In Vukovar, celebrations turn into a settling of accounts

This year’s commemorations of the Croat victims of the fall of Vukovar, conquered by the pro-Serbian Yugoslav army on November 18, 1991 after a siege of three months, have turned into a political scandal and exposed the deep divisions in the country eighteen years after the end of the war.

As Jutarnji list reports, veterans' associations prevented President Ivo Josipović and Prime Minister, Zoran Milanović, who were at the back of the procession, from taking part in the ceremonies. Meeting up again as part of the “Committee for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar”, they are protesting against the Social Democratic government’s plan to impose signage in both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets of the Croats and the Serbs, respectively, on the city’s public buildings.

The daily, which leads with the front-page headline ”Humiliated” over a picture of Croatia's leaders, angrily points outthat —

… nowhere in the world do veterans have the right to replace the legitimately elected power: the army must be separated from politics, whether it's the national army or an army formed by veterans. To found power and political influence on laurels earned in war can lead to democracy being replaced by an illegitimate government and to chaos.

The daily also accuses the leader of the main opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Tomislav Karamarko, who took part in the march of the former fighters, of “starting a serious project to overthrow the government.”

In Rijeka, Novi List writes of nothing less than a "coup d'état", and argues that —

Croatia has not experienced such humiliation since the Serbian attack.

For its part, 24 Sata reports on an ”incredible disgrace” —

… for the Committee for the defence of Croatian Vukovar [...] and also for the government, which showed, by backing down, that it is weak, indecisive, and lacks courage.