Vukovar, Croatia

Bombed House from 1991-95 war with Serbia

Vukovar is a small city of 32000 which along the border between Serbia and Croatia. During the 1991-95 war, this city was severely bombed by the Serbians and occupied for most of those years. Serbia without Croatia is a landlocked country and Serbia had half the population of the former Yugoslavia, so they were determined to keep as much territory as possible upon Tito's death and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Peace accords were finally signed in Dayton, Ohio in 1995 creating the country of Croatia. Near our ship was a memorial to 15000 Croatians who died during this war. We did see a few homes and other structures which have yet to be repaired from the bombings. But they have done a wonderful job of rebuilding, thanks to government programs that paid based on family size and the relative destruction of your home, so that most of the houses are relatively new (1998) and everything looks well cared for. Many of the residents had spent 7 years abroad as refugees, and after returning left again for their other life, so the population is down considerably.

While Croatia has historically been part of Serbia for centuries, the people are very different: each has their own language, Croatia uses the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet, and most are Roman Catholic rather than Eastern Orthodox. As part of Serbia, they were discriminated against, now as an independent country it is the remaining Serbs who are discriminated against. This country too has very high unemployment, 28%. For example a shoe factory in town that used to employ 15000, now only has 300 employees. Average salaries are about $1000/mo.

Cross made of ammunition

Croatia just joined the European Union on July 1st this year. We visited the city of Osijek with it central courtyard, the Church of the Holy Cross built in 1732, and we sampled more plum brandy. Almost every house in the country has a still from which to make plum brandy. Outside the church was a cross made from ammunition and grenades from the Serbian war, the theme being "forgive, but don't forget". We visited one of the local elementary schools, where the school children presented us with a musical program. They tend to learn English with poems and songs and their enunciation was quite good.



In the afternoon, we had lunch at the home of Sujezanna. They have a beautiful home, built primarily by her husband, with a view of the Danube below in the village of Aljmas. They have lived here for about 10 years after living 3 years with her mother-in-law. She remembers living in a building basement in Vukovar, hearing the two to three thousand grenades that exploded daily. Her twenty year old brother was killed in the war on his 15th day in the army. The village itself was not bombed, but was occupied by the Serbs, who blew up the Catholic church. In the evening, back aboard ship, we were entertained by a group of six men playing Slovenian music with local instruments.