Vesna Jakumetović

Vesna Jakumetović was born in Vukovar in 1962. The beginning of the war found her with her father and mother in Vukovar. She was gravely injured during a bombardment of Vukovar. On the day of the fall of Vukovar, following many months spent sheltering in a basement, her family was separated at the Velepromet complex. Since then, all trace of her father has been lost. According to eyewitnesses her father was killed, but his remains were never found. For several days, Vesna Jakumetović, her mother and her grandmother were separated from the rest of the population, who were transported away by bus, into exile. They spent a short time in occupied Vukovar; first at Velepromet, and later in the house of Vesna Jakumetović's uncle. When she learned that her mother was ill with cancer, thanks to connections and acquaintances with some officials in the newly established SAO Krajina [Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina], she managed to get her mother to Belgrade for an operation and treatment. In Belgrade they were helped by her parents' close friends, who were doctors at the military hospital in Belgrade. After the treatment, she managed to transfer her mother to Croatia. From 1993 she worked for the Croatian Army in Vinkovci, and later at the command of the Osijek Operational Zone. She remained a member of the military until 2000, when she started a small business that she still runs. She lives in her reconstructed family house in Vukovar, destroyed during the war.