VUKOVAR MARKS 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF TRAGEDY

VUKOVAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - More than 10,000 people marched with lit candles through the streets of Vukovar on Monday, Memorial Day of 1991 Vukovar Victims, paying respects to people killed and missing during the Greater Serbian aggression. #L# State, county and town delegations, as well as representatives of veterans' and war victims' associations laid wreaths at the foot of a memorial at the Memorial Cemetery of Homeland War Victims at which 646 victims of Greater Serbian aggression against Vukovar have been buried. Presidential Advisor for internal affairs, Igor Dekanic, laid a wreath on behalf of the President. Parliamentary president Zlatko Tomcic laid a wreath on behalf of the Croatian parliament, and Vice- Premier Zeljka Antunovic on behalf of the government. Among the numerous residents of Vukovar, returnees, war victims and war veterans were Croatian Homeland War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, the president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Drazen Budisa, the president of the Croatian Christian Democratic Party (HKDU), Anto Kovacevic, the president of the Croatian Bloc party (HB), Ivic Pasalic, the vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Jadranka Kosor, the vice-president of the Democratic Centre (DC), Vesna Skare Ozbolt, and representatives of other political parties. In 90 days during which Vukovar was defended before it succumbed to Serb attacks, 600 Croatian soldiers and more than a thousand civilians had been killed, 22,000 Vukovar Croats and other non- Serbs had been displaced, and 10,000 imprisoned soldiers and civilians taken to concentration camps. Six hundred and twenty people are still registered as missing from Vukovar-Srijem County. Most of them were last heard of or seen in Vukovar. About 1,800 Croatian soldiers participated in the defence of Vukovar, fending off the superior enemy for full three months. On November 18, 1991, the Serb aggressor managed to break through the exhausted defence and enter the town. (hina) lml sb