September 22, 2020 – Their lives taken in the Homeland War, Petar and Igor Kačić are depicted in the new Vukovar Father and Son monument. Igor was just 16-years-old at the time he was killed
During recent days, family members, the town mayor and veterans representatives attended the unveiling of a new Vukovar Father and Son monument. The statue is the work of Zvonimir Orčić and Josip Cvrtila and was commissioned in remembrance of Petar Kačić and his son Igor. Aged just 16-years-old at the time of his execution, Igor is the youngest victim of the massacre at Vukovar.
Petar Kačić was killed on the front line of the fighting in Vukovar on 2nd October 1991. He and other town residents were trying to defend their families and neighbours from the approaching Yugoslavian National Army forces. They were hopelessly outnumbered and inadequately armed for the task. They faced one of Europe’s then-largest and best-equipped armies, whose numbers were bolstered by savage and ruthless paramilitaries.
Although the new Vukovar Father and Son monument shows the two males of the family together in defence of the town, Igor was actually killed one month after his father’s passing, on 20 November 1991. While still grieving for Petar, the family had been moved into a shelter at Vukovar hospital to escape the intense shelling that rained down on the town each day. It had already destroyed their home two months previously.
Following the fall of the town, all refugees from the fighting were taken into the custody of the Yugoslavian National Army and their paramilitary accomplices. In a barbaric act that was to be repeated time and time again during the violent break up of Yugoslavia, the men were separated from the women, and small children, and then taken away.
Igor Kačić, aged 16
Although only 16-years-old, Igor Kačić was a strong and muscular boy. The look on his face was perhaps nearer that of a man, aged by grief, relentless shelling and the new responsibilities he had taken upon himself. After his father had been killed, Igor assumed the role of the family protector and stood on watch at the hospital while his mother Irena and his two sisters slept inside.
Around 300 men were taken from the Vukovar Hospital. Their number contained not only wounded fighters but sheltering civilians like Igor. They were transported by the Yugoslavian National Army to a farm in a hamlet called Ovčara, south-west of Vukovar. The army drove away, leaving the prisoners in the custody of the Serbian paramilitaries. 260 prisoners were lined up in groups, then shot. The bodies of 200 were later found in one mass grave.
“It is not just a monument to Petar and Igor, it is a monument to all fathers and sons who gave their lives in the Homeland War,” said Igor’s mother, Irena Kačić, at the statue’s unveiling. Aged 69 years old, Irena Kačić had made the journey from her present-day home in Rijeka to attend the ceremony for the new Vukovar Father and Son monument.
All photos © Grad Vukovar / public domain
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