Remembrance Day for the victims of Vukovar 1991-2011

Central part of the commemoration began at the Vukovar hospital by gathering of Vukovar’s citizens, veterans, families of killed and many thousands of people coming from all over Croatia, after which the Convoy of Memories had been formed that went through the streets of Vukovar to Memorial Cemetery of Homeland War Victims.
Tribute to killed and missing soldiers and civilians was paid by laying wreaths by President Ivo Josipovic, Croatian parliamentary delegation led by Speaker Luka Bebic, and the Government led by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. Wreaths were also laid and candles lit by the delegation of the Croatian Armed Forces, the Police Directorate, 204^th Vukovar Brigade, whose members have participated in the defence of Vukovar in 1991 during which was killed and missing around 900 members of the unit, the Coordinating Association of Homeland War Veterans of the city of Vukovar, the delegation of the city of Vukovar, Zagreb and Dubrovnik and Vukovar-Sirmium County and all other Croatian counties. The delegation of the Defence Ministry and Armed Forces was headed by the Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic, and Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Drago Lovric.

Holy Mass for all the dead and missing, led by the Archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, was served at the Memorial Cemetery of Homeland War Victims in Vukovar. In his homily, Cardinal Puljic particularly emphasized the Vukovar sacrifice taken for free Croatia, and said: “We came here to pay tribute to all the victims from Vukovar and the Homeland War. Nobody has the right to ignore these victims, and by this offend them”, Puljic concluded.