Wreath-laying ceremonies were held at Ovcara outside Vukovar on Tuesday to commemorate 200 civilians and wounded Croatian soldiers who were killed on the Ovcara pig farm on 20 November 1991 after they were taken from the town hospital when this eastern Croatian town fell into the hands of the besieging forces of rebel Serbs and the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in mid-November 1991.
Today's commemorative events marked the end of this year's three-day commemorations of the fall of Vukovar. Its siege began on 25 August 1991 and ended on 18 November 1991 when the occupying forces raided the town.
According to the records of the town hospital, a total of 1,624 people were killed and over 2,500 were wounded during the three-month siege. After the fall, 5,000 members of the defending units and civilians were captured and detained in concentration camps, and 22,000 Croats and other non-Serbs were forced to leave the area.
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), which accomplished its key objective of peacefully reintegrating the region into Croatia in January 1998.
Parliament decided in 1999 that Vukovar Remembrance Day would be held on November 18 on the anniversary of the town's fall to besieging Yugoslav army and Serb paramilitary forces in mid-November 1991.
