1991 protest in Split

Street protest against the Yugoslav People's Army December 2025 1991 protest in Split the Croatian War of Independence Croatia 300 right Split is located on the Adriatic Sea coast of Croatia. Split right 43.503511 16.428529 Location map of Split in Croatia 1991 05 06 y Split, Croatia 43.503511 N 16.428529 E inline,title Yugoslav People's Army blockade of Kijevo Lifting of the blockade Street protest No direct results Croatian Trade Union Association 22px|border|Yugoslavia Yugoslavia 100,000 Unknown None 1 killedSeveral wounded 4 (a month later) A street protest against the Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) was held in Split, Croatia, on 6 May 1991. The protest was organised by the Croatian Trade Union Association in the Brodosplit Shipyard and joined in by workers from other companies in the city and other residents of Split after radio broadcast appeals for help while the protesters marched through the streets. Ultimately, the protest drew 100,000 supporters. The march ended in a picket in front of the Banovina building, where the JNA had its headquarters in Split at the time. The protesters demanded an end to the JNA-imposed blockade of the village of Kijevo. Scuffles broke out in front of the building, and a JNA soldier was killed by a gunshot reportedly fired from the crowd. Four organisers of the protest were arrested a month later by the JNA, tried in a military court and convicted. They were released months later in a prisoner exchange. The protest caused the JNA to withdraw a portion of military equipment previously based in Split to more secure locations and increase its combat readiness there. The blockade of Kijevo was lifted through negotiations days after the protest. Background In 1990, following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, ethnic tensions worsened. The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) then confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana) in order to minimize resistance.Hoare 2010 117 On 17 August, tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs,Hoare 2010 118 centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin,The New York Times 19 August 1990 parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia.ICTY 12 June 2007 After two unsuccessful attempts by Serbia, supported by Montenegro and Serbia's provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo to obtain the Yugoslav Presidency's approval to deploy the JNA to disarm Croatian security forces in January 1991,Hoare 2010 118–119 and a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March,Ramet 2006 384–385 the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the federal Presidency to grant it wartime powers and declare a state of emergency. The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under the control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than the preservation of Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency. The threat caused the JNA to gradually abandon plans to preserve Yugoslavia in favour of expanding Serbia.Hoare 2010 119 By the end of the month, the conflict had escalated to its first fatalities.The New York Times 3 March 1991 The JNA intervened on the side of the insurgents, and prevented the Croatian police from taking action. In early April, the leaders of the Serb revolt in Croatia declared their intent to integrate the area under their control, viewed by the Government of Croatia as a breakaway region, with Serbia.The New York Times 2 April 1991 In the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. In an effort to bolster its defences, it doubled police personnel to about 20,000. The most effective part of the force was the 3,000-strong special police.CIA 2002 86 The Croatian view of the JNA's role in the Serb revolt gradually evolved from January 1991. The initial plan of Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was to win support from the European Community (EC) and the United States for Croatia, and he disregarded advice to seize JNA barracks and storage facilities in the country. Tuđman's stance was motivated by his belief that Croatia could not win a war against the JNA.CIA 2002 91 Protest The immediate cause for a confrontation with the JNA in Split was a blockade of the village of Kijevo, where Croatian authorities had established a new police station,Woodward 1995 142 imposed on 29 April.O'Shea 2005 p. 214, note 30 The village was surrounded by the JNA, commanded by Colonel Ratko Mladić, and the Serb insurgent forces, cutting access and preventing delivery of supplies.Gow 2003 154 Tuđman called on the public to bring the siege to its end. The protest took place on 6 May 1991 in Split, organised by the Croatian Trade Union Association in Brodosplit Shipyard,Slobodna Dalmacija 6 May 2001 in response to Tuđman's earlier statement. The protest started out with 10,000 shipyard workers,Večernji list 6 May 2010 but ultimately drew approximately 100,000 people,Brigović 2011 note 10 from the shipyard and other factories in Split to a protest march through the city, carrying Croatian flags. The protest march grew in number as more citizens joined in, following radio broadcast messages calling for support. In order to prevent the Yugoslav Navy from intervening using ships equipped with water cannons, Jadrolinija ships were used to obstruct access to the port. The protesters picketed around the Banovina building,Brigović 2011 417–418 which housed the command centres of the JNA Military-Maritime District and the Yugoslav Navy at the time.Brigović 2011 416 The protesters demanded lifting of the blockade of Kijevo, withdrawal of armoured personnel carriers parked in front of the Banovina building and hoisting of a Croatian flag on the building itself. During the protest, the crowd assaulted a JNA armoured personnel carrier and managed to remove a machine gun mounted on the vehicle, while one of the protesters, Ivica Balić, hoisted a Croatian flag at the building to singing of the Croatian anthem by the crowd. In a scuffle which broke out in front of the building, Saško Gešovski, a JNA conscript from Macedonia, was killed by a shot fired from the crowd.Slobodna Dalmacija 26 March 2011 By the end of the afternoon, the crowd removed the Yugoslav flag from the building, moved away and dispersed. Aftermath Besides Gešovski, there were no fatalities, but several JNA soldiers were wounded. Gešovski's death sparked demonstrations in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, in June. Protesters accused Tuđman of being responsible for the murder.Woodward 1995 p. 453, note 73 The Croatian Government refused to express regret for Gešovski's killing, and the Serbian media pointed to the young Macedonian's death as proof that Tuđman's government had revived the fascist Ustaše, which controlled Croatia during World War II.Sikavica 2000 139 Then-mayor of Split Onesin Cvitan claimed that Gešovski was fired upon from the Banovina building. However, the Croatian State Attorney's Office contradicted him, claiming that Gešovski was killed by someone in the crowd picketing in front of the building. An investigation was launched but the case was dropped because of lack of evidence. The JNA's security service in Split, run by Colonel Ljubiša Beara,Slobodna Dalmacija 12 June 2010 identified Mato Sabljić, Ivan Begonja, Roland Zvonarić and Branko Glavinović as organisers of the protest where the killing occurred and arrested them on 5 June. They were put on trial at a military court in Sarajevo on 19 August, convicted and sentenced to one and a half to eight years in prison. The group was imprisoned in Foča until 25 November, when they were exchanged for JNA prisoners of war. The protest is commemorated annually in Split and a monograph covering the event was issued in 2011. In the wake of the protest, the JNA increased combat readiness of its garrison in Split and elsewhere in Dalmatia and withdrew a part of artillery and personnel from Split to its bases located away from the coast. Furthermore, the Military-Maritime District of the JNA ordered its garrisons to stock up potable water and prepare power generators for use if the supply of electricity were cut.Brigović 2011 418 The JNA evacuated itself from Split by 4 January 1992, pursuant to agreements ending the Battle of the Barracks.Brigović 2011 447 The siege of Kijevo was lifted days after the protest through negotiations and two weeks after the JNA blockaded the village. However, the arrangement proved short-lived as JNA units, again led by Mladić, attacked Kijevo and destroyed a substantial part of the village. The attack began when Croatian forces refused to surrender to Croatian Serb leader Milan Martić. It was one of the first instances where the JNA openly sided with the insurgent Serbs in the rapidly escalating Croatian War of Independence.Gow 2003 154–155 Footnotes 2 References Books 60em CIA 2002 https://books.google.com/books?id=it1IAQAAIAAJ Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, 1990–1995 Central Intelligence Agency Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Russian and European Analysis 2002 50396958 Washington, D.C. 9780160664724 https://books.google.com/books?id=LCAbMi9yeGsC The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes James Gow C. Hurst & Co. London, England 2003 978-1-85065-646-3 https://books.google.com/books?id=oFXdiS25N78C Sabrina P. Ramet Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989 Cambridge University Press 2010 978-1-139-48750-4 The War of Yugoslav Succession Marko Attila Hoare 111–136 Cambridge, England https://books.google.com/books?id=KoHQEEDzL5AC The Modern Yugoslave Conflict 1991–1995: Perception, Deception and Dishonesty Brendan O'Shea Routledge London, England 2005 978-0-415-35705-0 https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building And Legitimation, 1918–2006 Sabrina P. Ramet Indiana University Press 2006 978-0-253-34656-8 Bloomington, Indiana https://books.google.com/books?id=GuGe9fy4raoC Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia Jasminka Udovicki James Ridgeway The Army's Collapse Stipe Sikavica 154–174 Duke University Press Durham, North Carolina 2000 9780822325901 https://archive.org/details/balkantragedycha00wood registration Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution After the Cold War Susan L. Woodward Brookings Institution Press Washington, D.C. 1995 978-0-8157-9513-1 Scientific journal articles 60em Journal of Contemporary History Croatian Institute of History 0590-9597 Odlazak Jugoslavenske narodne armije s područja Zadra, Šibenika i Splita krajem 1991. i početkom 1992. godine hr Departure of the Yugoslav People's Army from the area of Zadar, Šibenik and Split in late 1991 and early 1992 Ivan Brigović 43 2 http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=109849 415–452 October 2011 News reports 60em The New York Times 3 March 1991 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/03/world/belgrade-sends-troops-to-croatia-town.html Stephen Engelberg Belgrade Sends Troops to Croatia Town 3 March 1991 2 October 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131002222925/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/03/world/belgrade-sends-troops-to-croatia-town.html live Slobodna Dalmacija 12 June 2010 Slobodna Dalmacija 12 June 2010 http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/105853/Default.aspx Beara je sudjelovao u napadu na Split hr Beara took part in an attack on Split Denis Krnić 1 December 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131201130120/http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/105853/Default.aspx live Slobodna Dalmacija 26 March 2011 Slobodna Dalmacija 26 March 2011 http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Split/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/133247/Default.aspx Dan kada je Split ustao protiv JNA hr Day when Split rose against the JNA Denis Krnić 18 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120318131557/http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Split/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/133247/Default.aspx live Slobodna Dalmacija 6 May 2001 Slobodna Dalmacija 6 May 2001 http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20010506/split.htm Dan kada je ustao Split hr Day when Split rose up Snježana Šetka 1 December 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131201130255/http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20010506/split.htm live The New York Times 2 April 1991 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/02/world/rebel-serbs-complicate-rift-on-yugoslav-unity.html Rebel Serbs Complicate Rift on Yugoslav Unity Chuck Sudetic Chuck Sudetic 2 April 1991 2 October 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131002222938/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/02/world/rebel-serbs-complicate-rift-on-yugoslav-unity.html live The New York Times 19 August 1990 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/world/roads-sealed-as-yugoslav-unrest-mounts.html Reuters Roads Sealed as Yugoslav Unrest Mounts 19 August 1990 21 September 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130921063029/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/world/roads-sealed-as-yugoslav-unrest-mounts.html live Večernji list 6 May 2010 Večernji list 6 May 2010 http://www.vecernji.hr/regije/sjecanje-banovinu-clanak-136405 Sjećanje na Banovinu Remembrance of Banovina hr Mario Velić 1 December 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131201130454/http://www.vecernji.hr/dalmacija/sjecanje-na-banovinu-136405 live Other sources 60em ICTY 12 June 2007 The Prosecutor vs. Milan Martic – Judgement http://www.icty.org/x/cases/martic/tjug/en/070612.pdf International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 12 June 2007 Category:1991 protests Category:1991 in Croatia Category:Protests in Croatia Category:May 1991 in Yugoslavia Category:20th century in Split, Croatia Category:Croatian War of Independence Category:Yugoslav People's Army Category:Organized events in Split, Croatia