Croatian Court Vetoes Referendum on Limiting Serbs' Rights
Croatia's top court on Tuesday rejected a demand for a referendum aimed at curbing the rights of ethnic Serbs, including by limiting the use of signs in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the referendum amending the country of 4.2 million's law on minorities would have been unconstitutional.
Serbs make up the biggest minority in Croatia, accounting for about four percent of the population.
Lawmakers had asked the court to rule on the referendum after being presented with a petition signed by more than 525,000 people demanding the vote.
The petition was circulated by an association of veterans and victims from the 1990s war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, in which ethnic Serbs and Croatians battled each other.
Last year veterans smashed Cyrillic signs and clashed with police in the eastern town of Vukovar, which was seized by Serbs after a bloody three-month siege at the start of the 1991-1995 war that claimed 20,000 lives.
In Vukovar Serbs make up more than a third of the population so are entitled by the law to have signs in Cyrillic.
12 August 2014, 23:04
00
That is a perfect example for the need of an independent judiciary. The majority cannot be allowed to suppress the rights of a minority - no matter what a referendum or election states. Fundamental rights are decremental. Kudos to the supreme court in Croatia.
