Although state officials did not manage to get to the Memorial Cemetery, where they were to have laid wreaths and lit candles for the victims of the 1991 military aggression on Vukovar, Josipovic told reporters the reverence was in the hearts of the state officials, "it exists and no one can destroy it."
He said that because this was a day of paying tribute to Vukovar's victims, state officials would not insist on getting to the Memorial Cemetery and that they withdrew from the procession of remembrance, but they would lay wreaths and light candles at the Ovcara mass grave site.
"Vukovar is a symbol of reconciliation of the Croatian people and society. It was and remains that," said Leko, regretting that the state leaders were prevented from laying wreaths at the cemetery to pay their respects to those killed in the military aggression on Vukovar. "But such are the times. It will be better in both Vukovar and Croatia."
Explaining why state leaders would not lay wreaths at the cemetery this year, Milanovic said, "You can't force things. They see this as a match, but this isn't a match for me. Let them play alone."
Like every year, the protocol of marking Vukovar 1991 Remembrance Day envisaged that participants gather outside the general hospital and proceed in a procession towards the Memorial Cemetery.
But after the national anthem was intoned and a minute's silence was observed at the start of the commemoration outside the hospital, the Initiative for the Defence of a Croatian Vukovar started the procession towards the cemetery, while the state leaders stayed for the commemoration to end.
After it ended, a procession with state officials and several hundred people headed towards the cemetery and met with the first procession at a town crossroads. After a long wait for the procession led by the Initiative to pass through, the state leaders decided not to proceed to the cemetery and headed for Ovcara.