Vandalism of Serb Cemetery in Croatia Highlights Ethnic Tensions

Several dozen graves and a mortuary at a Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Croatia have been badly damaged, police said Tuesday, in the latest incident stirring fears of ethnic tensions in the EU's newest member state.

Unidentified vandals broke tombstones, crosses, grave monuments and windows at the mortuary in Cepin, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Zagreb, police said in a statement.

Inter-ethnic relations in the former Yugoslav republic, which had gradually improved following a 1991-1995 war pitting Croatia against rebel Serbs opposed to its independence, have plunged in recent months.

Croatian war veterans have collected some 650,000 signatures for a petition to curb the rights of ethnic Serbs in the country and have demanded a referendum be called.

But Croatia's center-left government, wary of violating promises that secured EU membership, is refusing to stage the plebiscite.

New signs on official buildings in the Cyrillic alphabet used by ethnic Serbs in the town of Vukovar -- which was seized by Serb rebels after a bloody siege at the start of the 1990s war -- have provoked protests by the Croatian war veterans.

During several street protests, they tore down Cyrillic signs and clashed with police in the eastern town.

Six more plaques in the Cyrillic alphabet put on official buildings in Vukovar were either removed or damaged last week, police said.

Ethnic Serbs, who are mainly Orthodox, make up Croatia's biggest minority, accounting for around four percent of the population of 4.2 million.

Protection of minority rights was one of the key criteria Croatia had to meet to join the European Union.

Zagreb became the bloc's 28th member in July last year.