Croatian newspaper Vjesnik’s report on May 8, 1991 about the protest in Split
The war for the independence of Croatia started with the rebellion of Serbs living in Croatia in August in 1990. Strategically the war can be divided in 3 stages. In first stage (1990 – January 1992) Serbia attacked Croatia which was forced to defend itself. In the second stage (January 1992 –May 1995) there was a stop of the attacks, locating of UN Protection Forces and attempts of Croatian diplomacy to put the end to the war. In the third stage (May and August of 1995) Croatian army performed attacks on the locations occupied by the Serbs and they succeeded in the liberations of most of the locations.
Forming of Serbia Army
Before the breakdown of Yugoslavia, Serbia started forming the army with the idea of Great Serbia which would include parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia. Also, Serbia succeeded in disarmament of Croatian forces. In the beginning of 1991, Croatian army had access to around 30 000 pieces of weapons (mostly firearm and some anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons) and they started defending Croatian territories from invasion.
First Stage of War
Offensive plan of Yugoslav People’s Army
The Serbian forces started with the attacks on the Eastern part of Croatia (closest to Serbian border) and they invaded it and they banished Croatian citizens. In the next stages of war Serbs invaded other parts of Croatia whilst Croatian forces did their best defending the attacked locations and trying to stop further invasion.
Second Stage of War
Opened invasion finished with singing of peace treaty between Serbian and Croatian armed forces in January of 1992 in Sarajevo. That was also the beginning of international peace operation in Croatia. In the period of time from 1992 to 1995 Croatia combined diplomacy with occasional fuminant armed operations in occupied territories.
Third Stage of War
The peaceful settlement was less and less probable because the Serbian authorities declined all of the proposals and UN forces weren’t that helpful so Croatia was confronted with the possibility of losing the occupied territories. After the Serbian’s failure to comply to the peace treaty in the May of 1995., the Croatian military action Bljesak (Blaze) started and it liberated more than 500 km² of occupied territories. The second military action Oluja (Storm) happened in August of 1995 which liberated most of the occupied territories except some parts of the Eastern Croatia which were reintegrated slowly from 1996 to 1998 after the Dayton peace treaty.