April 19, 2023 – As of today, Croatia has 1,812 people missing from the Homeland War. After 30 years of waiting, four families from the Vukovar area identified the remains of their loved ones.
As 24Sata writes, in the mass grave of Šarviz dola near Negoslavci, discovered in February of this year, at least ten remains of people killed in the Homeland War were exhumed, and DNA analysis has identified four people so far.
These people were Ilija Krivić (59), Antun Šter (29) and Josip Bali (41) from Vukovar, and Ivan Ilanić (58) from Berk. Their families came to the Vukovar hospital to identify their remains and get the results of the DNA analysis, which confirmed that they were indeed these people.
“For some of you, this is the end of the wait, and for some, the agony goes on,” Ljiljana Alvir from the Association of Associations of Missing Persons said on that occasion. Minister of Veterans Affairs Tomo Medved was also present at the identification and conversation with the families. He said that DNA analysis for the other remains is expected to be completed soon, and he pointed out that in the last ten years, 248 people killed in the war have been found and identified.
“My brother Antun disappeared in September 1991 in Vukovar. He was 29 years old. He lived in the Vučedol bungalows with his mother and a few other women and men. When the army invaded Vučedol, they took my brother and all the other men, including my father-in-law, who was also missing. We never found out where they were taken. Mom was in the camp for two months with the other women. She died two years ago and always said she would die before finding her son’s bones. And, well, she didn’t live to see it. It’s terrible. My father also died during the war; we buried him in the yard because the city was shelled. One of my brothers killed himself in 1996 in Zagreb with a bomb; another died in Austria, escaped the war, and died there on a construction site; the third was killed in Sotin; we found his remains and buried him in 2007. I was afraid that I would never find my brother”, Marija Šatorović, the sister of the found Antun Šter, said in tears, adding that her last memory of her brother was from the time of the heaviest shelling of Vukovar when he came to her door with a basket full of fish.
“Shells were falling outside, and he was fishing with a friend. He knocked on my door, brought me a bag full of fish and vegetables from his garden, and said, ‘Here, so you won’t be hungry.’ That was the last time I saw him”, says Marija.
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