STONE CROSS CONSECRATED IN VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 7564 ) VUKOVAR, May 29 (Hina) - In celebration of Croatian Statehood Day, May 30, Auxiliary Bishop of Djakovo-Srijem diocese, Djuro Gasparevic, on Friday consecrated a stone sculpture shaped as a cross which has been erected at the mouth of the Vuka River which flows into the Danube in Vukovar. The sculpture was donated by a Pazin firm "Kamen", the Croatian Navy and Pula's Chamber of Commerce. The sculpture which is 8.5 metres tall and weighs 45 tonnes is the work of sculptors Sime Vidulin and Marin Starcevic. It was erected on May 14. "To the Victims for a Free Croatia" is engraved in its pedestal, while on the cross, which bears Croatian wickerwork instead of the image of Christ, a line by a Croatian 17th century poet and patriot, Fran Krsto Frankopan, written in old Croatian Glagolithic alphabet, reads: "May those who died honourably forever live". In the presence of several hundred inhabitants of Vukovar commemorative speeches were held by Rear Admiral Ante Budimir and Vladimir Stengl, the Mayor of Vukovar, who said that the cross would from now on be a place to commemorate all Croatian defenders of Vukovar and its civilian victims. At the foot of the cross, wreaths were placed by delegations of the Vukovar-Srijem County and town of Vukovar, the Association of Homeland War Victims, the Ministry of Croatian Homeland War Defenders, the Croatian Army and the Interior Ministry. (hina) jn jfk/bag 291950 MET may 98