Attending a panel discussion entitled "Ovcara - A crime with impunity," on Tuesday, Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava claimed that for almost three decades Croatian institutions have been turning a blind eye to that war crime, concluding that it is obvious that some institutions are not interested in the truth.

“Now we are already hearing statements like that is a matter for the past. Every so often we hear in the media and political sphere that we need to turn to the future, that the war is behind us,” Penava said.

Seeking justice and the truth seems to become outdated, said the indignant mayor..

Penava: Serbia is convicting only lower-ranking Chetniks born in Croatia

Penava claimed that the Great Serbia ideology is still well and alive in Serbia – from former president (Tomislav) Nikolic who claimed that Vukovar is a Serbian city to incumbent President Aleksanadar Vucic.

He called Serbia out that when it has to convict someone then only low-ranking persons are convicted, “local Chetniks and lower-ranking soldiers,” who happened to be born in Croatia and all aimed at trying to portray that as a civil war between Croatian citizens and that it (Serbia) has nothing to do with that.

Penava said that it is necessary to punish the masterminds, generals and former Yugoslav Army (JNA) commanders and then to find the direct perpetrators of the war crimes committed.

After the town fell into the hands of Serb rebels and paramilitaries supported by the then JNA army in mid-November 1991, at least 261 people were taken from the local hospital, 200 of whom were exhumed from a mass grave at the former Ovcara pig farm in 1996, while others remain unaccounted for. The youngest victim of the Ovcara massacre was 16 years old and the oldest 77.