With Vukovar, for better or for worse

My name is Jean-Michel. I am 22 years old. I come from Vesoul in France. And I am currently in Croatia, in Vukovar. I couldn't just watch what was happening here from Vesoul. I wanted to help them. They suggested to me more than once that I leave Vukovar and return to France. But I came to Vukovar as a volunteer. It's my choice, for better or for worse. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't think it would be so terrible, especially for civilians. I've lost too many friends, I've seen too many people cry, too much suffering. And now, now it's over. We lost. I feel that an evil doom is coming to me. "Who is French?" I hear, someone is calling me. I answered: "I'm here.", and he said something incomprehensible in Serbian, and the only thing I managed to make out was "Ustasha". It's over, I thought. And I thought well. He had some kind of bat in his hand, maybe that thick cable, something like that. He swung and started hitting me. I fell to the floor from the force of the blows. He stepped on me. He beat me to unconsciousness. I regained consciousness when they took us out of the truck. They lined us up and killed us. What does Vukovar symbolize for me? A slaughterhouse. A slaughterhouse. A slaughterhouse.