Back in the 90s, Dubrovnik, best known today for being the Pearl of the Adriatic, was an entirely different place. Ravaged by war and under attack from the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) and their Serbian and Montenegrin helpers, who made sure to not only burn houses, but to steal from them too, Croatia's southernmost city suffered one of its most devastating attacks on this very day, back on the 6th of December, 1991.

As Morski writes on the 6th of December, 2018, today will remain scarred into history's bloody memory as the day when the City of Dubrovnik was defended. The attack, which began on Friday, December the 6th, 1991, at 5:50 am, saw the JNA put its weight behind its senseless and barbaric attack on the Croatian city of the arts. The aggressors launched a horrendous assault on the beloved UNESCO World Heritage site, showering the city with blows from the sea and the land, assisted by heavy weaponry including cannons, mortars, and tanks.

The JNA's end goal was to weaken and break Dubrovnik's last line of defense from the former Hotel Belvedere, which now lies in ruin as a star reminder of this shameful assault, to Sustjepan, located along Rijeka Dubrovačka. On just that day, more than 600 Yugoslav Army grenades rained down on the city's historic core, killing and injuring along their way. The JNA, Serbia and Montenegro were quickly met with international condemnation following this act of terrorism, with Serbia and Montenegro ostracised by the European Community, and by the world.

As the fires caused by the attack didn't take long spread across the city, a group of veterans located at Srđ's Fort Imperijal, a Napoleonic building at the very top of the mountain, managed to fend off the brutal and relentless Yugoslav attacks and prevent the defeat of Dubrovnik's last defense, today marks the solemn anniversary, and we honour and celebrate Dubrovnik's War Veterans Day, as Dubrovniknet reports.

During this primitive and unjustifiable attack, nineteen people lost their lives, and sixty were injured, some very seriously. Nine of Dubrovnik's buildings burned, and the damage to the UNESCO World Heritage site's historic core was vast, as it was throughout the rest of the city. At 16:00, the relentless attack ended, with the JNA accepting defeat and finally withdrawing. The courage and the enormous sacrifice of Dubrovnik's war veterans is the reason the city is as it is today.

Pavle Strugar, a former JNA General, was sentenced and rightly put behind bars at the Hague International Tribunal for failing to take command of responsibility during the horrific JNA attack on Dubrovnik on this day back in 1991. Miodrag Jokić also pleaded guilty to six counts of the charges against the JNA for the attack on Dubrovnik, he was also sentenced and jailed.

Make sure to follow Total Dubrovnik for more on the Pearl of the Adriatic.

ZAGREB, November 19, 2018 - 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 town'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 town'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 hospital, together with tens of thousands of other people who arrived in the town from all parts of the country.

Wreaths were also laid and candles lit by a delegation of defenders and war victims' associations, led by the last commander of the town's defence forces, Branko Borković, and a delegation of the town authorities, led by Mayor Ivan Penava.

A prayer for the Vukovar victims was led by Đakovo-Osijek Archbishop Đuro Hranić and a mass was said by the Bishop of Eisenstadt (Austria), Egidije Ivan Živković.

Several hundred lanterns were floated down the River Danube at Vukovar on Sunday evening as part of events commemorating Croatian soldiers and civilians killed or gone missing during the defence of this eastern town 27 years ago, at the start of Croatia's 1991-1995 war of independence.

This year the victims of Vukovar and other war victims were also commemorated by the tolling of church bells across the country at 6.11 pm. This initiative was launched by the Franciscan monastery in Vukovar and was accepted by Croatian bishops.

The Remembrance Day ceremonies will continue on Monday with commemorations for Croatian soldiers and civilians killed or gone missing in the town's Borovo Naselje neighbourhood.

The battle of Vukovar started on 25 August 1991, when members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries launched an all-out tank and infantry attack on the town. The town was defended by around 1,800 members of the National Guard Corps, police and volunteers of the self-organised Croatian Defence Force (HOS), organised into the 204th Croatian Army Brigade.

The town's defence lines were broken after a three-month siege on 18 November 1991.

According to data from war victims' associations, 1,664 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed in the aggression on Vukovar and 308 people gone missing in Vukovar remain unaccounted for.

For more on Vukovar, click here.

ZAGREB, November 18, 2018 - Commemorative events marking Vukovar 1991 Remembrance Day and the 27th anniversary of the destruction of that eastern Croatian city in the country's 1991-95 war of independence started with a commemoration outside the town hospital where 3,500 wounded people had been treated during the siege by the JNA and Serb paramilitary troops in 1991.

Attending the commemoration were numerous people who arrived from all over Croatia and abroad, top state officials, including President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and other government officials, members of Parliament, and representatives of the diplomatic corps, the Catholic Church and other religious communities, numerous war veterans' and victims' associations and political parties.

After the commemoration outside the city hospital, the participants embarked on a 5.5 km walk to the Homeland War Memorial Cemetery where state and other delegations laid wreaths and light candles and a religious service was held.

Vukovar Remembrance Day is observed in memory of 18 November 1991 when the town's defence lines were broken after a three-month siege by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries. The besieged town was defended by around 1,800 members of the National Guard Corps, police and volunteers of the self-organised Croatian Defence Force (HOS), organised into the 204th Croatian Army Brigade.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Sunday that message from Vukovar to Croatia and the world is that war is the worst solution to conflicts and that regardless of all the tragedy, in the end this was a great victory.

"We came here today primarily to pay our respects to Vukovar, its residents and express our gratitude for everything they have done for Croatia. We are remembering victims, those defenders and civilians who died, were killed or went missing. This was a great tragedy," Jandroković said.

He also said that the message from Vukovar to the Croatian people and the whole world is that the war is the worst way to resolve conflicts and that solution must be sought in a peaceful fashion, through negotiations, taking into account the dignity of every people.

"The Croatian people in Vukovar showed heroism, readiness to make sacrifices, bravery, readiness to fight for their freedom and the Homeland and regardless of all the tragedy, in the end this was one great victory. This was the deciding battle which lead to Croatia's final victory in the Homeland War," Jandroković said.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Minister Tomo Medved said that all feelings today were going out to the victims and heroes, those who were taken from the hospital to the Ovčara farm. We are still intensively searching for the missing, and we will continue to search for them, our efforts are aimed at finding every missing person, Medved told the press when asked about the fate of more than 300 missing persons.

Asked about communication with Serbia regarding that issue, Medved said Croatia was doing everything to be a responsible partner. We are doing this by insisting on a professional and responsible cooperation and this is what we will continue to do, Medved said. He said his ministry has finished a draft bill on Vukovar as a place of special reverence and that it was now fine-tuning it in cooperation with other ministries.

Interior Minister Davor Božinović said that a task force entrusted with investigating war crimes had raised the number of criminal charges by 35% compared to last year, of which three cases refer to the Ovčara war crimes, adding that this was how the task force would continue to work.

"I want to express my deep respect to all defenders and civilians whose sacrifice and exceptional bravery we remember today," Božinović said. He added that the Interior Ministry was working intensively on resolving war crimes.

The president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Davor Bernardić, said on Sunday that today the country was remembering all victims who gave their lives for Croatia, in Vukovar, Škabrinja and the entire Homeland War.

"Vukovar had suffered mass destruction and we can only say – may this never happen again," Bernardić said. "I want all people in Vukovar to live a dignified life, to have dignified salaries, without gaps and exceptions and that finally, after 27 years, we end the search for the missing so their families can finally find peace," the SDP chief said. "This is the least that the country can do for them," Bernardić stressed.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovič said that that the eastern Croatian town enjoyed the strong support of all state institutions, notably the government, and that a special system of benefits was being negotiated with the European Commission.

"We are here for the 20th remembrance procession since the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, to express our respect for the sacrifice of Croatian defenders and all who gave their lives for a free and democratic Croatia, for the sacrifice of Vukovar, the symbol of the Homeland War and for all those who gave what they had for Croatia's future and us who live in it today," Plenković said in Vukovar.

Plenković recalled that a number of local projects had been launched after a government session in the town two years ago, adding that more than 490 families had been provided with accommodation, new buildings had been built or existing ones had been renovated, and that funding for Vukovar had increased by 50%.

"We now have to create and consolidate conditions for private businesses to start operating in Vukovar, for job creation, and for demographic revival," the prime minister said.

Plenković believes that a special system of financial relief should be established for Vukovar, different from those applied in other parts of the country or the EU, which, he said, had to be agreed with the EC. "Talks are under way, and our position in that regard is firm because we believe that local circumstances are such that we should and can ask for such relief at EU level," he said.

Asked what had changed since the October 13 protest held in Vukovar against the inefficiency of state institutions in prosecuting war crimes, Plenković said that the current government had made significant progress in that regard, greater than any other previous government, and that work on war crimes prosecution was now much more systematic. The Office of the Chief State Prosecutor has sufficient funding for its functioning, he said, adding that there were no problems regarding the government's focus on war crimes prosecution.

Commenting on Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader and MP Milorad Pupovac's visit to Vukovar on Saturday, Plenković said that Pupovac had decided to visit yesterday and that by visiting the town he had sent a message of respect and paid tribute to the victims of Vukovar. "Any commemoration should primarily be about remembering the truth, and about respect for the victims, but it should also help turn to the future, reconciliation and coexistence," he said.

"One of the key parts of first Croatian President Franjo Tuđman's legacy was peaceful reintegration and in line with his policy of understanding, we should work to lessen any possibility for new victims, his policy of ensuring peaceful reintegration with the help of the international community was brilliant," said Plenković.

The process of reconciliation is a difficult one, as evidenced by speeches by world leaders at the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. "We live on a continent where reconciliation requires a lot of investment, knowledge of history, good will and cooperation for the future," he stressed.

Asked if Tuđman's decision on amnesty had been a good one, Plenković said that it was necessary to make a clear distinction between the Amnesty Act and war crimes. "War crimes are crimes against the sick, against civilians, the wounded and prisoners of war, there is no amnesty for that and that should be fully investigated and prosecuted. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes either under our law or under international conventions," he said.

Asked who was to blame why a project for an intercultural school in Vukovar had not come to life, Plenković said that that was one of the examples that showed how demanding the process of reconciliation was. "A certain amount of time has to pass, trust must be built through the process of coexistence, and building trust starts with small steps towards creating a general climate. It is up to the state to create the general climate and in real life, those processes are time-consuming. There are too many scars here for that to happen overnight," Plenković said.

Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava said that the protest rally, held in that town in October due to discontent with the work of state institutions in prosecuting war crimes, had awakened state institutions, adding that we welcomed and appreciated that Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac visited Vukovar on Saturday.

"The protest is now behind us...to especially, our heroes, those living and those who are no longer with us are in our thoughts. Those who are responsible for the prosecution of war crimes should have them in their thoughts every day of the year," Penava said. "That is all I can say. This is simply thinking of 1991, of the heroes of Vukovar, Croatian defenders, civilian casualties and all the innocent victims who were treated brutally by the Great Serbia aggressor after the town fell, because of the huge losses they had during the battle of Vukovar," Penava said.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the results of the protest rally, he said that it was necessary to leave it to time to show, but that believed that something had started to happen. "Let's have patience, we woke up state institutions and I think that they don't have a lot of time, however, they need to be given some time to do what they should have done until now," he added.

Penava also commented on SDSS MP Milorad Pupovac's visit to Vukovar on Saturday, when he lowered into the waters of the Danube a wreath and lit a candle at the Homeland War Memorial Cemetery, noting on that occasion that all victims were important. "I don't want to name any names and don't want to speak about any victims except those of 1991. It is the wrong time and place to speak about other victims," Penava said.

"I appreciate and welcome the fact that he came to pay tribute to the victims of the Great Serbia aggression, because they are the only ones we can speak about in Vukovar," he concluded.

For more on Vukovar, click here.

ZAGREB, November 18, 2018 - Croatia is marking the 27th anniversary of the destruction of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar following a 87-day siege, that ended on November 18, 1991 and claimed the lives of 1,624 Croatian soldiers and civilians.

The main commemoration will start outside the town hospital where 3,500 wounded people had been treated during a siege by the JNA and Serb paramilitary troops in 1991.

Participants in the commemoration, including war veterans and families of the war victims, will march through the city and stop at the Memorial Cemetery where wreath-laying ceremonies will be held by top state officials.

The battle of Vukovar

The battle of Vukovar was the fiercest and most protracted battle seen in Europe since 1945, and Vukovar was the first major European town to be entirely destroyed since World War Two.

The Remembrance Day is observed in memory of 18 November 1991 when the town's defence lines were broken after a three-month siege by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries. The besieged city was defended by around 1,800 members of the National Guard Corps, police and volunteers of the self-organised Croatian Defence Force (HOS), organised into the 204th Croatian Army Brigade.

After the ravaged city fell into the hands of the JNA and Serb paramilitaries, around 22,000 local Croats and members of other ethnic groups were expelled and several thousand Croatian soldiers and civilians were taken to Serb-run prison camps.

Numerous crimes were committed against the defence forces and civilians, including a massacre of 200 soldiers and civilians from the hospital who were taken from the hospital on November 19 and killed at a former farm at Ovčara, outside the town, and buried in a mass grave.

According to data from the Vukovar Hospital, 1,624 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed and 1,219 were wounded during the siege of the city. Around 3,600 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed in the aggression on and subsequent occupation of the city. A total of 309 persons from the Vukovar area are still listed as missing.

In 1999, the Croatian Parliament adopted a decision proclaiming Vukovar Remembrance Day to honour all those who died defending the town – the symbol of Croatia's freedom. Vukovar Remembrance Day is also commemorated all over Croatia.

Almost every town in the country has a street named after Vukovar and on the eve of Remembrance Day candles were lit to mark Vukovar Remembrance Day.

Vukovar and other occupied areas in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem returned to Croatia's constitutional and legal order on January 15, 1998, after he process of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube River region ended.

For more on the Homeland War, click here.

ZAGREB, November 5, 2018 - The Association of Zagreb war veterans who defended Vukovar sent an open letter on Monday to Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić expressing outrage and disappointment at Bandić's reception for the head of the town council of the Serbian town of Jagodina, Dragan Marković Palma, who together with Serbian paramilitary leader and war crimes indictee Željko Raznatović a.k.a. Arkan established the Party of Serb Unity in 1993.

The war veterans association criticised Bandić for receiving the Serbian politician whom they described as "a proven Chetnik" and "Arkan's errand boy". They also pointed out the fact that the reception in Zagreb on 2 November coincided with the observation of the 27th anniversary of the fall of the village of Lužac near Vukovar into the hands of Serb paramilitary forces led by Arkan in 1991.

On Sunday, the Split-Dalmatia County association of war veterans who were detained in Serb-run concentration camps described Bandić's decision to receive the Serb politician as abominable. That association said that the reception in Zagreb was an act of rubbing salt into the wounds of war victims.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomo Meved said on Monday that officials have to take account with whom they meet. “If indeed this is the same person, from what we can see on social media, that is absolutely unacceptable and I am personally very critical toward relations of that kind. We are aware that we have to normalise relations with Serbia. I am an advocate of cooperation, particularly in finding missing persons. We, however, have to take account with whom we meet and who those people are. If they participated in the armed aggression against Croatia, then it should be dealt with by some other authorities," Medved said.

Asked what message that meeting was sending, Medved said that he couldn't say as he wasn't familiar with the circumstances that led to the meeting or with the contents of the talks. "I was in Vukovar that day and I don't know the circumstances that led to the visit. I don't know the contents of the talks. I truly cannot comment in any greater detail. I am in contact with veterans' associations. In fact, those who have some knowledge of this event are reacting in an appropriate manner," he said.

The HVIDRA association of disabled war veterans on Monday criticised Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić for receiving Palma, whom they described as "a self-confessed Chetnik", saying that this was an affront to all veterans and victims of the Homeland War.

It is particularly incomprehensible that he came to Zagreb at the invitation of Mayor Bandić himself. "In doing so, Mayor Bandić humiliated the Croatian defenders and their families, Croatian institutions and our country, at a time of preparations to commemorate the sacrifices of Vukovar and Škabrnja," HVIDR said, calling on Bandić to apologise "to all those who sacrificed for the freedom of our country."

For more on Croatia-Serbia relations, click here.

ZAGREB, November 4, 2018 - The central commemorative event marking the 27th anniversary of the fall of the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar into the hands of Serb rebels supported by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) will be held on 18 November, mayor Ivan Penava has said.

The main commemoration will start outside the city hospital where 3,500 wounded people had been treated during a siege by the JNA and Serb paramilitary troops in 1991. Participants in the commemoration, including war veterans and families of the war victims, will march through the town and stop at the Memorial Cemetery where wreath-laying ceremonies will be held by top state officials.

On 19 November, the town will remember the victims killed in Vukovar's suburb of Borovo Naselje and on 20 November commemorations will be held in tribute to the victims tortured and killed in the Velepromet prisoner-of-war camp and at Ovčara.

The Velepromet camp was set up by the JNA and paramilitaries in the Velepromet company's compound in Vukovar's Sajmište district in mid-September 1991. About 10,000 prisoners passed through it and over 700 were killed, according Danijel Rehak, head of the association of former inmates of Serb-run concentration camps.

Ovčara was another site of atrocities committed by the occupying forces on 20 and 21 November 1991. The exact number of the people killed at Ovčara is unknown, but 194 cases have been documented before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The youngest victim was 16 years old and the oldest 77. The majority of victims were patients transported from the Vukovar general hospital to that farm, several kilometres away from the town.

Croatia's parliament decided in 1999 that Vukovar Remembrance Day would be observed on November 18, the day of the town's fall. Vukovar Remembrance Day is observed in memory of 18 November 1991 when the city's defence lines were broken after a three-month siege. The besieged town was defended by around 1,800 members of the National Guard Corps, police and volunteers of the self-organised Croatian Defence Force (HOS), organised into the 204th Croatian Army Brigade.

After the ravaged city fell into the hands of the JNA and Serb paramilitaries, around 22,000 local Croats and members of other ethnic groups were expelled and several thousand Croatian soldiers and civilians were taken to Serb-run prison camps. Numerous crimes were committed against the defence forces and civilians. According to data from the Vukovar Hospital, 1,624 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed and 1,219 were wounded during the siege of the city. Around 3,600 Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed in the aggression on and subsequent occupation of the city.

Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia in January 1998. The peaceful reintegration began in January 1996 with the assistance of the UNTAES (UN Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium).

To read more about the Homeland War, click here.

ZAGREB, September 30, 2018 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved condemned on Saturday an attack on MPs Milorad Pupovac and Boris Milošević of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), saying veterans knew best what suffering was.

ZAGREB, September 29, 2018 - Speaking at a commemoration for Serb civilians killed during and in the aftermath of the military Operation Storm in the Knin area in 1995, Serb National Council (SNV) president and Serb minority MP Milorad Pupovac said that all criminals have to be punished and denied accusations that he or his Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) were working so that war crimes committed against Croat civilians in Vukovar aren't prosecuted.

ZAGREB, September 24, 2018 - In response to the question of a Croatian Television talk show host why he has not clearly and unequivocally expressed his position on Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's claim that the present-day Croatia is like Nazi Germany, Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac has countered with the statement that nobody has ever heard him (Pupovac) saying that Croatia is an Ustasha state or likening the modern Croatia to any Nazi or Fascist structure.

Commemorations and pride as the 27th anniversary of the battle for Šibenik is marked.