Members of an initiative against dual-alphabet signs in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Monday morning prevented the placing of such signs on the wall of the local public administration building, saying that "Vukovar will be steaming with protests" by Friday.
The rally outside the public administration office was cordoned off by dozens of police officers, some of them in full anti-riot gear.
Protest leader Tomislav Josic said they were prepared to use violence to remove the signs on the public institutions written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
"Cyrillic letters used to come to Vukovar on army tanks," Josic said, recalling the occupation of Vukovar by Serb rebels supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army during the 1991-1995 war.
Placing signs written in both the Latin and the Cyrillic script on the public institutions in Vukovar began early Monday morning.
Dual-alphabet signs had already been put on the police station and the tax office. However, they were removed by force later in the day after a score of police officers failed to stop about a hundred of protesters reaching the police station. The sign from the police station was removed by a father of two sons killed in the war, according to reports.
According to the 2011 census, the Serbs account for slightly over one third of the town's population, which gives them certain rights under law, such as Cyrillic signs.
One of the protesters said today that "nobody forbids Serbs to live in Vukovar but they should not ask for too much."
