MONUMENT UNVEILED IN E. VILLAGE FOR 208 VICTIMS OF SERB AGGRESSION

TORDINCI, Oct 25 (Hina) - A monument was unveiled in the eastern village of Tordinci on Wednesday in memory of 208 victims of last decade's Greater Serbia aggression on Croatia. The monument was erected by the church of the Holy Trinity on the site of a mass grave from which the remains of only five victims were exhumed. A local priest said it remained unknown where 203 more were buried. "We only know that the victims were taken out of the mass grave in 1994," said Marko Bubalo. Among the victims were soldiers and civilians, including women, children, and elderly people. The president of the Vukovar-Srijem County Assembly, Dragan Papac, said the monument was made of stone which "symbolises the firmness and suffering of the Croatian people." This is in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for free Croatia, and "nobody has the right to diminish the value of the Homeland Defence War," he said. He reminded that numerous commemorations were being held in nearby villages Cerici, Nustar, and Lovas for victims of Croatia's early 1990s war of independence from the former Yugoslav federation. Tordinci municipal head Marin Belic said the monument was erected at an initiative of the local parish and the municipality. He added, however, that it was up to the government to erect a monument for the Tordinci victims, as it had done in the case of some other mass graves. In attendance were local residents and the victims' relatives, representatives of civil and military authorities, and the county police. The Holy Trinity church, heavily damaged during the aggression, was built 272 years ago, while the local parish is 650 years old. Almost all Croat pre-war residents, expelled during the Serb aggression, have returned to their former homes here. (hina) ha