Džaferović in Vukovar: A city of special reverence, victims deserve justice

(Patria) - Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Šefik Džaferović is attending the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Vukovar today, on the 30th anniversary of the fall of that Croatian city.

Džaferović stated that Vukovar is a city of special reverence and a hero city. 

"By participating in the column of remembrance of the victims of Vukovar and laying flowers at the memorial cemetery, I want to express my respect for the defenders of Vukovar and for the victims of the Greater Serbian aggression. Victims deserve respect and justice, and criminals deserve punishment," he added.

The BiH Presidency member emphasized that not all those who committed crimes against Vukovar have been held accountable to this day, and that one should not give up on seeking justice until the very end.

"Even after 30 years, the images of the barbaric destruction, bombing, and demolition of Vukovar are still fresh. Those images and the appeal for help went around the world. Those in power in the world did not recognize what was happening and did not react. Evil, the Greater Serbian aggression, later spread to other parts of Croatia and the whole of BiH. Mass crimes were committed, and everything culminated in the genocide in Srebrenica. This is a message for today's world and for the moments we are experiencing in the region. Evil must be reacted to and deterred in time," stated Džaferović.

He thanked everyone who participates in the Vukovar - Srebrenica marathon every year, thus paying tribute to the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica as well.

When asked by journalists how he commented on the current political situation in BiH, Džaferović asked the journalists not to be angry, but that he would talk about it on another day, in another place.

"I came to pay my respects to the victims, and I will leave it at that. Today is the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Vukovar," he said.

Vukovar is marking 30 years since the collapse of the heroic defense of the city and the aggression of the former JNA and Serb paramilitary units, in which 2,717 Croatian defenders and civilians were killed or went missing, and the city was almost razed to the ground.

The city on the Danube was under siege for 87 days, and the battle for Vukovar ended on November 18, 1991, with its occupation, which lasted until January 15, 1998, and the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, after which the people of Vukovar finally returned to their homes, which had to be rebuilt before that.

Residents were without electricity and regular supplies of water and food, while hundreds of projectiles, along with tank and air attacks, fell on the city daily.