(Hina) - Events marking Vukovar 1991 Remembrance Day and the 24th anniversary of the destruction of that eastern Croatian city in the country's 1991-95 war of independence started on Wednesday morning with a commemoration outside the city hospital where 3,500 wounded people had been treated during the siege by the JNA and Serb paramilitary troops in 1991.
Attending the commemoration, held under the slogan "Vukovar, a place of special reverence", were numerous people who arrived from all over the country, top state officials, including President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Josip Leko, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić and other government officials, members of Parliament, and representatives of the diplomatic corps, the Catholic Church and other religious communities, numerous war veterans' and victims' associations and political parties.
After the commemoration outside the city hospital, its participants embarked on a 5.5 km walk to the Homeland War Memorial Cemetery where state and other delegations will lay wreaths and light candles and a religious service will be held.