(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, APRIL 30 - The archbishop of Zagreb,
Cardinal Josip Bozanic, in a sermon yesterday in Vukovar said
the city should be exonerated from promulgating the Serbian
language and the Cyrillic alphabet.
Serbians forces and Serbian paramilitary secessionists razed Vukovar to the ground in 1991 after a months-long siege, killing thousands. A coalition of Croatian war veterans and right-wing groups have called for a 30-50 year moratorium on bilingualism.
''Vukovar deserves a special sensibility that should be expressed with special norms on certain sensitive issues'', the cardinal said. ''Some forces in Croatian society still try to deny the particular nature of this city, as if it were any other city, as if nothing ever took place here.'' This was interpreted as criticism of the center-left government, which has called for the application of the minorities protection law throughout the country.
The issue of officially making Vukovar bilingual arose after a 2011 census showed the city's minority Serbian population had reached 34.9%. A Croatian constitutional law on ethnic minorities makes bilingual institutions mandatory in any city or commune in which a minority reaches more than 33%.
Tens of thousands of Croatians participated in two demonstrations against official bilingualism, one in Vukovar and one in Zagreb.(ANSAmed).
Serbians forces and Serbian paramilitary secessionists razed Vukovar to the ground in 1991 after a months-long siege, killing thousands. A coalition of Croatian war veterans and right-wing groups have called for a 30-50 year moratorium on bilingualism.
''Vukovar deserves a special sensibility that should be expressed with special norms on certain sensitive issues'', the cardinal said. ''Some forces in Croatian society still try to deny the particular nature of this city, as if it were any other city, as if nothing ever took place here.'' This was interpreted as criticism of the center-left government, which has called for the application of the minorities protection law throughout the country.
The issue of officially making Vukovar bilingual arose after a 2011 census showed the city's minority Serbian population had reached 34.9%. A Croatian constitutional law on ethnic minorities makes bilingual institutions mandatory in any city or commune in which a minority reaches more than 33%.
Tens of thousands of Croatians participated in two demonstrations against official bilingualism, one in Vukovar and one in Zagreb.(ANSAmed).
