Dubrovnik remembers the worst attack in the Homeland War

Dubrovnik is marking the Day of Dubrovnik Defenders and the 24th anniversary of the worst attack on the city in the Homeland War, reports the Patria news agency.

As part of the program commemorating the wartime events on the feast of Saint Nicholas in 1991, tributes were paid this morning at several locations in Dubrovnik to all fallen defenders, with a program of laying flowers and lighting candles at the cross on Mount Srđ, followed by a parade of the City Band and the Dubrovnik Majorettes, and a remembrance of sailors and defenders who perished at sea. 

The attack by the Yugoslav and Montenegrin aggressor forces, on that black Friday in 1991, began in the early morning hours, and from dawn, Dubrovnik was shelled from land and sea. That day, 19 civilians and four defenders lost their lives, dozens were wounded, and the number of projectiles that fell on Dubrovnik and the old historic core was measured in the thousands. More than 460 buildings were damaged, and during the aggression on Dubrovnik and its surroundings, over 300 defenders and civilians were killed in the war, while more than 30,000 people were forced to leave their homes. The material damage was incalculable.

The fiercest attack was on the Imperial Fortress on Mount Srđ above Dubrovnik, the old city core, as well as on the areas of the settlements Sustjepan and Nuncijata, and the Hotel Belvedere, which remains unreconstructed to this day. The attack on all defense lines, which began around six o'clock, lasted all day, and at one point, several defenders who were in the fortress and repelling the aggressor attacks requested that fire be opened on the Imperial Fortress from all defensive positions. This was the only way to stop the enemy forces, which, far more numerous and better armed, had advanced and reached the very ramparts of the Imperial.

On that most difficult day, December 6, 1991, Dubrovnik was defended on the front lines by 163 defenders, after which the Dubrovnik 163rd Brigade of the Croatian Army would later receive its numerical designation, writes Index.