From the Ruins of Vukovar
9 November 1991
For each street from 1 Svibnja Street onwards fierce and bloody battles are being fought. Siniše Glavašević reporting for the Chronicle of the Day
The wounded defenders are still holding out, but the burning question is for how long. Attacks are still not letting up. Incendiary bombs have been dropped several times on the city and have caused two fires at the hospital. Both defenders and civilians are greatly embittered by the fact that Croatia has so gallantly left them to the mercy of Greater Serbian desires.
Under constant fire from a variety of missiles and rockets, there is no longer place for illusions. Despite all the promises made, both defenders and civilians are being slaughtered mercilessly.
The four hundred and fifty wounded patients being treated at the hospital under conditions that Europe has long forgotten can no longer wait for decisions to be made and meetings to be held.
Even if military support were in the city, it might still be too late. Because the enemy has positioned itself favourably and is razing everything that stands before it to the ground. In an attempt to save the ruined city and stop disinformation and lies that have taken up so much space and airing time in certain national media from spreading among the civilian population, Jastreb, the commander for the defence of Vukovar has declared an embargo on all information. This, however, has not been taken as a serious call for concrete action to be taken, so that enemy forces have strengthened in the interim, and the promised help mentioned earlier has, to this day, not arrived.
Over three hundred projectiles landed on the hospital within the last three days, destroying all available transportation needed to transfer wounded from the front to the hospital, as well as putting a number of operating theatres out of commission, etc.
There is no more blood type O, and Croatia has made new promises to help Vukovar. But the situation on the front does not allow for any more chances.
Due to fatigue and loss of defenders, the first line of defence at the village Luzac and in 1 Svibnja Street has been breached, which has enabled the enemy to position itself more favourably in order to strike Olajnica, the most densely inhabited part of the city, and other vital arteries of the city, with heavy artillery.
Bluntly put, appeals sent to Zagreb long ago have not been taken seriously. Not even members of Vukovar Clubs, who walk around Croatia asking for donations and then disappear, have taken the appeals seriously.
Vukovar has recently been designated the symbol of Croatian defence. The political heads have even declared it a Hero City, but this was only a convulsion that lasted for the duration of its expectation that Croatia would not abandon it, that it would take it into its fold, even though it was mortally wounded.
In vain, as 78 days have passed, and, after all that has been said, defenders die in the knowledge that their own political head has betrayed them. Still, one has to think ahead. Threats have been made to massacre the civilian population, so the defenders continue to hope that the public, both at home and abroad, will react quickly in order that the worst may be avoided.
Croats, not only in Croatia, but in the whole world, should be losing sleep until the fifteen thousand people and two thousand children are saved from this hell. This is the holy duty placed upon their conscience by this city.
To all Croats, and all those who hear us, this is Siniše Glavašević reporting from the ruins of Vukovar.
