Mayor Mato Frankovic said earlier in the week this would be the first exhibition at the UN focusing on Croatia's 1991-95 Homeland War. "We want to show the world how Dubrovnik suffered in the Homeland War, but also how it was rebuilt after the war."
Julijana Antic Brautovic, one of the authors of the exhibition together with Mato Brautovic and Goran Cvjetinovic, said two historic precedents were related to Dubrovnik.
"For the first time in history, UNESCO sent envoys to a war-affected area and they arrived in Dubrovnik already in November 1991, recording the damage. Thanks to them, Dubrovnik was included on the List of Endangered Sites six days after extensive destruction on 6 December 1991. Together with Croatian experts, they conceived a reconstruction methodology and priorities and oversaw everything," said Antic Brautovic.
The other precedent was that Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) General Pavle Strugar and Vice Admiral Miodrag Jokic were the first people to be convicted by an international tribunal of crimes against the cultural heritage as crimes against humanity, she said.
Dubrovnik lived under siege for 240 days, mostly without electricity or fresh water. The JNA swept through surrounding villages looting houses and razing them to the ground. December 6, 1991 will be remembered as one of the worst days in Dubrovnik's history, when Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers targeted the medieval walled town with all types of weapons weapon, killing 19 defenders and civilians and wounding another 60 people. Thousands of shells fell on the historical centre, nine palaces were burnt to the ground and 461 buildings were severely damaged that day.
During the war in the area, 116 civilians and 430 Croatian soldiers were killed and several hundred were injured.
The exhibition is organised by the City of Dubrovnik and Croatia's Permanent Mission to the UN under the auspices of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the government. After New York, the display will be staged in Dubrovnik's twin cities.