Day of Remembrance of the Vukovar events of 1991 (18/11)

Every year on November 18, Croatia remembers the events in the city of Vukovar that took place in 1991. In 1999, the country's Parliament declared this date Remembrance Day.

Battle of Vukovar (Croatian). Bitka za Vukovar, Serbian. Battle of Vukovar) — fighting in the area of the city of Vukovar during the war that began immediately after the declaration of independence of Croatia in the summer of 1991. Units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by local Serbian military forces, began besieging the city on September 3.

Despite the Serb superiority in manpower and the overwhelming advantage in heavy equipment and weapons, the city fell only three months later, on November 18, 1991. Moreover, during the fighting it was almost completely destroyed. About a thousand Croats and several thousand Serbs died in the battles.

Several thousand Croats took refuge in a local hospital, where the wounded defenders of the city were also present. From where they were taken to Ovchary — by a former pig farm, which had served as a prisoner of war camp since October 1991 and then executed.

Vukovar remained under Serbian control until 1998, and the non-Serb population was expelled during ethnic cleansing. In 1998, after diplomatic negotiations, the city was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia. At the same time, the process of restoring the city and returning refugees began.

Now at the site of the execution of the city’s defenders there is a monument — obelisk by Slawomir Drinkovic with the inscription « In memory of 200 wounded Croatian defenders from the Vukovar Hospital, executed during the Great Serbian aggression against the Croatian Republic». Beginning on September 1, 1996, the burial was exhumed, during which 200 bodies were found and 194 were identified.

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