 In the beginning of 1991, Croatia had no regular army. To bolster its defence, Croatia doubled police personnel to about 20,000. The most effective part of the force was 3,000-strong special police deployed in twelve battalions adopting military organisation. There were also 9,000 – 10,000 regionally organised reserve police, which was organized in 16 battalions and 10 companies but lacked weapons. According to the Croatian 1991 census, Serbs were the largest ethnic group in the municipality of Pakrac (46.4 %), followed by Croats (35.8 %). Serb Democratic Party politician Veljko Džakula became the political leader of Croatian Serbs in western Slavonia. He held a view that Serbs should secede from Croatia.
