SERBS PROBABLY WON'T ATTEND VUKOVAR VICTIMS REMEMBRANCE DAY

VUKOVAR, Nov 15 (Hina) - Representatives of the Serb national minority in Vukovar this year again probably will not join in the marking of Remembrance Day for the eastern Croatian town's victims killed in 1991, Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) president Vojislav Stanimirovic said on Friday. #L# Stanimirovic wondered if participation in the ceremony made sense at all in the wake of the recent death of SDSS vice president and Vukovar Town Council vice president Milos Vojnovic. Vojnovic died at the time of a heated public debate as to whether he could be appointed a Vukovar County Court judge given that in the early 1990s he had worked for bodies of the Croatian Serb rebels' self- proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina. "We don't even have the protocol for the marking of November 18, but after Vojnovic's death and the fact that nobody from the town's authorities extended condolences, even though he was the vice president of the town's council at the time of his death, we wonder if our presence there has any sense," Stanimirovic told Hina. He stated that relations between Croats and Serbs in Vukovar after Vojnovic's death had deteriorated considerably. "The situation today is much worse that at the beginning of the peaceful reintegration process," Stanimirovic said. He believes the Serbs' presence at the November 18 event would only irritate those attending. Thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed in the Serb aggression on Vukovar, about 8,000 were taken to Serb concentration camps, while 22,000 Vukovar residents were expelled from their homes. To date 10,550 displaced persons have returned to Vukovar, which today has a Serb community of some 11,500. (hina) ha sb