Croats Remember 20 Years Since Fall of Vukovar


Thousands of people, including the President and Prime Minister, gathered on Friday to mark the 20th anniversary of the eastern border town's fall to the Yugoslav Army following a siege that almost completely destroyed the town.

Thousands of people from all over Croatia gathered for the commemoration ceremonies under the motto “Brave People”, preparing to take part in a five-kilometre walk from the hospital, a symbol of the town's suffering, to the memorial graveyard of the victims of the prolonged seige. Wreaths were to be laid in memory of those who died.

President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor were to walk with the “Column of remembrance”, led by war veterans from the Vukovar siege. No Serb officials were expected to join the column, owing to strong sensitivities felt in Vukovar on the subject.

The siege of the town began in August 1991. After three months, the Yugoslav Army, JNA, and Serb irregular forces overran the town on November 18, 1991.

After Croatian forces surrendered, more than 200 wounded POWs and civilians were taken from the hospital to a nearby farm at Ovcara and executed on November 20.

It was the worst single atrocity to have taken place in Europe since the end of the Second World War, though other, worse ones, were to follow in the war in Bosnia.

The heavy shelling of the town by artillery and by air destroyed more than 8,000 buildings, including much of Vukovar's Austro-Hungarian architectural heritage.

The damage was estimated at 5 billion kuna (about 800 million euros). More than 1,600 people died about 2,500 were wounded in the siege.

Aftee the fall of the town, all remaining Croats were forced to leave. Vukovar then remained a shell in Serbian hands for some years before being returned to Croatia, since when it has been substantially rebuilt.

Two JNA officers, Veselin Sljivancanin and Mile Mrksic, were subsequently indicted and jailed by the Internal Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

However the light sentences left many Croats feeling outraged, especially after Sljivancanin's sentence was cut from 17 to only 10 years in 2010. He was released by The Hague in July 2011.

Serbs, meanwhile, have accused Croatian forces of having executed several Serb civilians in the summer of 1991 in Vukovar, before the siege began.

In October 2010, the first commander of Croatian forces in Vukovar, Tomislav Mercep, was arrested in his home in Zagreb and charged with war crimes.

However, he was not charged for alleged killings in Vukovar but for war crimes commited elsewhere in Croatia.

Between 1996 to 1998 Vukovar and other occupied parts of the eastern Slavonia region were peacefully reintegrated into Croatia under the auspices of a UN transitional administration, UNTAES, led by American general Jacques Paul Klein.

Twenty years on, Vukovar has been rebuilt to a large extent, with about 2 billion kuna (300 million euros) invested from state and public funds.

However, the population has fallen markedly since the early 1990s and although the two communities again live side by side, they live separately in almost all areas of life. Serb and Croat children attend separate schools and even kindergartens.

On the other hand, political representatives of both communities take part in running the town, giving rise to hope that lasting reconciliation is not impossible.




Što se krvlju brani, ne pušta se lako! Glory to brave Croatian heroes who fell on this day, you will not be forgotten.