Croat nationalists seek referendum to curb Serb minority rights regarding language

ZAGREB, Croatia – Nationalists in Croatia are seeking to curb the rights of minorities to have their language used in official documents and signs in the towns where they live.

Currently, minorities have this privilege in Croatian areas where they make up at least 30 percent of the population.

This has angered nationalists in the eastern town of Vukovar, which was hit hard during the Serb-Croat war. They have pulled down official signs there written in both the Latin alphabet that Croats use and the Cyrillic one that Serbs use.

The nationalists said Friday they have collected 650,000 signatures needed for a referendum to change the law so that a minority would have to make up at least 50 percent of a town population to have that language privilege.