The plaque, made by Croatian artist Boris Pokos, was inspired by the film Harrison's Flowers, a French war drama from 2000 directed by Elie Chouraqui. It is a story of the 1991 siege of Vukovar in the midst of which a woman from America is looking for her husband, a reporter gone missing during the siege.
The memorial was unveiled by Mayor Ivan Penava and academician Antun Mateša, owing to whom the plaque was put up.
Penava today again commented on this year's commemoration of the city's fall into the hands of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries on 18 November 1991, and the commemorative poster he presented on Friday, which features the image of a Croatian defender, French volunteer fighter Jean-Michel Nicolier, killed at Ovčara outside Vukovar, and his words "Vukovar, my choice for better or worse" to French reporters in the basement of the Vukovar hospital shortly before the city's fall.
Nicolier was a member of the Croatian Defence Force (HOS).
Nicolier's mother Lyliane Fournier has told the media that she and her son Paul Nicolier were shocked by Penava's move, stressing that his motives were political and that she did not agree to her son's image being used for political purposes and asking Penava to remove it from the poster as she had not been contacted by anyone from the city administration in that regard.
Penava: I did not contact Jean-Michel Nicolier's family
Penava said today that he had not contacted Jean-Michel Nicolier's family but that he had contacted members of HOS.
He also explained his statement of Friday that this year's commemorative procession in Vukovar would be led by HOS members and that those who have something against HOS should not come to Vukovar.
"That was not a condition or a ban. It was a request to all who have something against HOS units and their insignia to not come. That is a request because I consider it hypocritical... given that in this city we have a street dedicated to HOS volunteers, we have a bridge named after a HOS member, we have a bust, there is a photo of a HOS member in the mayor's office. We'll see what Mrs Lyliane Fournier has to say, I know her, we have cooperated on many occasions," said Penava.