Numerous crimes were committed against civilians and defenders in this war-ravaged city.

During nearly three months of aggression by former JNA and Serb paramilitary groups against Vukovar in 1991, at least 2,717 Croatian defenders and civilians were killed, more than 22,000 residents were expelled from the city, and several thousands of defenders and civilians were taken to the Serb-run concentration camps in occupied areas and in Serbia, and about 300 of them died in those camps.

The names of 350 persons are still on the list of persons detained or gone missing in the Homeland War, after they disappeared without a trace in wartime Vukovar.

Although the fighting in Vukovar and its environs had started even before that, the date usually cited as the day when the battle for the city began is 25 August 1991, when the JNA and Serb paramilitary groups launched an all-out artillery and infantry attack with the intention of overrunning the city in a week at most.

However, the Croatian defenders, although ten times weaker in terms of numbers and weaponry, managed to resist the attack for nearly three months. The residents were without electricity and regular water and food supply while hundreds of shells fell on the city every day, in addition to tank and air attacks.

The occupation of Vukovar lasted until 15 January 1998 and the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, after which the people of Vukovar finally returned to their homes.

According to available data, 5,400 family homes and 282 block of flats have been rebuilt in the post-war reconstruction in the area of Vukovar, and €245 million was spent on that segment of the post-war renovation.

Commemorative events to be held

A commemorative programme titled “Vukovar – a place of special homeland piety” starts at 10 a.m. Monday at the National Memorial Hospital Dr Juraj Njavro.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic will attend the programme in addition to war veterans and association representatives.

A column of remembrance will be led by Croatian defenders of Vukovar together with family members of the fallen, disappeared, killed, forcibly taken and deceased Croatian defenders, as well as those who went through the wartime destruction of Vukovar as children.

At the Homeland War Victims Memorial Cemetery, respects will be paid to Vukovar victims by laying wreaths and lighting candles.

On Sunday, on the eve of Remembrance Day, Croatians started holding commemorative events in tribute to victims of the fall of the eastern city of Vukovar and the southern town of Skabrnja in the hands of the JNA and Serb rebels 33 years ago.

On the eve of Vukovar and Skabrnja Remembrance Day, residents in cities and towns across Croatia lit candles and lanterns in the centres of their communities and along streets named after Vukovar.

After the four-year occupation, Skabrnja and the nearby areas in the Dalmatian hinterland were liberated in August 1995 during Operation Storm at the end of the Homeland War, while Vukovar was reintegrated in the Croatian constitutional and legal system in January 1998 as part of the UN-monitored peaceful reintegration.