The president of the Vukovar mayor's council for war veterans, Tomislav Josic, said before a protest rally in that eastern town on Saturday that protesters would provide testimonies on war crimes committed there in the early 1990s and ask why no one had been brought to justice.

“The institutions have not done what they were supposed to do, although enough evidence and testimonies have been gathered. I believe that even if there was video footage, they wouldn’t prosecute anyone,” Josic told reporters.

When asked what would happen after the protest rally and whether pressure on the institutions would continue to grow, as was the case during the term of the government of SDP prime minister Zoran Milanovic, Josic said that this was the first rally and if no changes ensued, he was confident that another rally would be organised, either in Vukovar or in Zagreb.

“This is the beginning. Every time Vukovar called upon people, they responded, and they will respond again if we call them,” he added.

The protest rally was initiated by Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava more than a month ago because of discontent with the work of state institutions in prosecuting war crimes.

Protesters were arriving in Vukovar from all parts of Croatia on Saturday, and many were wrapped in Croatian flags with the names of their towns written on them.

The rally will be addressed by mayor Penava, and several veterans will speak about the war crimes they had witnessed.

No other speakers are expected to address the rally.

Before the rally, many people visited the Homeland War Memorial Cemetery and Ovcara, the site of a massacre committed by Serb forces in November 1991, to lay wreaths and light candles.

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