Croatia Marks 20th Anniversary Of Vukovar Fall

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic (2nd right) and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor (right) pay their respects during a ceremony at the 1991 war-victims cemetery in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on November 18.

Some 30,000 people have gathered in the Croatian town of Vukovar to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its fall to Serbian forces, one of the darkest chapters of Croatia's 1991-95 war.

Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and President Ivo Josipovic joined mourners who marched through the eastern town in what was dubbed a "Memory Column."

The marchers started at the town's hospital.

More than 200 Croats and non-Serbs were massacred by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army at a nearby pig farm after Serbian soldiers dragged them out of the hospital when they marched into Vukovar 20 years ago.

During the Vukovar siege, some 1,600 defenders and civilians were killed and the town was practically razed to the ground.

compiled from agency reports