A monument to Kata Soljic (1922-2008) and her sons Niko, Ivo, Mijo, and Mato, all killed in the defence of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991, was unveiled in the Vukovar neighbourhood of Mitnica on Thursday.

The monument to Kata Soljic and her sons, an initiative by retired colonel Mirko Condic, realised thanks to two war veterans’ associations and the authorities of Vukovar and Podstrana, was made by sculptor Veno Jerkovic.

“What you are doing is a fight against oblivion. It is constant in human life because man’s greatest fear is the fear of nothingness, when you don’t exist anymore, when no one speaks about you. Kata Soljic is a mother who suffered the kind of tragedy difficult to find in the history of our culture and identity. And our culture and identity are European. We are a European people and nation,” said President Zoran Milanovic, who attended the unveiling ceremony.

“We must not lose enthusiasm. You made this country – it is good, but most of all it is dear to us because it is ours. We have no other country and nobody but us cares sincerely about it. Others either do not care or have something against it. That country… must also be healthy, it must be successful and an instrument to achieve our goals, and those goals have always been noble, modest and simple, basic human needs. That is what Croatia fought for, that is what you won, what Kata Soljic’s sons died for,” said Milanovic.

The envoy for the parliament speaker, MP Marijana Balic, said that during her life Kata Soljic was a living monument and a true model.

“Tthe role of women in the 1991-95 war, of mothers, sisters and us daughters, was and will continue to be equally important,” she said, noting that the monument to Kata Soljic was a monument to all women whose children gave their lives for Croatia’s freedom.

War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said that despite losing her four sons, Kata Soljic kept was a model and solace to mothers looking for their sons.

“Those mothers continue to motivate us in the search for our war missing, the most difficult unresolved issue of the war,” said Medved.

On behalf of the Soljic family, her daughter Marija thanked the guests at the event, including Defence Minister Mario Banozic, Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava, Deputy Vukovar County head Franjo Soljic and others, calling on them to show unity and togetherness.

President Milanovic, who on Friday will not be in the remembrance procession in Vukovar, paid tribute to those killed in the defence of Vukovar by laying a wreath and lighting a candle at the city’s Homeland War Memorial Cemetery and at the Ovcara memorial.