ZAGREB, July 12, 2019 – The Vukovar City Council chairman, Tomislav Šota (HDZ) on Friday said that the rights of the Serb ethnic minority in Vukovar were not undermined in any way and that minority communities exercise all their rights according to the Constitution, laws and the city’s statute.
Commenting on a Constitutional Court ruling on the use of a national minority’s language and script in Vukovar which determined that the rights of the Serb national minority in that city have to be advanced, Šota said that ethnic Serb councillors have for two years already been receiving all city acts in Cyrillic at their request and that right is being consumed without any problems.
“We don’t see anything contentious with regard to the Serb minority community in Vukovar whose rights we respect. Mutual relations between the Serb community and Croatian people in Vukovar have improved over the past year even though we would like their political representatives to join Vukovar residents in marking significant anniversaries,” Šota said.
Deputy Mayor Srđan Milaković of the Democratic Party of the Serbs (DSS) said that the Constitutional Court’s decision was “cosmetic and without any substance” saying that the rights of the Serb community are often not applied.
“We’ve been given the least of the least. There are still outstanding issues from the war and missing ethnic Serbs, the issue of dual language signs has still not been resolved and an entire series of other examples which makes us feel like second grade citizens,” Milaković said.
Later in the day the city branch of the Independent democratic Serb Party (SDSS) welcomed the Constitutional Court decision regarding the rights of the Serb minority in that city and said that part of the Court’s decision was along the lines of what SDSS councillors have been advocating for years.
More Vukovar news can be found in the Politics section.
