"VukoWar" a Vukovar Travel Page by diocletianvs

I knew everything about Vukovar. At least I thought so. I was watching the news on TV in 1991, as everyone else in Croatia. Going to sleep with the voice of Sinisa Glavasevic, reporter of the local radio station. Waking up with his voice again, as he was counting the hundreds of shells that hit the town during the night. He used to end his reports with words 'Vukovar will never surrender'. For three months.
At the end I belive he didn't believe those words himself.

And then came November 18th, 1991. After three months of siege and constant bombing Yugoslav army and Serbian forces finally conquered Vukovar. Images of its non-Serb inhabitants leaving the town were saved in memory of each of us. With pale grey skin, after months spent in basements, old people and children were forced to leave their hometown with small plastic bags. All they were allowed to take with them.

Soon there was a huge information hole. Vukovar became a symbol word. And statictics followed: 600 killed defenders. More than 1,000 killed civilians. 10,000 people that were brought to concentration camps to Serbia. 600 persons that didn't return from those camps. 200 persons that were taken from Vukovar hospital and killed at Ovcara farm.
The cold statistics was only occasionally interrupted. Like when the body of killed Sinisa Glavasevic was identified.

I knew the rough numbers. I knew there was no house in town that wasn't totally destroyed by bombing. I knew all historic monuments of Vukovar were systematically destroyed by Serbian forces in order to erase any sign of its European heritage.

And I thought I was ready to visit Vukovar again after the war. After all, I've seen on TV all those houses that were reconstructed. I've seen new houses that were built. It's been 13 years since the largest tragedy in history of Vukovar. It's been 7 years after the peaceful re-integration of Vukovar.

But in fact, I knew nothing. And I felt nothing. I was totally shocked by my emotional reaction when I visited Vukovar again in 2004, first time after the war. Walking among the ruins of baroque houses I could only feel that at this moment I was unable to produce any voice. And that tears are coming down my cheeks.

After hearing the local priest telling us about the deliberate destruction of the church and the monastery I was still unable to understand the strength he had when at the end he called us all to forgive them. Can I thank God I'm not religious?