SNV Bulletin #6 Govor mržnje i nasilje prema Srbima u 2015

SNV Bulletin #6
Hate Speech and
Violence Against
Serbs in 2015
Introduction
The year behind us was marked by an increased number of physical
assaults on Serbs in Croatia, threats against them and destruction
of their property. In 2015 Cyrillic script 1 in Vukovar was
practically abolished and we have witnessed numerous attempts
to rehabilitate the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) 2 as well
as an increased incidence of hate speech by public figures and
part of the media. For this reason 2015 will be remembered as the
year in which nationalist and anti-minority atmosphere – which
became more intense since Croatia’s accession to the European
Union in 2013 – has reached a worrying scale.
1 Cyrillic is one of the two
scripts, alongside Latin,
used by Serbs
2 Independent State of
Croatia (NDH), the pro-Nazi
state during the WW2
Representatives of national minorities in Croatian parliament and
the president of the Croatian Government’s Council for National
Minorities, who on 14 May in Pula published a Declaration on
Intolerance and Ethnocentrism in Croatia, warned about this
trend. Among other it was stated in the Declaration that national
minority members are again witnessing chauvinist statements,
discrimination by certain parties which base their political ideology
on nationalism and exclusivism and that such a situation
represents a security problem for the minorities and prevents
them from exercising their guaranteed rights. This document
went almost unnoticed by the public, and the fact that the political
leadership also ignored it is another cause for concern.
Both presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2015.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović won the presidential election. She was
the candidate of the HDZ, the party which based her campaign
mostly on nationalism and returning to the “values of the 1990s”.
The list of the guests of honour at her inauguration made a
considerable impact in the public: among those invited was
Velimir Bujanec, an anchor and editor of a chauvinist programme