- Title: CROATIA: Serbian President pays a historic visit to Vukovar
- Date: 5th November 2010
- Summary: VARIOUS OF TADIC STANDING IN FRONT OF MEMORIAL WHILE MILITARY BAND PLAYS SALUTE TADIC STANDING IN FRONT OF MEMORIAL AND BOWING HEAD
- Embargoed: 20th November 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Croatia
- Country: Croatia
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA1B9EGC4Q7NYRVS1ZY14B43DE9
- Story Text: Serbian President pays a historic visit to Vukovar, a Danube river town devastated by the Serb-led Yugoslav army and militia in 1991 and apologizes for atrocities committed there, in a fresh effort to foster ethnic reconciliation in the turbulent Balkans.
Serbian President Boris Tadic apologised on Thursday (November 4) for atrocities committed by Serbs in Croatia in the 1990s in a fresh effort to foster ethnic reconciliation in the turbulent Balkans.
Tadic, a reformer who already voiced his regret for all suffering caused by Serbs during the bloody break-up of communist Yugoslavia, paid a historic visit to Vukovar, a Danube river town devastated by the Serb-led Yugoslav army and militia.
He and his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Josipovic, laid wreaths at Ovcara, a mass grave of more than 200 hospital patients executed after the Yugoslav army and Serb militia captured Vukovar in November 1991, following a brutal three-month siege.
"I am here to pay respect to the victims, to say the words of apology, to show regret and create a possibility for Serbia and Croatia to turn a new page," a solemn-looking Tadic said after laying a wreath labelled 'To the innocent victims'.
Tadic said after lighting a candle at the memorial that "our children must not be burdened by policies of the 1990s". Croatia's state television and radio carried his entire speech live.
"Ovcara is a place of pain, Ovcara is a place of suffering of people who were victims of mindless policies. We are here to pay respects to the victims and express our condolences to their families, but also to promise them that not a single crime will go unpunished," Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said after laying his wreath at the Ovcara memorial site.
Croatia quit Yugoslavia in 1991 but its ethnic Serbs rebelled against its independence and, helped and armed by Belgrade, captured one-third of the country. Croatia reconquered the territory in 1995.
In another symbolic act, Tadic and Josipovic will later on Thursday lay wreaths at a nearby graveyard where Croatian troops captured and executed a dozen Serb villagers in 1991. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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