Slavonia

In the Name of the Family, a Catholic conservative group, organised an anti-abortion 'Walk for Life' march on Saturday in the eastern city of Osijek - the latest in a series of similar events nationwide.

Several hundred people gathered in Osijek's old city centre, Tvrdja, then headed towards Ante Starcevic Square, where speeches were made.

Andrija Matin wept as he said goodbye to Kristic and to his grandchildren, although neither he nor she knew that they would never see each other again.

Erdut, the small town where they lived in eastern Croatia, was no longer a safe place for anyone, let alone children.

On the anniversary of the day in 1995 when the last territory occupied by Serb rebel forces in Croatia's Baranja and Eastern Slavonia region during the war was finally returned to government control, a film screening was held in the city of Vukovar to mark the peaceful reintegration.

The District Court in Doboj has confirmed an indictment charging Ante Pavic, a former military policeman with the Croatian Defence Council, the Bosnian Croat wartime force, with war crimes against civilians.

Ivica Husnik, who was convicted in Serbia of involvement in the killings of some 200 people at Ovcara Farm near Vukovar in November 1991, was extradited to Croatia on July 7 to serve his sentence for a different crime, Osijek County Court confirmed on Monday.

"No one will harvest the fruits of victory because there are none; all that is left is just the bitter taste of a hangover," said a report published in Belgrade-based Vreme magazine after the fall of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on November 18, 1991.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani declared Monday a day of mourning after 10 Kosovo citizens lost their lives in a traffic accident in eastern Croatia at Slavonski Brod, on their way home from Germany to Kosovo, where thousands of diaspora members from Western countries spend their summer vacations.

The retrial of former general Branimir Glavas and other defendants for war crimes in the Croatian eastern city of Osijek in 1991 opened at Zagreb County Court on Monday.

At Monday's hearing, Glavas's defence requested that the trial be transferred from Zagreb to the Osijek County Court.

Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that his decision to return state honours to Branimir Glavas was legally sound, even though he is on trial for alleged war crimes.

"Glavas asked for this, he sent a request, because he has been formally unconvinced for five years. If he had not asked me, I wouldn't have interfered," Milanovic told media.

In 36 hours, 15.000 Serbs were expelled from Western Slavonia, which was part of the then Republika Srpska Krajina and under UN protection, while 283 Serbs were killed.
More than 16.000 members of the Croatian armed forces marched on Western Slavonia on May 1, with about 15.000 inhabitants and 4.000 soldiers.