Connor Vlakancic
at Vukovar
November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Being in Vukovar on the 25th anniversary of horrid atrocities committed against innocent Croatian people by the Serb aggressor was a sombre, sad, gut-wrenching experience for over 120,000 people who visited there on 18 November and vividly remembered the horrors once again as my last post read. For those who were unable to be there, here is a close-up journal of what Connor Vlakancic’s eyes saw in the day leading up to that big day, on the day of Remembrance itself and the day after; what he felt as any of us might in the same place; he came from the US to be there.
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
“It is now 03:01, I can’t slumber, I must search about. The sky black of overcast and haze at ground level in the streetlights. The temperature is brisk and a breeze is up. An autumn morning that would have 99% of families asleep so to wake-up for a typical workday. But on this day 25 years ago, nobody blissfully slumbered in Vukovar and so it is every year on this date. And I have been here many times.
Photo; Connor Vlakancic
Vukovar is dear to me, I was married here in the Church of Philip and James (Svetog Filipa i Jakova) in September 2001, also the first year of the Vukovar Remembrance.
The holes dug into the bottom of all the stone and mortar columns, which the retreating JNA army (Yugoslav Army) would fill with explosives intending to even obliterate survivors’ memories (a hero had prevented their detonation) were all visible with a single candle in each.
Reminders of war dot the streets of Vukovar
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
On this date the church was long yet to be finished renovated, wounds in the walls and marble floors painfully still obvious, yet the bell in the reconstructed tower [the first work accomplished] was rung for 24 hours.
Vukovar hospital
basement – preserved
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
At 06:00, shortly after daybreak, the buses start arriving at the bus station (autobusni kolovador) the passengers walking to the hospital where the Remembrance Walk will start the five-kilometer march to the Vukovar Memorial Cemetery. As has been every year starting 2001. Me too.
South Courtyard
Vukovar Hospital
monument to the fallen
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Vukovar hospital basement
remembering those that perished
November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
I stand waiting in the hospital South side courtyard. I am up several steps of an alternate side building, watching, and my camera busy, overlooking the area as it fills with people. Veterans of every city, town and village, each it seems with their own municipality regimental flag, such a number of them 1,000+ I can believe.
a Proud flag
in Vukovar Hospital courtyard
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Following the dedication ceremony commencement and memorial song, the Remembrance Walk commenced shortly after 10:20. With flags flying unfurled, it took 45 minutes for the leading line to reach the cemetery, yet people were even then still just departing from the hospital and so it was for nearly two hours more and another hour for the march to finish for all walking. The time is now 14:00 and memorial flowers and wreaths are placed at the central statuary. I can’t get near. I must return tomorrow to see this up close.
Ceremony begins at South courtyard
Vukovar Hospital
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Procession starts at Vukovar Hospital
and continues to Memorial Cemetary
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
This day commences familiar renewed for me, upon walking back toward ‘center’. Along the return route, again I stand and look up at the Vukovar water tower that stands on a ridge overlooking the Danube River. Built in 1968, it held 2200 cubic meters of water and had a restaurant at the top. It survived an estimated 600 direct hits from JNA bombardment. Many are the pictures of its suffering. I walk to encircle the water tower. There is no fear of walking around and under it. Years ago it was encircled with scaffolding (150 feet tall), all loose bricks were removed and all remaining were made secure. Now, these 25 years past, there are ongoing plans (the financial means accumulated) to renovate it into a new life.
Vukovar water tower
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Walking to an adjacent neighborhood, I visit my fondest dearest friends in Vukovar, Vilma and Ruzica. These two heartfelt people embody and mentor all that is Vukovar. Vilma, indispensable to the life flow of Vukovar, has again prepared her specialty, sarma (cabbage roll), enough to feed the Croatian army. Many people come, it is built into our remember. Ruzica is the curator of the baroque Eltz Palace that contains the Vukovar museum.
Remember Vukovar
Renovated Eltz Palace
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Soon enough, it is 18:00+ and pitch black. I go with Vilma and Ruza to see what I have not previously witnessed, one thousand candles, each on a tiny boat, one each for all persons missing, not accounted for, disappeared, ‘gone missing’. The Danube flows past Vukovar, a river of history and mystery. A thousand candles for the unforgotten because we remember for them.
Vukovar 18 November 2016
Floating Candles on Danube
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
One candle each for the thousand persons who are unaccounted for, yet here again, we remember for them. Deposited upstream from three boats, the thousand candles drift downstream longer than a kilometer. My camera cannot adequately capture their breath. The moon, since last extraordinary display event ‘super moon’ in 1948, is in bright display. Yet, its light fails to illuminate this solemn Remembrance. Many people watch, nobody speaks, and a young mother nurses her baby. Tomorrow more will be revealed.
Vukovar 19 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Now Saturday (19 November) morning at 07:00, sleeping a bit longer from physical and emotional exhaustion, I return to Center. The open market has returned to normal typical activity, and much surprise to me too…
I drive past a long tented area. Yesterday it encompassed a great many tables with adjacent food preparation. Feeding 100,000+ people requires such and many more. This morning, even so early, the tables are gone but with human waste of empty cups and paper plates littering the ground.
Vukovar Memorial Cemetery
19 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Onward I drive, returning to the Vukovar Memorial Cemetery to capture 25 years plus one day in pictures. The pavilion (that yesterday you could not get close to as Mass was being celebrated) stands empty with the canvas cover [roof] now lowered to disassemble position. There are a few, actually several, people coming and going that perhaps could not come yesterday because they were service staff working to feed the 100,000+ people that returned to Vukovar Remembrance.
Vukovar
18 November 2016
Reminders of terrible war still haunt
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Now about 10:00 in the morning, the cemetery area has been picked-up of human trash, collected in black plastic bags to be disposed of, perhaps in earthen burial pits. Twenty five years ago black plastic body bags were not required for disposing of ‘human litter’!
The day after twenty-five years ago, human litter was human beings. Of the perpetrators, certainly for some of them, I am prayerfully for some of them, the enormity of the deprivation of human life wrought while they were drunk and disorderly, invaded their mind with revulsion for what they participated in and thus captured as the chronicle of their lives.
November 19th, 1991 [be there in your mind] and Remember all of Vukovar murdered heroes. They don’t remember, we must Remember for them.
Holy Mass at Vukovar
Memorial Cemetery
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
I returned to the memorial cemetery at dusk. The votive candles, individually lit one-by-one each deposited by an individual person that Remember. By now the temperature has fallen to about 13 degrees with a slight breeze. Yet, as I stand downwind of certainly thousands of candles, the air temperature is 22+ degrees, a LOT of candles. I reflect as this is the warmth of the spirits of the dear departed giving their gratitude to we who come to Remember the chronicle of innocent victim lives.
Vukovar Cemetery
19 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
Grave-sites of those who were ‘eliminated’ between August and December 1991 are adorned with every flower and candle that our Remembrance can enshrine. Here too, the thousand of lost ‘gone missing’ are remembered in an array of 36 by 28 stone crosses. Each Remembered with flowers and votive candles but where are they, dumped in mass graves … somewhere … nearby.
So, that is the point of this Vukovar Remembrance of 25 years ago, the missing are still missing! With 25 years of Remembering, the 25 years of Croatian governments have failed to achieve, even failed to try to achieve, secretly know grave-sites in villages around Vukovar.
For the families of the victims of the JNA executioners, where are the missing buried. This question is foremost what these families remember for all these 25 years!,” Connor Vlakancic
Lest We Forget!
Vukovar Memorial Cemetery
18 November 2016
Photo: Connor Vlakancic
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It’s incomprehensible to me that human beings are capable of utter barbarism on a scale such as this. What manner of people could do this? I have been despairing of humanity quite a lot recently. I shall continue to do so having read this piece.
Yup one hope that one day the good side of humanity will bury the bad, Whelk, until then despair and head-shaking and…
Reblogged this on Eyes of the Mind and commented:
Vukovar still haunts me; it always will. The basement of the hospital has been ‘preserved’, but to my eyes it has been sanitised. What it was like during the Serb siege then the occupation cannot be communicated through tableaux or memorials. Remembrance means putting it all together and re-living the stories of both the survivors and the dead. We give honour to them every time we tell their stories, lest we forget….
Thank you Mishka – lest we forget
A magnificent blog Inavukic – I have flown over Vukovar and understand the distress – I pray we dont see this horror in Europe again – but history unfortunately tends to repeat itself – given time I pray some progress is made.
Thank you Scott, I pray too
I remember this like it was yesterday.
excellent post.
Thank you Sedge, good to have the feedback, much appreciated
thank you mrs, for visit my blog, i feel happy because you have the time to visit and read my blog are still a lot of mistakes, I feel honored to have been visited by someone who has been successful in the world of blogs, let’s continue to work together, glad to greet you even though we have never met face to face, this is an honor for me.
regards
widia mulyani
Thank you Widia, all good and great things occur in cyberspace and connections that mean a great deal. The more connections the more understanding…
yes, indeed, the virtual world to unite all things in mind is not possible, he united even though far apart and he brought each other to give a new color
🙂
Regard -widia Mulyani-
So haunting, all that violence over something that could easily have been sorted out if those who held such military power then had cooler heads, and opted to go though reasonable negotiations instead of attacking. Too many people have fallen over a silver of land and dreams of grandeur.
And some will never learn peace, purelandsutras, for their greed is too deep and too brutal…sadly
Thank you, Ina, for this blogpost. It is important that the world continue to remember the victims of Vukovar and Ovcara. This genocide musn’t be forgotten!
Totally agree Tanya, thank you
To add more fire to this. The latest Ina…from Velimir Bujanec’s FB page. Thanks for translating and plugging all of this on your site.
You’re a true Hrvatica. God Bless.
CULEJU SKINULI IMUNITET UZ POMOĆ SDSS-a, SDP-a i HNS-a!
Jednom od najpopularnijih saborskih zastupnika, HDZ-ovom Stivu Culeju danas je skinut zastupnički imunitet na zahtijev DORH-a, u postupku koji se protiv njega vodi u Vukovaru, zbog skidanja ploča s agresorskim simbolom – ćirilicom.
Zanimljivo: protiv skidanja imuniteta Culeju bilo je između 15 i 20 zastupnika vladajuće većine! Neki su bili suzdržani, neki otvoreno protiv, a neki su u znak prosvjeda odbili sudjelovati u cijeloj predstavi i napustili sabornicu! Sabornicu je prvi napustio dr. Zlatko Hasanbegović, a s njime i Bruna Esih te Željko Glasnović. Protiv skidanja imuniteta Culeju bili su i Miro Bulj, dr. Dodig, zastupnik Hrasta Zekanović pa čak i Darinko Kosor! Evo još nekih zastupnika koji nisu popustili pritisku: Kliman, Klarić, Boban, Škorić, Bedeković, Stričak, Šipić…
Činjenica je da je imunitet Culeju skinut uz pomoć ruku zastupnika SDSS-a, SDP-a i HNS-a, a cijela priča ozbiljno smrdi na udovoljavanje Miloradu Pupovcu. Zamislite samo da protiv junačine Stiva ruku istovremeno dignu Vaso i Stazić, Bačić i Jovanović…
Isto tako, navjerojatno je da HDZ na čelu DORH-a još uvijek drži Dinka Cvitana koji otvoreno progoni njegove ljude, a naročito hrvatske branitelje. Jedan od prvih poteza Donalda Trumpa u Americi je smjena Državnog odvjetnika, dok se u Hrvatskoj tolerira stari Milanovićev kadar, ali i odlazi na fešte novinarsko-špijunskih servisa Srbije koji bezočno napadaju potpredsjednika Vlade i ministra obrane, generala Damira Krstičevića.
Zaključno: niste skinuli imunitet Pernaru (što je ok), ali jeste Culeju – zato jer je Pupi tako tražio! Sramite se.
TRANSLATION OF VERONIKA’s COMMENT: Culej’simmunity removed with the help of SDSS, SDP and HNS!
One of the most popular members of parliament, the HDZ’s Steve Culej, has had his parliamentary immunity removed today at the State Attorney’s Office request and in relation to proceedings against him for the removal in Vukovar of sign written in Cyrillic – the symbol of the aggressor.
Interestingly, between 15 and 20 members of parliament belonging to the ruling majority were against the removal of Culej’s immunity Culej, while in protest some refused to participate in the entire present and left the chamber! dr. Zlatko Hasanbegović was the first to leave the parliamentary chamber, with him were Bruna Esih and Zeljko Glasnovic. In addition those against the removal of Culej’s immunity were Miro Bulj, Dr. Dodig, representative Hrasta Zekanović even Darinko Kosor! Here are some MPs who have not caved in to pressure: Kliman, Klaric, Boban, Skoric, Bedeković, Stričak, Šipić …
The fact is that Culej’s immunity was removed with SDSS, the SDP and HNS’s helping hand, and the whole story seriously stinks of pandering to Milorad Pupovac. Can you imagine that Vaso and Stazic, Bacic and Jovanovic simultaneously raised their arms againt lionhearted Steve arm simultaneously…
Also, it’s incredulous that HDZ still keeps Dinko Cvitan, who openly pursues HDZ’s people especiall the Croatian veterans, as the head of the State Attorney’s office. One of Donald Trump’s first moves was to replace the US Attorney, while in Croatia, Milanovic’s man is tolerated, while he also attends festivities of the Serbian press-espionage services who ruthlessly attack Croatia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, General Damir Krsticevic.
In conclusion: you have not removed Pernar’s immunity (which is ok), but you have Culej’s – because Pupi asked for that! Shame on you.
REPLY – the names you mention that voted in favour of immunity removal for Culej do not surprise me, Veronika – a stench of communist contamination has been present there for a long time and it lingers and lingers – until I trust someone digs a boot into their rear side…so infuriating to watch that Dinko Cvitan still reign as State Attorney…
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
TO REMEMBER…IS IMPORTANT!!!
Indeed it is, Jonathan – thank you 🙂
Yuppers! 🙂
🙂
Thank you both Veronica and Ina
🙂
Thank you Veronika and Ina,
SDSS, the SDP and HNS’s have an obvious commonality “Communist party history”. Same goes for Vesna Bedekovic graduated from Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy.
Regarding Kliman, Klaric, Boban, Skoric, Stričak, Šipić I have tried to Investigate their back ground via the intranet, what historical background do they share for them to vote like they did? There must be a common thread?
They must a history/education/forum in common. We all need to find it and expose it.
I’m sick of being outraged. No matter where you are in the diaspora we can expert pressure on these fools.
So well put Splithead : “I’m sick of being outraged” – me too.