This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page By 2025-01-04T06:00:00+00:00 Transport & Infrastructure Oleg Butković attended a ceremony on December 18 to mark the completion of work to renew and electrify the Vinkovci – Vukovar line The €61m project 85% co-financed by the EU included modernisation of the 18·7 km single track line and the stations at Vukovar Borovo Naselje and Vukovar The contract was signed by infrastructure manager HŽ Infra Comsa SA and Comsa Instalaciones Y Sistemas Industriales SA in December 2019 As well as supporting freight traffic to and from the River Danube port of Vukovar the project is intended to raise the raise the maximum speed of passenger services speed from 50 to 120 km/h HŽ Infra it will take two to three months to fully deploy all the safety equipment and processes required CROATIA: HŽ Infrastruktura has awarded Strabag a €55m contract to modernise the line between the Slovenian border and Sveti Petar u Šumi in Istria The work on the 50 km single-track non-electrified route is expected to take three years CROATIA: HŽ Infrastruktura has launched a €620m tender for the modernisation and double-tracking its 83 km Dugo Selo – Novska line The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility and the Competitiveness & Cohesion Programme level crossing upgrading and station modernisation on the Vinkovci – Vukovar line was signed by HŽ Infra Comsa SA and Comsa Instalaciones Y Sistemas Industriales SA in Vukovar on December 20 The 18·7 km line connects the Zagreb – Vinkovci .. 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All rights reserved Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations Political representatives of the Serb minority were present on Tuesday in Vukovar to remember the city’s fall and occupation following the aggression started by the former Yugoslav army in 1991 Paying respects to war victims and peace as a way… Paying respects to war victims and peace as a way of living always go together and anyone trying to separate the two is “seriously and unchristianly wrong,” Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac said in Vukovar. [Shutterstock/Ajdin Kamber] Lauren Simmonds 2024 – Brave foreign volunteers stood selflessly alongside Croatian defenders when the Serbs began to attack the country French defender Jean-Michel Nicolier reportedly told his Croatian comrades that he hoped to move to Vukovar when the war ended Jean-Michel never lived to see the end of it As Index vijesti/news writes, Croatian defender Dražen Dujić recently recounted his memories of meeting French defender Jean-Michel Nicolier to Dalmatinski portal all the remains of this incredibly brave young man who was murdered at Ovčara is a monument to him “I was with him for a while we were together in the same unit but I remember well that he said to us: “Guys I’m going to come to live here,” recalled Dujić the mother of the tragically killed Frenchman visits her son’s memorial every week and walks the bridge that bears his name “She left everything she had back home in France and came to live in the country and city for which her dear son Jean-Michel gave his life,” said Dujić who himself returned to home to Vukovar after 32 long years “There are a lot of guests who visit Vukovar these days you should tell them some things about this city for many years not a single bird could be heard singing here because of the noise Dujić also has his own emotional story from wartime “A shell fell that cut a young lady completely in half I doubt that baby was even three months old I managed to wrap her in a sweater and I ran with her about seven kilometres to the hospital but just a couple of months ago I met that girl the little girl I took to the hospital,” he said she lives in Germany now and she graduated in biology Someone told her about a terrible event at the very beginning of her life we managed to find each other recently.” and website in this browser for the next time I comment your new go-to podcast to spice up your weekday mornings with relevant news and behind-the-scenes from Brussels and beyond From the economy to the climate and the EU's role in world affairs this talk show sheds light on European affairs and the issues that impact on our daily lives as Europeans Tune in to understand the ins and outs of European politics Dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries Deep dive conversations with business leaders Euronews Tech Talks goes beyond discussions to explore the impact of new technologies on our lives the podcast provides valuable insights into the intersection of technology and society Europe's water is under increasing pressure floods are taking their toll on our drinking water Join us on a journey around Europe to see why protecting ecosystems matters and to discover some of the best water solutions an animated explainer series and live debate - find out why Water Matters We give you the latest climate facts from the world’s leading source analyse the trends and explain how our planet is changing We meet the experts on the front line of climate change who explore new strategies to mitigate and adapt In his seminal book on the wars on Yugoslavia British journalist Misha Glenny describes reaching the outskirts of the Croatian city of Vukovar on the Danube in 1991 on day two of what would be a bloody 87-day siege by Serb militia and the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) He and another journalist were told they could enter the town “Later on we admitted to each other how often and how deeply we regretted that decision," Glenny recalled "We had travelled to the edge of a crime without parallel in post-war Europe It was our duty to report the precise details about Vukovar Vukovar’s total destruction during what would be the first phase of the wars in Yugoslavia invited comparisons to Stalingrad during World War II The town was surrounded by 40,000 JNA soldiers and Serbian paramilitaries and defended by just 2,000 fighters with the Croat national guard “The exhilaration of Serb fighters and many civilians at the news of Vukovar’s liberation can be to an extent explained by ignorance But anybody who believes that you can liberate a pile of useless ruins which you yourself have created needs remedial education in semantics,” Glenny wrote in his 1992 book Hundreds of Croatian fighters were killed when Vukovar was taken and tens of thousands of non-Serb inhabitants expelled When it was finally returned to Croatia in 1998 the city was rebuilt and became a symbol of Croatian independence and resistance tens of thousands gather in the city to commemorate its fall on November 18 You can watch this year's events in the video player But it is what happened next that helped secure Vukovar’s reputation amongst the massacres that would go on to define the wars in the Balkans that would only come to an end four years later with the US-brokered Dayton Accords Despite a deal between the JNA and the Croatian government that Croat soldiers and civilians in the city would be evacuated 261 men taken from Vukovar’s hospital were transported to a farm building at Ovcara They were then taken in groups of between 10 and 12 to another site where they were shot and buried in a mass grave was indicted for war crimes over the incident and arrested by the UN At least two JNA officers were later convicted by the International Criminal Court and it was one of a number of war crimes for which Slobodan Milosevic was accused before his own death in 2006 Vukovar remained a thorny issue between Serbia and Croatia with Zagreb seeking reparations from Belgrade over the issue the International Court of Justice ruled that despite serious crimes having been committed at Vukovar Croatia had not proved that genocide had been committed during the hospital massacre Belgrade alleged that Croatia had committed ethnic cleansing by expelling 200,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia in 1995 found that although crimes had been committed It concluded that although many crimes had been committed by the forces of both countries during the conflict neither side had succeeded in proving the intent to commit genocide by “destroying the population in whole or in part” Reflecting on the atrocities committed by both Serbs and Croats in the early 1990s shortly before the massacres at Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo would make the towns and cities of the Balkans household names Glenny warned that justifying massacres by pointing to those committed by the opposing side would only ensure that the pattern of violence continued “There is no sense trying to apportion blame for the vile murderous activities of Serb and Croat extremists,” Glenny wrote “For once the logic of the conflict had passed the point of no return This article was originally published in October 2020 You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed the republics of Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia the Yugoslav army—largely composed of Serbs and controlled by Slobodan Milosevic—invaded Croatia justifying the act as a means to protect the Serbian minority there and the Serbs conducted mass executions of hundreds of Croat men burying them in mass graves.When Bosnia’s independence from Yugoslavia was recognized by the United States and the European Union on April 7 Bosnian Serb forces backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army immediately launched offensives to control areas they coveted Bosniak and Croatian civilians bore the brunt of Serbian assaults in what became known as “ethnic cleansing”: torture The Bosnian government army tried to defend its territory While all sides committed war crimes and crimes against humanity Bosnian Serb forces systematically perpetrated abuses throughout the areas they controlled The conflict included an intensive bombing campaign of Bosnia’s capital in “the Siege of Sarajevo”—in which snipers in hills around the city shot at civilians as they tried to get food and water—as well as roundups and mass executions In the summer of 1995, the Bosnian Serb army prepared to capture and “cleanse” the three towns in eastern Bosnia that remained under Bosnian government control: Srebrenica Planning for these offensives occurred even though the international community in 1993 had declared these enclaves “safe havens” to be disarmed and protected by UN peacekeeping forces Bosniak civilians fled the Serbian advance on Srebrenica and sought shelter at the UN base north of Srebrenica at Potocari decided to try to walk to Bosnian government-held territory Serbian forces arrived at the gates of the UN base and that night terrorized and killed some Bosniak civilians sheltering by the UN compound The crowd was separated: women and children were allowed to board the buses and were transported to Bosnian government-held territory the buses were stopped several times and searched More men and some women were taken off to be killed or raped Men and boys taken from the crowd at Potocari were held by Serbian forces the Dutch soldiers expelled the remaining refugees from the UN base The column of Bosniak men fleeing through the forest encountered Serbian military units Some men made their way to government-held territory; others died; and others surrendered to the Bosnian Serbs The captured men were taken to execution sites and murdered Only after Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN safe haven at Zepa and dropped a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo market did the international community respond forcefully NATO launched three weeks of bombing on Bosnian Serb positions in conjunction with a Bosnian government and Croatian ground offensive that helped push the Serbs back to negotiations The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended in December 1995 with a peace agreement negotiated in Dayton more than 100,000 civilians had been killed more than 20,000 were missing and believed to be dead A little girl draped in the Croatian flag looks on at Vukovar’s memorial cemerety Tens of thousands joined memorial events marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the eastern town of Vukovar to the Serb-led Yugoslav army during Croatia’s 1991-95 independence war Military personnel holding flags march in Vukovar People lay flowers at Vukovar’s memorial cemerety Thousands joined memorial events marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the eastern town of Vukovar to the Serb-led Yugoslav army during Croatia’s 1991-95 independence war A woman kneels as people lay flowers at Vukovar’s memorial cemerety People march backdropped by the Vukovar Water Tower a symbol of Croatian unity Children hold the Croatian flag during a march in Vukovar Croatia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people on Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar that was demolished by the Serb-led Yugoslav army during the 1991-95 war becoming a symbol of resistance and national unity in the conflict Top officials headed a huge column of people during a traditional march through the town on the Danube The participants carried Croatian flags or were wrapped in them as they walked in silence Many people later also laid flowers and lit candles at a cemetery where the victims of the 87-day siege of Vukovar had been buried More than 10,000 people died in the Croatian war that erupted after the country declared independence from Serb-led Yugoslav federation triggering a rebellion by the minority Serbs who took control of swaths of Croatian territory The Yugoslav army troops relentlessly shelled Vukovar Croatia views the town as a martyr of its resistance to what the Croats describe as “Serb aggression” against the nation Hundreds of people were also killed after the town’s fall in November 1991 and their bodies were dumped in a mass grave at a nearby pig farm war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced to prison terms two former Yugoslav army officers and a former Croatian Serb official in connection with the killings Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Thursday that Croatia is still looking for more than 1,800 people missing from the conflict and is seeking information from Serbia Relations between the Balkan rivals remain tense The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights also said many of the victims of the Vukovar siege are still awaiting truth and justice “I reiterate my call on political leaders in the region to open police and military archives which may hold information on missing persons and for improved cooperation in this field,” said Mijatovic The war ended in 1995 after Croatia retook most of the territories that had been held by the Serb rebels Tens of thousands of Serbs then fled the offensive Croatia organized Thursday’s march despite soaring virus infections in the country Plenkovic urged people to show responsibility and avoid putting each other at risk 2025 – Vukovar tourism could be set to gain further momentum thanks to popular river cruises a cruiser carrying 140 people arrived in Croatia’s Hero City As Vecernji list/Branimir Bradaric writes the first of an encouraging 389 announced river cruise ships carrying 140 tourists The tourists set off from the Hungarian capital of Budapest and are sailing towards the Romanian city of Giurgiu and on that occasion they’ll tour the city and get better acquainted with this chronically overlooked part of Croatia “The tourists on this first vessel were welcomed with local products such as rakija we can expect a record number of cruise ships docking near Vukovar A total of 505 have been announced thus far and this will be a huge boost to Vukovar tourism The passengers on this cruise ship are mostly from the USA and they make up almost 40 percent of guests on luxury river cruise ships they’ll visit the centre and our two museums,” said Marina Sekulić director of the Tourist Board of the City of Vukovar last year Vukovar recorded a 5.5 percent increase in cruise ship arrivals compared to the previous year which is gradually placing Vukovar more firmly on the tourism map we have been recording excellent tourism indicators as well as an increase in the number of arrivals and overnight stays Vukovar tourism recorded 52,996 arrivals and 86,794 overnight stays that’s 18,431 arrivals and 42,001 overnight stays which is an increase of 0.91 percent in arrivals and 9.21 percent in overnight stays compared to 2023’s numbers These figures prove that Vukovar is a tourist destination that is developing more and more year after year and is becoming a pearl of continental tourism,” said Sekulić River cruises have been calling at Vukovar for about twenty years now tourists took buses to other destinations on the mainland they have also been visiting the tourist attractions of Vukovar itself Tourists from this year’s first cruise were welcomed by the Mayor of Vukovar who said that river cruising is a great potential for Vukovar tourism and that the Danube is the trademark of Vukovar “We’re entering this tourist year optimistically We expect the demolition of the existing Hotel Dunav to begin soon and the construction of a new hotel to follow which will further strengthen and beautify this part of the city Intensive work is also underway on the right bank of the Danube We’re building a new coastal fortification spanning 10 hectares of new land a new marina and a new 700 metre breakwater,” concluded Penava Attacked from the east and ignored by the West the city's plight set a precedent for the coming years of conflict a colleague and I walked through the no-man’s land and into Vukovar.  I will never forget the eerie loneliness of the cornfields beneath clear skies and the absolute silence as we approached the frontline from Croatian-held Sotin Vukovar had been surrounded and cut off from the rest of Croatia since mid-August Scottish photojournalist David Pratt and I were determined to try and get into Vukovar having heard it was becoming the focal point of a crisis that seemed to be signalling the rise of nationalism and the break-up of Yugoslavia.   two Russian journalists had driven along the exact same road as we were walking on and had simply disappeared Dominating the route into Vukovar were three Yugoslav T54 tanks all with clear lines of fire into the city walking slowly and carrying nothing in our hands the hatches went down and one turret turned toward us The soldiers seemed just as nervous of us as we were of them but they held their fire The commander turned out to be quite friendly: he knew nothing about any missing Russians but advised us to turn around and go back given that the Croats up ahead would likely shoot first and ask questions later He added that he didn’t have any problem or issue with an independent Croatia breaking away from Yugoslavia: It was just that Vukovar couldn’t be part of that The captain gave us four cans of army rations and wished us luck as we decided to take our chances the road descended into a small wooded copse where a dozen or so large anti-tank mines the woods opened back up again into fields and from the more distant treeline the first Croatian defenders of Vukovar jumped out on us The road into town was blocked off by makeshift walls of breeze-blocks - which probably wouldn’t have stopped much more than a bullet from an AK47 - and guards with heavy duty M50 machine guns thick leather jackets and Rambo-style black ribbons around their hair David and I were the last international reporters to reach and report from inside Vukovar - and we were very lucky to get out a week later when we did Exactly 30 years ago today - on November 18 the town fell to the Yugoslav Army (JNA) and Serbian paramilitary forces that had spent three months steadily terrorising its population and reducing it to rubble partly mediaeval and prosperous town into site of devastation Some 1,800 lightly armed Croatian national guardsmen and volunteers were totally outnumbered and outgunned by those who sought to claim the town and its surrounding fertile farmland as part of a ‘greater Serbia’ a reported 12,000 tank and mortar rounds were being fired into the town daily While the exact number of civilian and military casualties will never be known most estimates put it between 2,500 and 3,000 Almost 100 children were killed; the youngest victim I often wonder how many shells that friendly tank captain ordered fired and how many people his soldiers killed Following a surrender monitored by EU representatives civilians emerged from of their cellars and were marshalled out of town and past the victorious and jeering lines in pitiful ragged columns reminiscent of so many World War Two newsreels That surrender should have seen the end of Vukovar’s tragedy Despite the presence of the European Commission Monitoring Mission (ECMM) 300 patients and staff from the Vukovar hospital were taken to a nearby pig farm in Ovcara by Serbian paramilitaries small groups were bussed about a mile further into the cornfields and up to a small natural dip in the land There they were lined up and massacred.  War crimes investigators subsequently recovered the remains of 200 victims but dozens more remain unaccounted for.        I returned to Vukovar just a few weeks ago for the first time since 1991 for a BBC Scotland documentary on the break-up of Yugoslavia as seen through the eyes and photos of David who recently completed a similar programme on his time covering Afghanistan A key goal of the visit back was to try and identify and find what happened to some of the people we met and David had documented in his photos begins with our return to and recollections of the town and our sense of what it symbolised - not so much for us as for Croatia and the collapsing Yugoslavia if the international media and community had engaged much would the conflict have taken a different path in some way Might the story have turned out differently in Sarajevo and elsewhere After the two of us filed our pieces for the likes of the Glasgow Herald and Scotland on Sunday and this time we crept out through the cornfields with the help of Croatian soldiers I spent a few fruitless weeks trying to generate media interest in what I had seen during the siege and what I feared was to come while we spent much of the time sheltering alongside the town’s inhabitants in the basement of the Hotel Dunav we met a Croatian cameraman who showed us a video he had shot of a tractor trailer full of dead bodies There had just been a reported series of summary killings of Croatian villagers on the outskirts of the town and his film certainly seemed to provide proof of this But it was in the days before email and the internet The only way of trying to copy his tape was to find a video rental shop that was still open a ridiculous prospect amid ferocious mortaring shelling from gunboats on the Danube and bombings from JNA aircraft. So that tape was never copied and the potential evidence never brought to back to London I was never able to convince the BBC or ITN to understand that Vukovar was a story worth covering.  The closest I got was an appearance in October on a Channel 4’s Right to Reply which saw me ask some key editors and producers why they weren’t trying to report on Vukovar The responses were pretty much all the same was Vukovar and why should people in the UK even care International stories were way more expensive to cover than national stories; they were far less popular with the viewers It was amazingly sad and disheartening to hear the week that Right to Reply was broadcast the Yugoslav army started shelling the historic port of Dubrovnik Given that so many Brits had visited it as tourists Yugoslavia finally starting getting coverage on the news Vukovar’s tragedy and the Ovcara atrocity happened when neither the international community nor the media were looking or cared So the pattern was set: what happened there was to be reflected and replicated again and again in Bosnia over the coming years Alan Davis is IWPR’s Asia & Eurasia Director Journalists need training and support to properly cover war crimes trials Activists warn that vulnerable domestic workers risk abuse often returning with serious health conditions sacrifice and luck secured a vital early win in the south-eastern campaign Some women face Adana's male-dominated traffic chaos for a living Recent murder highlights widespread discrimination and violence against LGBTI people Open source intelligence (OSINT) can provide facts – but impatient Tel +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Tel +1 202 393 5641 IWPR is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom (charity reg no: 2744185); in the United States as a not-for-profit organisation with tax-exempt status under IRS section 501(c)(3); and as a charitable foundation in The Netherlands The opinions expressed on iwpr.net are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting Site design by IWPR. Developed by AG Prime. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Vukovar was marked with pride and dignity | Foto: MORH/ G. Resovac Vukovar, which was our biggest wound, biggest trauma and biggest sadness, is slowly growing into a place of the greatest inspiration and pride, Minister Anušić said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ivan Anušić, as part of the delegation of the Government of the Republic of Croatia led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković participated on Monday, 18 November 2024 in Vukovar at commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the suffering of Vukovar, on the occasion of commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Homeland War and the Day of Remembrance of the victims of Vukovar and Škabrnja. On that occasion, Minister Anušić said that today the whole of Croatia united in Vukovar to pay their respects to the greatest battle and the greatest period of the Homeland War, which took place in Vukovar. We must all be aware of the sacrifice of Vukovar, because if Vukovar had not endured as long as it did, Croatia would not have been able to defend itself, much more of Croatia’s territory would have been occupied and it would have been much more difficult to liberate Croatia in 1995. “Vukovar, which was our biggest wound, biggest trauma and biggest sadness, is slowly growing into a place of the greatest inspiration and pride,” the Minister pointed out. The commemoration began in front of the “Dr. Juraj Njavro” National Memorial Hospital, where, for that occasion, the programme “Vukovar is a place of special patriotic reverence” was held. Aftewards, the Column of Remembrance was formed, which set out on the Way of the Cross through the streets of Vukovar. The Column of Remembrance was led by the war veterans of Vukovar together with family members of the detained, missing, killed and deceased defenders led by members of the Croatian police who defended Vukovar, and in front of them more than 2,600 young people dressed in white T-shirts with written names of the victims of aggression on Vukovar walked through the streets of Vukovar. Before the start of the special programme, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Gordan Jandroković said that on this day we should remember the victims and express our gratitude to all Croatian war veterans, the political leadership at the time headed by President Tuđman, and keep Vukovar in our hearts. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković said that it is up to us, on the foundations of the modern Croatian state, which is the Homeland War, to make maximum efforts to adequately repay the war veterans and their families in everything we do and to make the symbols of the Homeland War the foundation of the modern Croatian state. The prayer for the victims of the Homeland War was led by Msgr. Đuro Hranić, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Đakovo-Osijek, and the mass celebration for all victims of the Homeland War was celebrated by Msgr. Dražen Kutleša, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Zagreb. At the end of the commemoration, the delegations of the Croatian Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Croatia laid wreaths and lit candles at the Ovčara mass grave memorial. U reduOve internetske stranice koriste kolačiće (tzv. cookies) za pružanje boljeg korisničkog iskustva i funkcionalnosti. Postavke kolačića možete podesiti u svojem internetskom pregledniku. 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