CROATIA MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF FALL OF VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - Croatian authorities on Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the bloody conquest of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar by Serb forces. A candlelit vigil took place on Saturday evening at Vukovar's hospital from where hundreds of patients, mostly soldiers, were taken away and killed in November, 1991. Croatian President Stipe Mesic was expected to attend Sunday's ceremony, but the present were told that due to heavy fog on roads, the President would be late. Present at the ceremony were numerous MPs, War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, Defence Minister Jozo Rados, representatives of Vukovar-Srijem County authorities and the Vukovar city leadership. President Mesic, Prime Minister Ivica Racan and parliament speaker Zlatko Tomcic will lay a wreath at the Memorial Grave for Serb aggression victims in Vukovar. The state delegation will also lay a wreath at a mass grave in Ovcara. Serbia and Croatia fought a war in 1991 after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Vukovar was besieged and bombed by the Serb- majority Yugoslav Army (JNA) and local rebel Serbs who opposed Croatia's independence in a battle which killed and wounded thousands and wrecked most of this city on the Danube River After the JNA and Serb paramilitary forces invaded the town, they kidnapped 255 Croats and other non-Serbs from the Vukovar hospital, executed them and buried their bodies in a mass grave near the Ovcara farm. Some 22,000 Croats were forced to flee. On November 18, 1991, exactly a decade ago, Vukovar became the first European town after World War II to be completely destroyed in war. (hina) it