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Zagreb - State and other official delegations on Sunday laid wreaths and lit candles at the Homeland War Memorial Cemetery in Vukovar, on the occasion of Vukovar Remembrance Day and the 27th anniversary of the city's fall into the hands of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries on 18 November 1991, after a three-month siege.
Tribute to the victims was paid at the city's memorial cemetery by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who walked to the cemetery in a procession from the Vukovar Hospital, together with tens of thousands of other people who arrived in Vukovar from all parts of the country.
Wreaths were also laid and candles lit by a delegation of Vukovar defenders and war victims' associations, led by the last commander of the city's defence forces, Branko Borković, and a delegation of the City of Vukovar, led by Mayor Ivan Penava.
A prayer for the Vukovar victims was led by Djakovo-Osijek Archbishop Đuro Hranić and a mass was said by the Bishop of Eisenstadt (Austria), Egidije Ivan Živković.
After the mass, the state delegations are expected to lay a wreath and light candles at Ovčara, the site of a 1991 atrocity, after which PM Plenković will hold a meeting with county heads.
According to available data, 1,664 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed in the defence of Vukovar, and 308 soldiers and civilians remain unaccounted for on the list of missing Vukovar defenders and civilians. (Hina)