Zagreb - Ahead of Homeland War Remembrance Day and Remembrance Day for Vukovar and Škabrnja, to be marked on 18 November, a photographic exhibition called "Vukowar 1991", by Damir Radnić and Viktorin Jurić, was opened in Parliament House on Wednesday.
The exhibition will be open in Parliament House until 21 November, featuring 250 war photographs from Vukovar and Bogdanovci, taken in September, October and November 1991 while Vukovar was under siege by the former JNA Yugoslav army and Serb paramilitary units.
Radnić and Jurić were volunteers during the Homeland War, both in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as during the defence of Vukovar. The photographs were taken during rare moments of resting between battles.
These were the only preserved war photos from these locations taken during the siege (1 October to 18 November 1991) and comprise valuable archival and historical material.
In his address at the opening ceremony, Veterans Affairs Minister Tomo Medved said that the photographs are a reminder of the cost of the freedom Croatia enjoys today.
"The photographs portray all the horror and suffering, as well as the courage and resoluteness of Croatia's defenders," Medved said and added that the heroism the defenders had shown in Bogdanovci and Vukovar should be an inspiration and a guide on how to cope with hardships.
"The message is that we as a nation have to value Croatian defenders. In the collective conscience of the people, Croatian defenders have a special role and it is up to us to ensure that they are respected in an appropriate way," said Medved, underscoring that finding the missing persons from the Homeland War is a priority.
The opening ceremony was attended, alongside MPs, by war hero Ivica Jurčan and the mother of the French volunteer Jean Michel Nicollier who fought in the defence of Vukovar and was killed at the Ovačara farm after the fall of the city.