The media in Vojvodina reported on Tuesday that 120 signatories to the petition, half of them ethnic Croats and Hungarians, were brought in for questioning because the police wanted to see if their signatures were authentic.
Gradjanski List daily says that this has stirred ethnic tensions, and adds that local Croats and Hungarians are particularly under pressure because they still remember the events from the early 1990's, when several hundred families, mostly of Croat descent, left Beska during the war in Croatia.
The case is aggravated by the fact that police questioning was approved by a senior local government official, Stojan Mutic, who is a member of the Serb Radical Party, whose replacement is being demanded by local residents.
After the news of the events in Beska became public on Monday, the Serbian police said that police officer Veljko Pajdic from the town of Indjija had been dismissed and that a request for disciplinary proceedings against him had been filed.
Although this was not stated, it is believed that the officer made it possible for Mutic to have local residents brought in for questioning.
The Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina Croats (DSHV) issued a statement saying it was intolerable to intimidate residents only because they wanted to exercise their legal right.
The DSHV called on state authorities to prevent illegal activities and call their organisers to account.
More than 10,000 local Croats left Vojvodina during the 1990's.