Milanović with representatives of the defenders organized as leaders of a campaign against Cyrillic, and after withdrawal of the police, the situation has been somewhat more peaceful in spite of the removal of two plates in two scripts (Latin and Cyrillic). As regards a compromise, I can say there is room for it, but everyone should contribute," Pupovac was quoted as saying, and adding:
"It is always forgotten in this campaign that the citizens of Vukovar of Serb nationality were also killed or suffered. The atmosphere that is being created now is such that war will be more important than peace."
Pupovac welcomed the recent meeting between the two countries' presidents, and said it was "good because it has the symbolic power even when there are no other effects. I do not know if it was historical."
Speaking about the genocide lawsuits that Croatia and Serbia filed against one another before the International Court of Justice, he said that "political strength and consensus" were necessary in other to make a deal on the status of the lawsuits, but that this was "missing in Croatia at the moment."
Source............
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region.php?yyyy=2013&mm=10&dd=28&nav_id=88140
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OCTOBER 25, 2013 | 15:29
Anti-Cyrillic sentiment in Croatia "dates back to WW2"
SOURCE: BETA, TANJUG
ZAGREB -- The Croatian weekly Novosti has published an announcement issued by the Croatian Ustasha regime, banning the use of the Cyrillic alphabet.
The ban was enforced in the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) - a fascist WW2 entity that operated Jasenovac and other death camps, places of mass murder of Serbs, Jews, and Roma.
The weekly decided to print the historic document at the peak of an anti-Cyrillic campaign in Croatia, conducted by right-wingers who oppose a law that grants ethnic minorities the right to use their own language and script - in the case of Serbs, Cyrillic - in those areas where they constitute more than a third of the population.
The article noted that "the fight against the script of a minority is not the original idea of Tomislav Josić and his HQ for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar."
The 1941 decree banned Cyrillic "in the entire territory of the NDH," and said this was in particular valid for "the business of state and self-government bodies, offices of public institutions, trade and similar books, correspondence, and all public inscriptions."
Reports from Vukovar on Friday said that another bilingual sign written in both Croatian and Serbian had been removed, this time from a court building.
Since the signs were put up in September they were removed on several occasions, while the police was placed in front of the building for a while to guard them.
But Croatian PM Zoran Milanović and the group organizing the protests, "the HQ for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar," met last week and agreed that the police should be withdrawn.
After the meeting, Milanović said that the signs would remain in place "since the law must be respected" - but that the police would no longer guard them, and that it was "up to everybody's consciousness and sense of responsibility (to decide) how to behave."
A new meeting is expected to take place next week.
Source.......
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region.php?yyyy=2013&mm=10&dd=25&nav_id=88127
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Nationalist outbursts in Croatia are not isolated incidents
BELGRADE - Chairman of the Serb National Council (SNV) in Croatia Milorad Pupovac has said that nationalist outbursts and attacks on non-Croat individuals in Croatia are not isolated incidents and cautioned that they should not be ignored.
Pupovac told Tanjug that the “campaign against civil and European values and minority rights of the Serbs” is a dangerous game because it has elements reminiscent of the 1990’s (when armed clashes broke out in Croatia).
“This is a dangerous trend led by various institutions in Croatia, part of the Catholic clergy, part of non-governmental organizations close to them, part of the Croatian war veterans' associations and the extreme right-wing political parties,” Pupovac said commenting on the recently frequently occurring incidents glorifying extreme nationalism and fascism in Croatia.
Pupovac met with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Finance Minister Lazar Krstic and Minister of Regional Development and Local Self-Government Igor Mirovic in Belgrade on Tuesday.
The SNV chairman said that they discussed ways “to improve the position of the Serbs in Croatia in the wake of the negative trends while taking care not to worsen relations between Serbia and Croatia” and ways to assist returns of Serb refugees.
A campaign against official use of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet in Vukovar and other cities in Croatia has been ongoing for three months now, and signatures are being collected for a referendum aimed at limiting the putting up of bilingual signs to the municipalities where minorities make up at least 50 percent of the population, instead of one third as required by the law currently in force.
In the protests against the use of the bilingual signs, Croat extremists and war veterans are tearing down and smashing to pieces signs containing names of institutions in the Cyrillic script, and as of lately, chantings of "Za dom spremni" (For homeland - ready!), a Croatian Ustasha greeting from the time of the Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH), during which horrible genocidal crimes were being committed against Serbs, have become increasingly frequent.
Zagreb-based website Index.hr has said that the director and employees of the Jasenovac Memorial Park (dedicated to the memories of the victims in the World War II Ustasha concentration camp), who have condemned statements and acts extolling the NDH and the shoutings of the Ustasha greeting on December 1, have received threats containing accusations that they are traitors with anti-Croat sentiments.
On December 3, Croatian Minister of Education, Science and Sports Zeljko Jovanovic received threatening messages, containing an Ustasha-styled anti-Serb phrase “da mu se zatre srspko sjeme i pleme” (Let his Serb seed and tribe be exterminated).
Pupovac told Radio television of Serbia (RTS) on Wednesday that it is very unpleasant to hear the anti-Serb shouts that can be heard on television, radio and in the streets.
He stressed that the Serb people in Croatia would be pleased if the European Union could see “that which it has to see, and that is the abuse of provisions in the treaty of Croatia’s accession to the EU.”
Source........ TANJUG