Police guarding Serbian language plaques in Croatian town

VUKOVAR The town of Vukovar in Croatia is teeming with police on Tuesday, a day after a group of protesters smashed two plaques placed on public buildings. In line with Croatia's legislation on ethnic minority rights, the plaques were inscribed both in Croatian and in Serbian. Police guarding Serbian language plaques in Croatian town But this sparked the violent reaction of the Croatian "defenders", who are opposed any inscriptions written in Cyrillic, the Serbian alphabet. The plaques were smashed with hammers, four persons were detained, while several were injured, according to reports. As the day drew to a close, the authorities managed to place plaques at the entrances of two public institutions, but demonstrators gathered again, clashing with the police and demanding that all those detained earlier in the day be released. Another protest was held on Tuesday in Vukovar, but this time the plaques have not been smashed - as 50 to 100 police officers wearing full riot gear have been deployed to guard them. Additionally, wire has been spread around the sites, making it impossible to approach them. A demonstrator is using a hammer to smash a plaque (Tanjug) The demonstrators, however, have pledged that they would remove the plaques as soon as the police are gone. B92's reporter said that there were considerably more people in the protest walk today compared to Monday, as the locals have been joined by those who traveled to the town from other parts of Croatia. Some said they "had nothing against Serbs" - but were against the Serbian language inscriptions on public buildings - because this "reminded them of the war that ended not so long ago." A group calling itself the Headquarters for the Defense of the Croatian Vukovar, which organizes the protests, have reiterated they would not back down "until the idea to put up bilingual plaques has been abandoned." There were no major incidents during the protest walk on Tuesday, while according to reports, the Croatian police have released all those detailed yesterday for using hammers to smash the plaques. A demonstrator shows the smashed plaque to the crowd (Tanjug) B92

Police guarding Serbian language plaques in Croatian town

But this sparked the violent reaction of the Croatian "defenders", who are opposed any inscriptions written in Cyrillic, the Serbian alphabet.

The plaques were smashed with hammers, four persons were detained, while several were injured, according to reports.

As the day drew to a close, the authorities managed to place plaques at the entrances of two public institutions, but demonstrators gathered again, clashing with the police and demanding that all those detained earlier in the day be released.

Another protest was held on Tuesday in Vukovar, but this time the plaques have not been smashed - as 50 to 100 police officers wearing full riot gear have been deployed to guard them. Additionally, wire has been spread around the sites, making it impossible to approach them. The demonstrators, however, have pledged that they would remove the plaques as soon as the police are gone.

B92's reporter said that there were considerably more people in the protest walk today compared to Monday, as the locals have been joined by those who traveled to the town from other parts of Croatia.

Some said they "had nothing against Serbs" - but were against the Serbian language inscriptions on public buildings - because this "reminded them of the war that ended not so long ago."

A group calling itself the Headquarters for the Defense of the Croatian Vukovar, which organizes the protests, have reiterated they would not back down "until the idea to put up bilingual plaques has been abandoned."

There were no major incidents during the protest walk on Tuesday, while according to reports, the Croatian police have released all those detailed yesterday for using hammers to smash the plaques.