Numerous Vukovar residents and patriots from all parts of Croatia were in attendance, alongside President Ivo Josipovic, Parliament Speaker Josip Leko, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, all ministers, MPs, religious dignitaries, members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of victims' and war veterans' associations as well as political parties.
A delegation of the Serb People's Council, led by president Milorad Pupovac, was also in there, announcing that they would lay wreaths for all Vukovar victims, both Croats and Serbs, who were killed in the 1991 war atrocities.
After the commemoration outside the hospital, participants were to embark on a 5.5 km procession down the town's streets to the Homeland War Victims Memorial Cemetery, where state and other delegations were to lay wreaths and lit candles.
Although the Initiative for the Defence of a Croatian Vukovar said there would not be two remembrance processions, most participants, after intoning the anthem and observing a minute's silence, joined the procession led by this NGO, including generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak.
Asked about the two processions, President Josipovic said it was most important today to pay respects to those who had given their lives for Vukovar and Croatia, and that it was up to anyone how they would do it.
According to Vukovar police, 250 officers have been hired as security alongside 150 members of local veterans' associations. The town authorities said they expected 100,000 people from all over Croatia to visit Vukovar today. Last year's anniversary saw a record 50,000 people attending.
During the 1991 military aggression on Vukovar by the then Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitaries, the local hospital treated 3,470 wounded and performed more than 2,500 surgeries.
The battle for the town began on 25 August 1991 and ended on November 18, when the town's defence, comprising 1,800 soldiers, police and volunteers, was broken.
According to the hospital's data, 1,624 people were killed and more than 2,500 were wounded during those three months. About 7,000 defenders and civilians were taken to Serb-run concentration camps, about 22,000 Croats and other non-Serbs were driven out of the town, and 464 remain unaccounted for.
In 1999, the Croatian parliament adopted a decision to observe November 18 as Vukovar 1991 Remembrance Day, stipulating that respects should be paid in a dignified and appropriate manner to all those who took part in the defence of Vukovar, a symbol of Croatia's freedom.