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Vukovar Suffering from Media’s ‘War and Division’ Narrative

January 15, 201913:31
Journalists and politicians need to take a fresh look at the town that fell in 1991, one that addresses the issues of today, not only the war of the past, according to a panel discussion.

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The streets of Vukovar. Photo: Anja Vladisavljevic

Twenty-one years have passed since Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated with the rest of Croatia, but the town that became a symbol of Croatian suffering at the hands of a Serb military machine continues to be viewed through the prism of Croatia’s 1991-95 war, ignoring real-life issues and how far the town itself has moved on, according to a panel discussion.

Populated by both Croats and Serbs, the eastern Croatian Vukovar fell to the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, in November 1991 after a devastating three-month siege in which more than 3,000 soldiers and civilians died, 86 of them children. The town spent the rest of the war in Serb hands before a 1995 agreement saw its gradual, peaceful reintegration by January 15, 1998.

On the eve of the anniversary, local journalists and activists taking part in a panel discussion called ‘Vukovar through the Eyes of the Media’ lamented how the town continues to be viewed through the prism of ethnic division and war.

“I have heard many times from citizens of Vukovar that the Vukovar which is covered by the media is not the Vukovar in which they live, and that politics and the media are potentiating divisions,” Croatian journalist Barbara Matejcic told the discussion, organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Zagreb in cooperation with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and Europe House Vukovar.

Branimir Bradaric, a correspondent for the Vecernji list daily from Vukovar, concurred, arguing that Croatian reporters frequently write about the city from afar, drawing on only one or two sources, frequently an “embittered” Vukovar local.

“The situation in Vukovar, among the people, is much better than what’s being shown,” Bradaric said.

“I am a Vukovar citizen born and bred, and I can say that Vukovar never looked better and more beautiful than today,” he told the panel.

“The biggest problem for Vukovar is the lack of good-quality workplaces. With peaceful reintegration, when the reconstruction began, everything was invested in the walls, not in the workplaces. Walls cannot pay the bills.”

‘A different image’

The panel discussion in Vukovar, January 14, 2019. Photo: Anja Vladisavljevic.

The population of Vukovar has fallen from roughly 45,000 before the war to an official 27,000 in the last census in 2011, though the real figure today is probably even lower. Croats form the majority, with a 30 per cent Serb minority in 2011.

Croat and Serb children attend separate schools, while politicians and veterans have clashed over official use of the Serbian Cyrillic script in the town administration.

Every November, political leaders visit from Zagreb, remembering the town’s fall in 1991, the expulsion and imprisonment of non-Serbs that followed and the notorious execution at a farm in nearby Ovcara of at least 264 mainly Croat civilians and soldiers who had sought refuge in Vukovar’s hospital believing they would be evacuated.

But the war narrative is drowning out discussion and coverage of other important issues, journalists and activists say. The town’s peaceful reintegration is largely forgotten.

Media coverage is vital in creating an image of a town, said Matejcic.

“As we give priority to marking military operations and not peaceful reintegration, so the narrative about the defeat in Vukovar is actually built on differences, conflicts, and tensions,” she said. “That’s Vukovar, and the media are obliged to record it, but surely not just that.”

Bradaric said he does not recognise the divisions some media have reported on in Vukovar’s bars and cafes between Serbs and Croats.

“But [media] didn’t report about the bar that is jointly owned by a Serb and a Croatian,” he said.

Matejcic encouraged the people of Vukovar to share their stories.

“A different image of Vukovar may be the result of joint efforts, between the media and the people of Vukovar themselves.”

Read more:

Vukovar Still Imprisoned by its Bloody Past

Normality Slowly Returns to Vukovar

One-Way Ticket: Croatia’s Growing Emigration Crisis

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