Introduction

My question: how can we understand the violence of the anti-Cyrillic group against their Serb counterparts?

Presently in Croatia, tension exists in Croatia over law requiring Serbian language in public spaces. After the 2011 Croatian census, a number of cities in the Croatian county of Vukovar-Syrmia realized that they would be legally bound to erect bilingual signs featuring both the Latin script Croatian and the Cyrillic script Serbian. The two languages are nearly as similar spoken as American and Australian English. In 2013, after the town of Vukovar placed bilingual signs at the entrance of the town hall, a mob of war vets who had defended the city gathered and violently tore down the signs. Resulting scuffles between the protestors and police injured people. That same year, 20,000 people gathered in the Croatian capital protesting the incorporation of Cyrillic into public use (Pavelic). Minority language is required in public use in districts where over a third of the population is a minority. In order to request a change to this law, 10% of the voting population must sign a petition, which in turn authorizes a referendum. In Croatia that’s about 450,000 Croatian signatures required. In 2014, an anti-Cyrillic group gathered a petition of over 575,000 signatures requesting a change to the Constitutional Law on National Minorities. The petition requested an increase in the population requirement for official minority language use from one third to one half.  We see a significant portion of Croatia who support the exclusion of Cyrillic from public space.

Through the course of this paper, I will first describe Girard’s theory of mimetic desire, his theory of sacrifice, and finally explain why the tension over Serbian exists in Croatia using Girard’s theory.

My thesis: Anti-Cyrillic Croats commit violence because they desire pure identity, but they cannot acquire pure identity because of the complicit ways they were involved in the war. In order to reunite their fraying sense of togetherness they gather against Serbs. In pursuit of their competing desires they do violence to each other. They find each other as obstacles on their respective paths to acquire their object of desire, which is pure identity. This is a situation of mimetic rivalry. They want to alleviate these tensions, and have done so by sacrifice. That gives them a renewed sense of unity as they now have a goal they can all take part in, attacking the Serbs. For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to the anti-Cyrillic group as Croats, however, there are pro-Cyrillic Croats. Croats mythologize the invasion of Vukovar, victimize Serbs, then get the scapegoat effect. Understanding the inter and intra group relations in this situation helps us determine how to resolve the violence that is happening.

Girard’s mimetic theory

Girard has a theory of mimetic desire, which explains the ways that people develop desire. People develop desire by influencing one another. In Williams’ The Girard Reader, on page 9, Girard states, "If acquisition and appropriation were included [in the literature on imitation], imitation as a social phenomenon would turn out to be more problematic than it appears, and above all conflictual." This is a type of philosophical anthropology. Girard offers an explanation for how peoples’ desires originate. If party A desires national identity, and party A interacts with party B, party B may develop the same desire for a national identity.

Mimetic rivalry is the situation when multiple parties are fighting over the same object of desire, but they cannot both acquire or attain it. Girard states that "Each tries to push aside the obstacle that the other places in his path. Violence is generated by this process; or rather violence is the process itself when two or more partners try to prevent one another from appropriating the object they all desire through physical or other means." As multiple individuals, such as various war veterans within the Croatian war veteran community, strive for the same object, such as a unique military honor, violence is when they take efforts to stop or block the other from acquiring the military honor, so that they themselves can have it instead. Mimetic rivalry occurs over objects that both parties cannot acquire. There is only enough for one or one group.

Further, Girard goes on to offer an explanation of ritual using mimetic rivalry. Religions create prohibitions in order to limit the conflicts that could come up as a result of the ways people push each other out of the way. Monogamous marriage is a Christian ritual. A ritual is a way that people repeatedly act, and imbue those acts with meaning, and may even be believed to enact change. The ritual act may be understood as more than symbolic, but as sacramental – effecting substantive change in reality. But how could monogamous marriage be limiting in a helpful way, a prohibition that limits mimetic conflict? This ritual may have begun out of a community where there was a lack of order, or a lack of differentiation. When people are undifferentiated and vying for the same limited objects, they end up conflicting. Not everyone can have the one particular person as a spouse, but when the ritual of marriage is enacted, those two become a distinct unit – differentiated from others. This establishment creates a clear boundary between people as to what objects they may desire, and this helps minimize people from desiring the same person as a spouse. When someone is married, it becomes taboo to want that person for one’s self. These sorts of prohibitions discourage mimetic rivalry.

Mimetic theory explains myths, which often are told in tandem with rituals. Girard explains the structure of myth. The community is disordered or undifferentiated. A mimetic disturbance in the community generates the myth. An individual or group is convicted of a fault and then that same individual seen as the cause of the crisis. The victim is killed. Then order is regenerated, and the victim is revealed as divine or sacred.

Sacrifice occurs at the end of some rituals, and this plays a key, unifying function in a group. "Real or symbolic, sacrifice is primarily a collective action of the entire community, which purifies itself of its own disorder through the unanimous immolation of a victim, but this can happen only at the paroxysm of the ritual crisis." After the violence of mimetic rivalry, people often feel chaotic, and disparate in their sense of group identity. Once they create a rival, then they have again a sense of unification of purpose – to remove the threat, and order is temporarily restored.

The development of Croatian desire for pure identity

As Misha Glenny observes in his account of the beginning of the Balkan Wars of the 90s, the leaders of Bosnia and Macedonia recognized that if Croatia were to secede from Yugoslavia, they would need to become "identified explicitly with the Croat people to the exclusion of others". This is one recognition that shows that during the war, Croatia painted itself as a nation primarily of Croats. Given this emphasis on being a Croatian, that same sentiment extended into the army, and soldiers received that encouragement. Now presently, as veterans continue to hold on to the identity given to them during war time, in order to maintain that, there needs to be substantive differentiation between them and Serbs, just as there was in the war. During wartime, Serbs were the enemies. Now, a differentiation between Croats and Serbs is that Croats get to use their language in the public space, excluding Serbian. If Serbian becomes an official language as well, a level of distinction and differentiation is lost between the Croats and Serbs. The Croats desire became, as a result of the messages governments sent their people: I want to be a good Croatian, which meant hating Serbs.

Many Croats in post-war Croatia have desired a pure identity, especially veterans who were told they were the righteous people going in to fight the dirty Serb Ćetniks. The term Ćetnik has history in World War II. During that time there was a political group fighting for revolution who were called Ćetniks. They were a very violent group who slaughtered many Croatians. And as some people started to desire pure identity, others followed suit. The Tudjman administration portrayed a nationalistic image of the good Croatian fighters who avenge wrongs done in the distant past to the Croatian people. In 1991 Croatia persuaded Germany "that its cause was just by presenting itself ‘as an integral part of a civilized Catholic, central European culture while denigrating its Serbian neighbor as a representative of the barbaric, despotic Orient. Moreover, the drive for independence was presented as an act of liberation from decades of Serbian oppression." In this way, the veterans were portrayed as a type of hero fighting for freedom and the purity of Croatia. As veterans came back, they retained this desire to be a pure people, and others caught on and mimicked their desire.

Why do the Croatian veterans want to guard their pure identity so much? It may be one of the few pieces of their identity that gives them a greater sense of meaning or purpose. They have returned to society, to a life that is not quite as intense or purposeful as their life in war was. As Chris Hedges observes, war "does create a feeling of comradeship that obliterates

our alienation and makes us, for perhaps the only time in our life, feel that we belong. War allows us to rise above our small stations in life. We find nobility in a cause and feelings of selflessness, even bliss. At a time of soaring deficits and financial scandals and the very deterioration of our domestic fabric, war is a fine diversion." If that experience of nobility during war becomes a memory that is marred and impure, they may be devastated as a result.

Fraying of unity in the Croatian veteran community

People clashed though as they pursued this object of desire, this purity of identity, which is a desire to have one’s war identity be unmarred and clean, not dirty or wrong. People want that identity to be them having fought for good, just as the government told them they were doing – fighting for justice. Unfortunately, they could not and would never attain this object but they did not recognize that, but, in keeping hope that they can, so they pushed the others out of the way in their pursuit, doing violence to each other in the process. They believed that they needed this pure identity to be happy and satisfied. Croatian war veterans experienced a tension with this message about who they are while at war, where they committed war crimes and lost some of their purity. Croats carried out operations where Serbian civilian areas were the targets for bombing (Traynor). These operations have been judged as acts of ethnic cleansing. These memories are suppressed and hidden, however, and never brought up by the anti-Cyrillic Croats, so that they can maintain the illusion that they were capable of being and becoming the pure people they were told they were. Croats began to get anxious as they go longer without acquiring their object of desire, and they end up hurting other members of the same-desiring community perceived as obstacles to getting what they need. PTSD in Croatia is shown as a prevalent phenomenon, especially as causing poorer quality of life for family members of veterans with PTSD (Peraica et. al.). In these families there is shown to be damage to psychological health and social relations. A women’s rights organization called Be active, Be emancipated (B.a.B.e.), has programs dedicated to counseling for healing from domestic abuses, and legal advice and assistance for follow up on abuses. We see that violence has festered within the Croat community itself, and I suggest in the entire pure-identity desiring community.

Why would war veteran Croats keep each other from reaching their goal of pure identity? As vets remembered their war deeds, others cringed because of the dirtiness of them, which revealed to them the dirtiness, if they abuse others in response to their disgusted reactions, perhaps that will quiet them, and then they can stop having their pure war hero image marred by others. Others kept war vets from having a pure identity. If they bring this part of their identity out and discuss it others will be disgusted. Also, others may bring up and critique the actions that the Croats took during the war. The criminality of concentration camps is one thing that may be brought up, which results in vets being reminded of the bad things they did. They cannot fool themselves into being pure and blameless when they are having their war crimes brought to their attention. Then these reactions and messages get in the way of the veterans attaining what they believe will satisfy them. So perhaps abuse would silence those who are bringing up these messages. The Croat war vet community not only builds tensions as a result of attaining their goal continually being thwarted, but it also begins to be disordered and chaotic. Abuses in families and lack of social relationships give less of a sense of cohesion to the community.

Veterans unify against Serbs

Croats need a solution for the tensions building up in their community. They must find some way to bring themselves back together while they continue pursuing their object of desire. In order to draw the community together without doing too much damage to another member, or without having to admit their own fault in the problem, they find a party who can take the blame for the ills and problems the community is facing. In the case of the Croat, they blame the Serb. The Serb becomes the party to be sacrificed. Croats are willing to sever relationship with the Serb and paint them as dirty and unapologetic.

Croats start to form a mythology. In this case it’s the story of Serbian invasion of Vukovar. Note that Serbs did do real violence against Croats, but this is part of what makes them the perfect candidate for sacrifice. They have done something wrong, which seems somewhat related to the problems of the original community, but perhaps they really aren’t the cause of the Croat’s problems. The mythology explains how Serbs are dirty, godless, unapologetic, did great evil against us Croatians, and now need to be expelled, diminished, or pushed back against, because they are the cause of our problems. The exclusion takes the surface form of keeping Serbian language out of public life, which is justified by Croats by appealing to the story of Vukovar. Note that their story is that they don’t recognize any weight to the Serbian president having apologized for Serbia’s actions against Vukovar, and they don’t realize their own impure acts against the Serbs in the war.

We see this blaming in action when Croats lament the memories that Cyrillic brings them. The leader of the anti-Cyrillic movement’s name is Tomislav Josic. In response to the sign tearing down he told the media that "Cyrillic letters used to come to Vukovar on army tanks,’ … referring to the occupation of the town by Serb rebels during the 1991-1995 war" (Kartus). Here we see the attitude of the protestors against Cyrillic as something they say reminds them of the invasion. This anti-Cyrillic sentiment binds together the people against it, as they remember the invasion against them as a clearly defined group of people.

Furthermore, we see this victimization claim in the HDZ’s statements requesting that Vukovar be a place exempted from the minority language law. "The HDZ does not agree with the setting of the Cyrillic alphabet. We ask that the city of Vukovar is a special piety, we ask that the Government has the sensibility and emotion for what is happening in Vukovar" (Dalmacija).

Croats then get the scapegoat effect, which binds them together. The scapegoat effect is "that strange process through which two or more people are reconciled at the expense of a third party who appears guilty or responsible for whatever ails, disturbs, or frightens the scapegoaters. They feel relieved of their tensions and they coalesce into a more harmonious group. They now have a single purpose, which is to prevent the scapegoat from harming them, by expelling and destroying them." Preventing the Serbs from putting up Cyrillic language gives the nationalistic Croats a sense of unity and order, which they appreciate.

In attacking the Cyrillic part of the bilingual town hall sign, the Croats were able to act in a unified way against a clearly defined antagonist. Josic stated that “Our friends from all over Croatia would come and help us tear down the signs.” The Cyrillic represented the Serbs, who Croats could blame for their own ills. The Croats bring up the Serbs and their invasion as the cause of their own ills. Which was a true event – the Serbs really did attack and invade. But the true cause of being pulled apart is the Croat war vets’ own inability to attain their object of desire – pure identity. And as time goes on, this group no longer feels so unified as they once did. Their identity markers are becoming less clearly distinguished from Serbs. If Serbs get the right to official language use, then that’s one more act of undifferentiating put into place.

Though attacking the language of Cyrillic may bring the community of veterans back together, and in that way give them the scapegoat effect, one way that this anti-Serbian situation does not fit with Girard’s theory is that the Serbs are not revealed as sacred after their being "killed". When I say that the Serbs are killed, I am pointing to the violence the Croats have done in limiting the Serbs. It is not so extreme as to have killed anyone, though there is tension. Perhaps because no one has been killed this is part of the reason why no Serb is praised as divine, noble or helpful. Normally the victim that is limited or which has had relationship cut off from the rest of the group is then seen as bringing peace, or somehow appeasing some divine anger. However, if the Serbs would agree to take this position as victims, as the cause of the problem in Croatian vets and apologize for it, then they would be venerated. They would still be limited, but also appreciated as willing to admit their own complicity in the problem. But the distinction in this case is that the Serbs are not willing to accept that because of their invasion against Vukovar 20 years ago they should not be able to use their language publically today.

Responding to the antagonism with counseling, company, and communication

A helpful venue of action would be increasing counseling and legal services, like what B.a.B.e. is doing with abused women. I suggest that they develop programs for men as well, especially for veterans and those with PTSD. Furthermore, an understanding of the cause of antagonism against Serbs proves helpful: Croats are trying to get a pure identity, but can’t, and in the process are denying hurtful parts of their experience contradict their acquisition of pure identity.

As Croats continue with war trauma, which keep them from reaching, and causing them to do violence to each other, and then spilling over into other groups. Bringing attention to the fact in the city council room could be a helpful starting point. I would expect much backlash in pointing out these problems in Vukovar’s council room. Long term healing will require the Croat community to develop desire a different object, and in this case, that means a willingness to give up the hope of this a pure identity which consists of Croatians as not guilty in the war. The message that people must be willing to accept that they have a dirty past. It was difficult for a few Israeli soldiers to admit their crimes in 1948 (Cook). One said in a truth commission, "At that time I did not see anything wrong with what we were doing," Neumann said. "If I was told to do things that I do not want to mention [here], I did them with no doubts at all…. Not now. It is already 50, 60 years that I am filled with regret." It could be helpful to be around people able to admit their own past faults, such as these Israeli soldiers. Perhaps those soldiers could come visit the town and talk about their past, and the way that they’ve come to accept the horrible things they did, though they still regret them. It would be better for these people to reach for an identity more focused and faithful to a different part of the past: the former Yugoslavia’s more unified, multiethnic notion of fraternity.

WORKS CITED

·      Pavelic, Boris. on Vukovar resistance http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/vukovar-bilingualism-introduce-faces-violent-resistance

·      Dalmacija, Slobodna. tportal, Thus spoke Karamarko when introduced Cyrillic Vukovar. http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/285636/Ovako-je-govorio-Karamarko-kad-se-uvodila-cirilica-u-Vukovaru.html?utm_source=clanci&utm_medium=manual2&utm_campaign=clanci_manual

·      Kartus, Kruno. Meet the leader of Vukovar against the Cyrillic. http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/287636/Upoznajte-vukovarskog-vodu-protiv-cirilice.html

·      COOK, J. Israeli Veterans, Palestinian Survivors Testify at First 1948 "Truth Commission". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 34, 2, 18-43, Mar. 2015. ISSN: 87554917.

·      Girard. The Girard Reader.

·      Gedney, Mark. Personal conversations as well as class discussions in -Religion, Identity, and Conflict"

·      Hedges, Chris. War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. http://www.antiwar.com/rep/hedges1.html

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·      Peraica, T., Vidović, A., Petrović, Z. K., & Kozarić-Kovačić, D. (2014). Quality of life of Croatian veterans’ wives and veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Health & Quality Of Life Outcomes, 12(1), 1-18. doi:10.1186/s12955-014-0136-x

·      Traynor, Ian. Croatian generals jailed for war crimes against Serbs. 2011. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/apr/15/croatian-general-jailed-war-crimes

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·      Karamarko three years ago defended the Cyrillic alphabet in Vukovar: take a look at documents http://slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/221158/Default.aspx

·      http://catholicism.org/why-do-catholics-eat-fish-on-friday-2.html

·      http://www.nature.com/news/social-evolution-the-ritual-animal-1.12256

·      The list showed that in Vukovar alive 34.87 per cent Serbs, SDSS requires the introduction of bilingualism! http://www.jutarnji.hr/vukovarski-sdss-nakon-popisa-stanovnistva-trazi-uvodenje-dvojezicnosti/1073312/

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·      on Vukovar resistance http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/vukovar-bilingualism-introduce-faces-violent-resistance

·      http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-pm-dismisses-war-veterans-force-threats

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·      Croatia’s Language Dispute Leaves Minorities Nervous http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-s-language-dispute-leaves-minorities-nervous-1/1431/2

·      Serb Minority Rights Scripted Out in Croatia http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serb-minority-rights-scripted-out-in-croatia-09-02-2015

·      Vote to Scrap Cyrillic in Vukovar Angers Serbia http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-protests-over-cyrillic-script-denial-in-vukovar-08-18-2015

·      BBC

·      Vukovar protests http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23934098

·      Croatia Vukovar war: Overcoming a legacy of war http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13887103

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·      150/11 NN where the power of the minister of administration is described: http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2011_12_150_3085.html

·      ‘Vukovar never be BYKOBAP’ defenders organized a protest against the introduction of Cyrillic http://www.jutarnji.hr/foto-tisuce-vukovaraca-prosvjedovalo-protiv-uvodenja-cirilice—vukovar-nikada-nece-biti-bykobap-/1079730/

·      Vukovar is Bykobap? Alphabet dispute revives war wounds in Croatia ahead of EU entry http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/02/vukovar-is-bykobap-alphabet-dispute-revives-war-wounds-in-croatia-ahead-eu/

·      Anti-Cyrillic sentiment in Croatia "dates back to WW2" http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region.php?yyyy=2013&mm=10&dd=25&nav_id=88127

·      Croatia plans Cyrillic signs for Serbs in Vukovar http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20899868

·      Council of Europe supports minority use of language on signs: http://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/home/-/asset_publisher/CWAECqDHgT3y/content/council-of-europe-supports-use-of-minority-languages-in-public-signs?inheritRedirect=false&redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coe.int%2Fen%2Fweb%2Fportal%2Fhome%3Fp_p_id%3D101_INSTANCE_CWAECqDHgT3y%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-2%26p_p_col_count%3D1

·      NN 80/11 DECISION ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ON AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ON RIGHTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2010_06_80_2275.html

·      Nothing without the Serbian minority: City Council of Vukovar can not throw out the Cyrillic http://www.novilist.hr/Vijesti/Hrvatska/Nista-bez-srpske-manjine-Gradsko-vijece-Vukovara-ne-moze-izbaciti-cirilicu

·      NN 93/11 DECISION On authorizing summoning of constituency COUNCIL MEETING OF NATIONAL MINORITIES http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2011_08_93_1973.html

·      The Council of the tumultuous session changed the statute, abolished the Cyrillic alphabet in Vukovar: http://www.telegram.hr/politika-kriminal/gradsko-vijece-nakon-burne-sjednice-odlucilo-ukinuti-table-na-cirilici-u-vukovaru/

·      Recommended dual-signage for Vukovar: http://arhiva.dalje.com/en-croatia/civil-society-group-proposes-solution-to-bilingualism-dispute-in-vukovar/523185

·      Cyrillic quarreling Bozanic and Serbian Patriarch Irinej http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/260578/Patrijarh-Irinej-ocito-nije-slusao-ni-citao-sto-je-Bozanic-rekao-u-Vukovaru.html

·      Announced a major protest rally against the Cyrillic alphabet in Vukovar http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/237094/Najavljen-veliki-prosvjed.html

·      Meet the leader of Vukovar against the Cyrillic http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/287636/Upoznajte-vukovarskog-vodu-protiv-cirilice.html

·      Anti-Serbian language protests highlight Croatia tensions http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130906/anti-serbian-language-protests-highlight-croatia-tensions

·      How the Cyrillic stopped at the intersection http://www.tportal.hr/komentari/komentatori/253754/Kako-nas-je-cirilica-zaustavila-na-raskrizju.html

·      "HDZ is against the Cyrillic script, and led pevaljka from Banja Luka ‘ http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/395509/HDZ-je-protiv-cirilice-a-doveli-su-pevaljku-iz-Banja-Luke.html

·      The referendum against the Cyrillic going to review the constitutionality http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/340974/Skupljeno-je-dovoljno-potpisa-za-referendum-protiv-cirilice.html

·      Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia http://datab.us/i/2013%20Anti-Cyrillic%20protests%20in%20Croatia

·      PHOTO: under cover of darkness print infamous GRAFITE DUBROVNIK ‘Hang the Serbs’ and ‘Stop the Cyrillic script in Vukovar!’ http://www.jutarnji.hr/grafiti-na-ulazu-u-dubrovnik-i-na-prevoslavnoj-crkvi–srbe-na-vrbe—i–smrt-izdajnicima—/1123864

·      Official Gazette, 2014. Constitutional Court’s decision against referendum to make half of population the requirement. http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2014_08_104_2021.html

·      Croats curbing minority Hungarian http://dailynewshungary.com/croats-to-curb-minority-rights-regarding-language-compromise-the-rights-of-hungarians/

·      Row over Cyrillic script shows war echoes for Croatia’s Serbs. May 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-croatia-serbs-idUSBRE92J0N220130320

·      Croatian Government Authenticates Anti-Cyrillic Petition. Jul 14. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-government-authenticates-anti-cyrillic-petition

·      Serbo-Croatian language issues. http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/serbocroatian.htm

·      Croats tear down Cyrillic signs in Vukovar, reviving Yugoslav war memories. Sep 2013. http://www.euractiv.com/culture/croats-tear-signs-cyrillic-vukov-news-530203

·      Cyrillic divides Serbs and Croats in Vukovar. Feb. 2013. http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Croatia/Cyrillic-divides-Serbs-and-Croats-in-Vukovar-130292

·      Croatia War Veterans Stage New Anti-Cyrillic Protest. Sep. ’14. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-war-veterans-stage-new-anti-cyrillic-protest

·      Elements of a Building. http://www.civilengineeringx.com/building-planning/elements-of-a-building/

·      A Step-by-Step Guide to the Home Building Process. http://www.newhomesource.com/resourcecenter/articles/a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-home-building-process

·      Light-Frame Construction. http://www.wooduniversity.org/glossary

·      The Bosnian of Serbia http://kcm.co.kr/bethany_eng/p_code2/887.html

·      The Unreached Peoples Prayer Profiles
Yugoslavia. http://kcm.co.kr/bethany_eng/c_code/yugoslav.html

·      Serb leader Tadic apologises for 1991 Vukovar massacre. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11689153

·      Serbian President Apologizes for Vukovar Massacre. http://www.novinite.com/articles/121832/Serbian+President+Apologizes+for+Vukovar+Massacre

·      Providing existential protection and psychosocial support for women victims of violence … in Vukovar-Syrmia County. Program name: Safe House of Vukovar-Syrmia County. http://www.babe.hr/en/providing-existential-protection-and-psychosocial-support-for-women-victims-of-v/

·      Brutal enemies 20 years ago, they’re learning to get along. In Phoenix.http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-08/bosnian-refugees-live-together-phoenix-under-shadows-bosnian-war

·      Forgive, Pope Says, But Croats Find It Hard. 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/world/forgive-pope-says-but-croats-find-it-hard.html

·      Croatian generals jailed for war crimes against Serbs. 2011. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/apr/15/croatian-general-jailed-war-crimes

Books

·      Minorities in Croatia, p. 178 https://books.google.hr/books?id=saccwv5_ElkC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=croatian+protest+of+minority+language+use&source=bl&ots=3e99sQPYRY&sig=l-sNAQqHshP85sq9TzjIUV9Arlw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFu8nH4ODJAhVEDCwKHY7qCr8Q6AEISzAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

·      Language Planning and National Identity in Croatia https://books.google.hr/books?id=1TtvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=croatian+protest+of+minority+language+use&source=bl&ots=DjzwhQg0Ve&sig=b1AL-r2T0MI_GAO3HCRq14PW5fo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFu8nH4ODJAhVEDCwKHY7qCr8Q6AEIOzAG#v=onepage&q&f=false

·      Between Naturalism and Religion, Habermas. Page 114. https://books.google.hr/books?id=dxN17kF0mhMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

·      Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the mind of God.

·      New Oxford American Dictionary. "referendum", "polyglot", "Europe, Council of", "sheath", "moratorium", "Latin", "paroxysm" "acquisition" "appropriation"

·      International Handbook of Reading Education. John Hladczuk. https://books.google.hr/books?id=1yL9_N1K1Q0C&pg=PA454&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cyrillic&f=false

·      Language, Discourse and Borders in the Yugoslav Successor States. p28. https://books.google.hr/books?id=MlXQ5zKb_VQC&pg=PA26&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

·      Apology and Reconciliation in International Relations: The Importance of …. A different apology. https://books.google.hr/books?id=HONzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT148&lpg=PT148&dq=vukovar+serbs+apologizing&source=bl&ots=_AURVmKHp2&sig=tvx_Fm5CkBCcBc_ZmBXHapUcPas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4v4bh8OPJAhVH2hoKHdgPD_cQ6AEIQjAH#v=onepage&q=vukovar%20serbs%20apologizing&f=false.

·      Girard. The Girard Reader.

Conversations

·      Gedney, Mark.

Wikipedia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Cyrillic_alphabet

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Act_on_the_Rights_of_National_Minorities_in_the_Republic_of_Croatia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Croatia#Same-sex_marriage

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_equality

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Croatia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_economics

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Slavonia,_Baranja_and_Western_Syrmia_(1995%E2%80%9398)

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_on_Use_of_Languages_and_Scripts_of_National_Minorities

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_language_in_Croatia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavonia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Cyrillic_protests_in_Croatia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Republic_of_Croatia

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_persecution_of_Serbs

·      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stjepan_Mesi%C4%87