DAY OF VUKOVAR MARKED

VUKOVAR, May 3 (Hina) - The Day of Vukovar, the eastern Croatian town which was almost razed to the ground during the Serbian aggression on Croatia earlier in the decade, was marked for the first time on Monday, with a special session of the town council among else. The chairwoman of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, and former deputy chairman and current Croatian Radio Television director Ivica Vrkic were presented with charters proclaiming them honorary citizens of Vukovar. Present at the session were also the Croatian President's envoy Nedjeljko Mihanovic, Djakovo-Srijem diocese bishop Msgr. Marin Srakic, representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Serb national minority in Vukovar. "Vukovar is the embodiment of all our hurts, but also a symbol of the victory of Croatian sovereignty and freedom. Vukovar is a new watershed and a new date on the chronometer of Croatia's history," Mihanovic said. He thanked the town council on behalf of the Croatian President for proclaiming President Tudjman honorary citizen of Vukovar, as did Skare-Obolt and Vrkic. Parliament vice president Vladimir Seks will be presented with his charter subsequently. Charters with the town's coat of arms were given to all town counillors and former members of the town authorities. Mayor Vladimir Stengl reminded of the reconstruction and return, pointing out that 1,300 flats and some 600 houses have been reconstructed to date, and that some 3,000 residents have returned to their pre-war homes. Celebrating a mass for all the victims killed in the Serbian aggression on Croatia, bishop Srakic said, "We want to bring life back to Vukovar in the full sense of the word and in abundance. But this return must be free of any sediment of hatred. May a new path of love for Vukovar bring us back to this town." As part of today's celebrations, a reconstructed building of the Employment Bureau was opened. Osijek-Baranja County invested US$330,000 in the reconstruction. "We want this to be an incentive to other counties to comply with their obligation to Vukovar in the shortest possible period of time," county prefect Branimir Glavas said. The said building is the first to be completed in Vukovar among those whose reconstruction is financed by a Croatian county. (hina) ha