Map showing the fighting in eastern Slavonia, September 1991 – January 1992 Osijek is located in the bulge (salient) near the top of the map The Government of Croatia considered this an act of secession. In early April, leaders of the Serb revolt in Croatia declared their intention to integrate the area under their control with Serbia. The JNA then stepped in to support the insurgents and prevent Croatian police from intervening. By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated, and the first fatalities occurred. The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under the control of the Serbian President Slobodan Milošević by the summer of 1991, as the Yugoslav federation started to fall apart. Īfter a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the federal Presidency to grant it wartime powers and declare a state of emergency. In January 1991, Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, made two unsuccessful attempts to obtain approval from the Yugoslav Presidency to deploy the JNA to disarm Croatian security forces. On 17 August, the tensions escalated into an open revolt by Croatian Serbs, centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin, parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina regions and eastern Croatia. The Yugoslav People's Army ( Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence ( Teritorijalna obrana – TO) to minimize potential resistance. In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, ethnic tensions worsened. Croatian authorities charged thirteen JNA officers with war crimes against civilian population of Osijek, but none of them have been arrested. The JNA units subordinated to the 12th (Novi Sad) Corps, supported by the Serb Volunteer Guard achieved modest advances in late November and early December 1991, capturing several villages south of Osijek, but the defensive line in the region was successfully maintained by the Croatian Army and the advances contained. It is estimated by Croatian sources that 6,000 artillery shells were fired against Osijek in the period.Īfter the JNA captured Vukovar on 18 November, Osijek appeared to be the next target of its campaign in Croatia. The bombardment killed approximately 800 in Osijek, while a large portion of the city's population fled. The Yugoslav Air Force executed several airstrikes against targets in the city. The bombardment was compounded by limited JNA armour and infantry attacks aimed at enveloping the city.
The shelling peaked in late November and December 1991 and diminished in 1992, after implementation of the Vance plan was agreed upon by the belligerents. ) was the artillery bombardment of the Croatian city of Osijek by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) from August 1991 to June 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. The Battle of Osijek (Croatian language: Bitka za Osijek