VUKOVAR MARKS ITS DAY

VUKOVAR, May 3 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament President Vladimir Seks said at a session of the Vukovar Town Council and government, held on Monday on the occasion of Vukovar Day and the day of the town's patron saints Philip and Jacob, that return to this eastern town required not only economic revival and reconstruction of housing facilities but also spiritual revival.#L# "There will be no success if there is no revival of spiritual life, unity and reconciliation among the residents of Vukovar," Seks said. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Family Affairs, War Veterans and Inter-Generation Solidarity Jadranka Kosor said the government would soon hold a session in Vukovar to introduce a new bill on areas of special state interest. She also announced the adoption of a new law on the rights of war veterans and an employment project for them. It is important to reiterate in Vukovar that the Homeland War was just, defensive and a war of liberation and that its values cannot be questioned, Kosor said. The session of the Town Council and government was also attended by Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic and Town Council president Pilip Karaula, who said that the political situation in the town was stable despite the fact that Croat and Serb councillors would continue to have differing opinions on some issues for a long time. He called for conducting a census for Vukovar to establish the exact number of its residents. According to the 2001 census, Vukovar has 31,500 residents, according to voters registers it has 33,000 residents, while police data speak about 46,000 residents. Mayor Vladimir Stengl said that the biggest problem in the reconstruction of the town were administrative obstacles. Delegations of the town and Vukovar County authorities and the city of Dubrovnik, Vukovar's friend-city, laid wreaths at the monument to Homeland War victims at the Memorial Cemetery in tribute to victims killed in the Serbian aggression on Vukovar in 1991. The reconstructed building of the Vukovar port authorities, which the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development financed with 2.2 million kuna, was officially opened today. (Hina) rml