Tensions Build Within Yugoslavia - May 1991

Tensions Build Within Yugoslavia - May 1991

A shootout between Croatians and Serbs in Borovo Selo, in Yugoslavia's republic of Croatia, May 2, resulted in the deaths of 12 policemen and 3 civilians. Serbs inside Croatia were seeking to join Serbia, a republic to the south. Col. Gen. Veljko Kadijevic, the country's Defense secretary, said, May 6, that "Yugoslavia has centered a state of civil war." The military went on combat alert, May 6, and on May 7, the military began to call up reserves. On May 15, Stipe Mesic of Croatia, vice chairman of the collective presidency, was scheduled to become chairman, or titular head of state. An opponent of Serbian nationalism, Mesic would have become Yugoslavia's first non-Communist leader since World War II. But Biroslav Jovic of Serbia, who held the charimanship, blocked Mesic from getting a majority vote. In a referendum held May 19, voters in Croatia overwhelmingly endorsed having a sovereign state within a loose Yugoslav confederation. Mesic, May 20, unilaterally declared himself to be the head of state, but the administrative chief of the presidency's secretariat rejected this claim. Croatia, May 29, declared itself to be independent.