Pakrac clash

Background

In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia by the Croatian Democratic Union (, HDZ), ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs worsened. The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana - TO) weapons to minimize resistance. On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina, and eastern Croatia. The Croatian Serbs established the Serbian National Council in July 1990 to coordinate opposition to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman's policy of pursuing independence. Milan Babić, a dentist from the southern town of Knin, was elected president and Knin's police chief Milan Martić established paramilitary militias. The two men eventually became the political and military leaders of the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK), a self-declared state incorporating the Serb-inhabited areas of Croatia.

In the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. To bolster its defence, Croatia doubled police personnel to about 20,000. The most effective part of the force was 3,000-strong special police deployed in twelve battalions adopting military organisation. There were also 9,000–10,000 regionally organised reserve police, which was organized in 16 battalions and 10 companies but lacked weapons. According to the Croatian 1991 census, Serbs were the largest ethnic group in the municipality of Pakrac (46.4%), followed by Croats (35.8%). Serb Democratic Party politician Veljko Džakula became the political leader of Croatian Serbs in western Slavonia. He held a view that Serbs should secede from Croatia.

On 22 February, the municipal council controlled by Džakula voted to join the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina (later renamed the RSK) and subordinate the Pakrac police station to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Krajina. The vote was annulled by the Constitutional Court of Croatia on 28 February.

Timeline

In February 1991, Babić and Martić directed Serb paramilitaries to take over the town's police station and municipal buildings. On 1 March, the paramilitaries disarmed the town's 16 Croatian policemen and subjected local Croatian officials to a campaign of vilification and intimidation. The police in Pakrac were commanded by Jovo Vezmar, who sided with Babić and Martić.

In response, President Franjo Tuđman ordered the Croatian Interior Ministry to restore the government's authority over the town. At 04:30 on 2 March 1991, the first part of a 200-strong Croatian police force entered Pakrac. A company of the "Omega" special police unit, dispatched from Bjelovar, approached via the village of Badljevina, where a number of Croatian civilians followed the force towards Pakrac. A barricade outside Pakrac was cleared with no resistance, and the Croatian police secured the town's police station unopposed. Several hours later, shots were fired at the police station from a nearby hill by a force commanded by Vezmar. Soon afterwards, a second Croatian special police unit, the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit, arrived from Zagreb. Vezmar retreated east towards the villages of Šeovica and Bučje on the Psunj Mountain. The special police, commanded by Marko Lukić and Mladen Markač, arrested 180 ethnic-Serb rebels, including 32 ethnic-Serb policemen, without either side sustaining deaths or injuries. Vezmar was replaced by Stjepan Kupsjak as the Pakrac police chief.

The Croatian action prompted an intervention from the federal Yugoslav government. Borisav Jović, the Serbian representative on the collective Presidency of Yugoslavia, supported a request by Yugoslav Defence Minister Veljko Kadijević to send the JNA to the scene. The first ten JNA tanks arrived in Pakrac late in the evening of 1 March and took positions in various parts of the town; most of them were stationed near the town hospital. Čeleketić was acting on the orders of Major General Jevrem Cokić, commander of the 32nd (Varaždin) Corps. Cokić authorised deployment of three companies of the armoured battalion of the 265th Mechanised Brigade based in Bjelovar.

The arrival of JNA tanks in Pakrac came too late to stop the Croatian special police from retaking the town. However, it prompted the remaining Serb rebels to begin shooting at the town from the surrounding hills. Shots were fired at a police vehicle on patrol. The policemen shot back at men retreating towards a JNA position, and the JNA shot at the police vehicle in return. The shooting ended when talks between Croatian member of the federal presidency Stjepan Mesić and JNA Colonel Aleksandar Vasiljević produced an agreement that the Croatian police would be allowed to retain control of the town. The JNA planned to retake control of Pakrac from the special police by force. The attack, codenamed Pakrac-91, was cancelled when the Croatian authorities agreed to withdraw the special police by the evening of 3 March. The JNA withdrew from Pakrac following a decision of the Yugoslav Presidency, abandoning the northern approaches to the town on 12 March, and pulling out completely seven days later.

Aftermath

The agreement to withdraw the special police and the JNA largely restored status quo ante bellum.

In Serbia, the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), led by Slobodan Milošević, condemned the Croatian police action as a "brutal attack by the Croatian government on the population of Pakrac [using] violent and fascist methods"a statement that was carried prominently by the state-controlled Radio Television Belgrade. The SPS urged Serbs to attend "protest meetings against the violent behaviour of the Croatian HDZ government". Milošević used the Pakrac clash to demand that the JNA be authorised to forcibly disarm Croatia. The request, specifically demanding the granting of wartime powers to the JNA and the introduction of a state of emergency, was made through Kadijević at a Presidency session of 11–15 May. The request was refused, and Milošević declared that he no longer recognised the authority of the federal presidency.

The police intervention prompted Serb political leaders in Okučani to urge the local population to erect barricades around the town in to pre-empt another intervention—stating that police forces were moving in from Kutina and Novska. The barricades were guarded by armed civilians.

Footnotes

References

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;Scientific journal articles

;News reports

;Other sources

References

1. {{harvnb. The New York Times. 3 March 1991
2. {{harvnb. The New York Times. 4 March 1991
3. {{harvnb. Hoare. 2010
4. {{harvnb. Hoare. 2010
5. {{harvnb. The New York Times. 19 August 1990
6. {{harvnb. ICTY. 12 June 2007
7. {{harvnb. Repe. 2009
8. {{harvnb. CIA. 2002
9. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
10. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
11. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
12. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
13. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
14. {{harvnb. Repe. 2009
15. Ramet. 2006
16. {{harvnb. Glas Slavonije. 20 February 2013
17. {{harvnb. Karaula. 2007
18. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
19. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
20. {{harvnb. Degoricija. 2008
21. The next afternoon, an additional JNA unit led by Colonel [[Milan Čeleketić]] arrived in Pakrac, taking positions close to the Croatian special police.{{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
22. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
23. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
24. {{harvnb. Karaula. 2007
25. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
26. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
27. {{harvnb. Ahrens. 2007
28. {{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011
29. Orthodox]] priest had been killed, on its second page that he had been wounded, and on its third page it printed a statement from him. The Yugoslav presidency finally issued a statement that nobody had been killed in Pakrac.{{harvnb. Kurspahić. 2003
30. {{harvnb. Gordy. 2010
31. {{harvnb. Kaufman. 2001
32. {{harvnb. Mesić. 2004
33. In Pakrac, approximately 500 Serb protesters gathered in front of the municipal council building to demand the removal of the [[flag of Croatia]].{{harvnb. Miškulin. 2011