Tens of thousands of visitors coming from throughout Croatia and abroad paid respects to the heroic town, its defenders and all victims.
The commemoration ceremony began in the Vukovar Hospital courtyard, and was attended by the President of the Republic, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi\u0107, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Josip Leko, the Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovi\u0107 and the ministers of the Croatian Government, the delegation of the Croatian Ministry of Defence and the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, headed by the Chief, General Drago Lovri\u0107, the representatives of municipal and county authorities.
The ceremony (the performance by the Croatian Navy Vocal Ensemble \u201cSveti Juraj\u201c and a memorial recital), the messages sent and the minute of silence observed honoured the defenders of Vukovar , the symbol of freedom.\u00a0
The commemoration traditionally featured the march of the visitors along the route from the Vukovar Hospital to the Memorial Cemetery of the Victims of the Homeland War in Vukovar; the column was headed by the members of the Association of the children of the fallen and missing defenders from the Homeland War, the veterans of the Brigade of Vukovar and the associations of defenders from Vukovar.\u00a0 The column was united in pride and gratitude, evoked the sufferings endured 24 years earlier .
The traditional mass at the Vukovar Cemetery was served by Mons. \u017delimir Pulji\u0107, the archbishop of Zadar and the Chairman of the the Croatian Bishops’ Conference \u201cWe are here to commemorate, as we always do on 18 November, the tragic fate of the town of Vukovar and the village of \u0160kabrnja, the long column of exhausted residents of Vukovar forced to leave their town and the horrifying massacres committed in the Vukovar Hospital and at Ov\u010dara by the aggressor having seized the town\u201c. Mons. Pulji\u0107 praised the much-needed unity , pride and respect manifested by the numerous visitors to\u00a0 Vukovar and \u0160kabrnja\u00a0 and extended respects to the families of the fallen defenders.
The wreaths were laid and candles burned on the graves of the fallen defenders and at the central cross of the cemetery, as well as at the Ov\u010dara Memorial Site.\u00a0 <\/p>\n[nggallery id=1905]\n
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Vukovar \u2013 the place of special piety on 18 November commemorated the 24th anniversary of the tragical occupation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4698,"featured_media":36232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n