Destruction and Reparation in Groups During the War in Croatia

Abstract

Vukovar, in the east of Croatia, on the border with Vojvodina (autonomous region within Serbia), was for centuries the home of Serbian and Croatian families who lived together in friendship. At the beginning of the war, Vukovar was attacked by Federal Army units, paramilitary formations of local Serbs and Serbs imported from Serbia. After three months of fierce fighting the town was flattened. Several hundred defenders and their families fled through the minefields to the Zagreb area. I talked to them in small and large groups in which members constantly interchanged. Common to all was their great physical and psychological suffering during the siege, and their worry about killed and missing family members, friends and colleagues.