© APA/AFP/DENIS LOVROVIC
Tens of thousands of people commemorated the 32nd anniversary of the fall of the besieged eastern Croatian city – a memorial procession accompanied by numerous flags with controversial Ustasha slogans.
In the Croatian city Vukovar is the this year’s memorial day for the victims who died in 1991 siege lasting several monthsg were killed by the Yugoslav Army (JNA) and Serbian militias, strongly influenced by nationalist tones. Tens of thousands of people, including the entire head of state, took part in the annual memorial procession on Saturday, which, according to the media, was marked this year by numerous flags with the controversial greeting fascist Ustasha was accompanied.
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The slogan “Za dom – spremni” (For the homeland – ready), which was reportedly chanted repeatedly on the streets of Vukovar on Saturday, is featured in the emblem of the right-wing paramilitary group HOS from the Croatian war. This was given a visible role at the commemoration ceremony this year.
The mayor of Vukovar and chairman of the right-wing populist homeland movement (Domovinski pokret), Ivan Penava, had the HOS members lead the memorial march on the grounds that they too had fought for the liberation of the city. Weeks before, he had caused a stir with the event’s official poster, which, in addition to the inscription HOS, also highlighted the letter “U”, which was interpreted as an allusion to the Ustasha.
With a view to next year’s parliamentary elections, Penava has been criticized from all sides for exploiting the memorial event and the victims of Vukovar for political purposes. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković accused him of misusing the most important days in Croatian history. On Saturday, the head of government in Vukovar emphasized that the city must be a place of unity and not of division. In addition to the Prime Minister, President Zoran Milanović and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković were in Vukovar on Saturday.
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However, the co-ruling Serbian minority party SDSS stayed away this year. In previous years, Croatian Serb representatives had commemorated the Serb and Croatian victims by throwing wreaths into the Danube the day before the official commemoration ceremony. This year they were told that they were not welcome, and the homeland movement even threatened to prevent them from doing so with a human chain. Anja Šimpraga, deputy head of government from the SDSS, explained that they did not stay away out of fear, but because they do not want their memory of all the victims of the Vukovar tragedy to become a reason for physical confrontations.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vukovar emphasized that anyone who wants to commemorate the victims of the Greater Serbian aggression against Croatia is welcome at the memorial procession in Vukovar. He welcomed the fact that the Serbian minority party had listened. “It is better that they stay away from Vukovar, they are provocateurs,” Penava said, according to media reports.
Vukovar also called “Hero City”.
Vukovar, also called the “Hero City”, has an important place in Croatian history and great emotional significance for the population. On November 18, 1991, the city fell after an 87-day siege. Since 2020, this day has been celebrated as a state holiday as “Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Homeland War and the Victims of Vukovar and Škabrnja”. The city on the border with Serbia was razed to the ground after the fall, 22,000 non-Serb residents were expelled and around 7,000 prisoners were taken to camps in Serbia. According to Croatian sources, around 2,700 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed during the siege, and more than 380 city residents are still missing today.
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