Sir

I am not among those who think that Dragan Primorac is a great minister of science and education, and I may have my doubts about how good a scientist he is. But your News story “Race claims spark fury over Croatia's school curriculum” (Nature 437, 463; 200510.1038/437463a) builds on tensions in this case in an unhelpful way. As a Croat, I could just as easily accept Croats being Slavs as I could their being ethnically distinct.

There is nothing racist in Primorac's claim that one genetic marker differentiates Croats from other Slavs. To call it “potentially incendiary in the Balkan region, recently torn apart by civil war” does nothing but provoke bad feeling. As a Croat and, more importantly, as a scientist, I am eager to know whether Primorac's theory is correct or not. But I will reserve judgment until there is an evidence-based scientific explanation of his interpretation of the Science paper, as quoted in your News story.

After all, Primorac is quoted as saying “We need much more scientific evidence before we draw conclusions”, and the coordinator of the school curriculum says that examples such as this would not be included in textbooks. So I am wondering about who is actually furious, and why — and most importantly, what is the scientific rationale for being furious?