The eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Friday remembers the most difficult day in recent history, when on 18 November 1991, after 87 days of heroic resistance, the city's defence collapsed and this eastern Croatian city was occupied by the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitary groups.

Numerous crimes were committed against civilians and defenders in the war-ravaged town. During nearly three months of aggression by former JNA and Serb paramilitary groups against Vukovar in 1991, at least 2,717 Croatian defenders and civilians were killed, more than 22,000 residents were expelled from the city, and several thousands of defenders and civilians were taken to the Serb-run  concentration camps in occupied areas and in Serbia.

The names of 383 persons are still on the list of persons detained or gone missing in the war, after they disappeared without a trace in wartime Vukovar.

Although the fighting in Vukovar and its environs had started even before that, the date usually cited as the day when the battle for the city began is 25 August 1991, when the JNA and Serb paramilitary groups launched an all-out artillery and infantry attack with the intention of overrunning the city in a week at most.

However, the Croatian defenders, although ten times weaker in terms of numbers and weaponry, managed to resist the attack for nearly three months. The residents were without electricity and regular water and food supply while hundreds of shells fell on the city every day, in addition to tank and air attacks.

The occupation of Vukovar lasted until 15 January 1998 and the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, after which the people of Vukovar finally returned to their homes.

Commemorative events

A commemorative programme titled “Vukovar – a place of special homeland piety” starts at 10 a.m. at the National Memorial Hospital Dr Juraj Njavro.

In addition to war veterans and representatives of associations, the programme will be attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic.

A column of remembrance will be led by Croatian defenders of Vukovar together with family members of the fallen, disappeared, killed, forcibly taken, and deceased Croatian defenders, as well as those who went through the wartime destruction of Vukovar as children.

At the Homeland War Victims Memorial Cemetery, respects will be paid to Vukovar victims by laying wreaths and lighting candles.

A mass will be held for all the war victims.

Prime Minister Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic will also lay wreaths at the Ovcara mass grave site.

At 5 p.m. lanterns will be floated down the river Danube in memory of the killed and missing defenders of Vukovar.

President and Supreme Commander of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanovic paid tribute to the sacrifice of Vukovar on Thursday by laying a wreath and lighting a candle at the Memorial Cemetery and the Ovcara mass grave site.