yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 2
Željko Ražnatović Arkan, a criminal, later the leader of the Serbian
Guard, (Croatia) was arrested at Dvor na Uni while transporting
arms to Krajina Serbs in November 1990. Croatian Serbs started with
so called Log Revolution (August 1990 by blocking the highways in
Dalmatia). Escalation of incidents continued during the spring 1991
(Pakrac and Plitvice) to reach its peak in September with ypa attacks
on Vukovar, Dubrovnik and Zadar. Vukovar was “liberated” on
November 21 and almost 30 percent of Croatian territory was occupied
by Serbs, while all non-Serbs were cleansed from the so-called
Republika Srpska Krajina. Croatia was cut in two at Zadar, thus
splitting a Dalmatia until 1995.
In an interview with Vreme on August 24, 1991, Janez Drnovšek,
the Slovene representative in the sfry Presidency and president of
Yugoslavia in 1989–90, said that “because the Serb people are practically
the only people maintaining the ypa under the present conditions,
I believe that the fate of the ypa is linked to the fate of the Serb
people in Croatia. If the Army were to stop supporting those people,
that would practically be the end of it.”
War broke out in Croatia in the fall of 1991. The operational
objective of the ypa in Croatia was to “defeat the Croatian army
completely should the situation permit, [otherwise to defeat it]
unfailingly to an extent that would make it possible to reach the
set objectives.” 265 Very soon, however, it became clear that the ypa’s
objectives were impracticable because “the ypa lacks the strength
necessary to defeat the Croatian army completely.” 266 Although Croatia’s
Territorial Defense had already been disarmed by the ypa and
the Croatian army was poorly armed, its morale, and that of the
entire Croatian populace, proved a far greater asset than hardware.
265 Veljko Kadijević, Moje viđenje raspada, p . 134 .
266 Veljko Kadijević informed the rump Presidency of the SFRY of this at a
session on October 9, 1991, Borisav Jović, Poslednji dani SFRJ, p . 394 .