balkan insight
04 Nov 2010 / 08:09
The first-ever joint visit by Croatian and Serbian presidents to the Croatian town of Vukovar on Thursday marks a new beginning for the town and will usher in economic development, the town's mayor predicts.
Bojana BarlovacBelgrade
"It is clear that the city is safe for investment because something that has never happened before is going to take place: the presidents of the two countries are meeting here," Zeljko Sabo told Balkan Insight.
This small city on the border with Serbia was the site of one of the most brutal sieges by Serbian forces during the war in Croatia. Since the end of the war the city has faced stark divisions between Serb and Croat residents and struggled economically.
Serbian President Boris Tadic and his Croatian counterpart Ivo Josipovic will visit the city and surrounding areas on Thursday to mark an upcoming anniversary of massacres in nearby Ovcara and Paulin Dvor and promote reconciliation.
Vukovar has seen relations between the city's Serb and Croat communities improve slightly in recent months as the political climate between the two countries has improved, a situation partly attributed to regular meetings between Josipovic and Tadic.
Josipovic's moderate Social Democratic Party took power in the town in May 2009, which observers say has helped improve ethnic relations locally.
The mayor hopes that this wave of improved Serbia-Croatia relations will boost the city's business environment and usher in investments.
"Investors have been waiting for the Vukovar problem to be solved but there is no ethnic conflict here anymore," Sabo explained."Vukovar's potential is here.
There are 4,000 young people who want to live here, we should create the conditions for them to be able do so," he added.
balkan insight
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