WREATHS LAID, CANDLES LIT FOR VICTIMS OF SERB AGGRESSION ON VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - "Croatia is asking that all war criminals be brought to justice, before Croatian courts and the Hague-based tribunal," Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in Vukovar on Sunday, and added that "Milosevic, who planned and executed the war, should stand trial, as should the top officials of the Yugoslav army, the political leadership of Serbia, and everybody who ordered the killings and carried them out". #L# President Mesic on Sunday led a state delegation to the marking of the tenth anniversary of the fall of Vukovar's defence by laying a joint wreath in remembrance of the victims of the Serb aggression in Vukovar along with Prime Minister Ivica Racan, parliament speaker Zlatko Tomcic and the last commander of the town's defence troops, Brigadier Branimir Borkovic. More than 100,000 residents of the eastern Croatian town and other citizens from all over Croatia were present at the commemoration, according to police estimates. They laid red roses and lit candles on the graves of Croatian soldiers buried at the Memorial Cemetery of victims of the Homeland Defence War. 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 lead Sunday's ceremony, but the present were told that due to heavy fog on roads, the President would be late. The people thus started on the "Column of Remembrance" from the Vukovar hospital at 10:45 without him. His delayed arrival at the hospital was greeted by booing people. Since the state delegation was more than a half an hour late for the ceremony of marking the tenth anniversary of the tragedy of Vukovar at the Memorial Cemetery, a retired general, Slobodan Praljak, called on the gathered to pray "Our Father" and leave the cemetery, adding it was "offending that state officials are half an hour late on this day, thus insulting the Croatian people". About a hundred people present followed Praljak. Very soon after, the state delegation headed by Mesic, Racan and Tomcic arrived at the cemetery and laid a wreath. The delegation, followed by insults from the people gathered, then left for the location of a mass grave on Ovcara farm where more than 200 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed and buried, and laid a wreath and lit candles. Asked to comment on the insults thrown at them by individuals from the crowd, President Mesic said he was greeted appropriately, except for "individuals who do not recognise or respect the sanctity of a victim, nor the sanctity of the location on which they are standing". Present at the ceremony were numerous MPs, Vice-Premier Goran Granic, War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, Defence Minister Jozo Rados, Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Petar Stipetic, representatives of Vukovar-Srijem County authorities and the Vukovar city leadership. 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 People's Army (JNA) and local rebel Serbs who opposed Croatia's independence in a battle which killed and wounded thousands and wrecked most of the 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) lml