A commemorative event was held on Saturday on Cukur Hill overlooking the town on Hrvatska Kostajnica to mark the 28th anniversary of the death of Croatian photographer and HRT cameraman Gordan Lederer, who was killed there by a Serb sniper during the war in the 1990s.

Addressing the commemoration, War Veterans’ Affairs Minister Tomo Medved called for keeping the memory of the sacrifice of Gordan Lederer alive.

He praised the work of the photojournalist who had recorded with his camera “the truth about the Great Serbian aggression and about the lives of young Croatian defenders who were united in the defence of their homeland”.

On 9 August 1991, while filming Croatian soldiers in action in Banovina, Lederer was hit by a sniper bullet fired from Rosulja near Hrvatska Kostajnica by a Serb sniper, who was later identified as Milan Zoric.

Lederer was seriously wounded, however, Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) general Andrija Raseta refused to allow the wounded cameraman’s transport by helicopter to the hospital in Zagreb, despite the fact that Lederer was not military personell.

Lederer died in the car on the way to Zagreb.