Battle of Borovo Selo The Battle of Borovo Selo on 2 May 1991 ( known in Croatia as the Borovo Selo massacre , and in Serbia as the Borovo Selo incident , ) was one of the first armed clashes in the conflict which ultimately became known as the Croatian War of Independence . The clash was precipitated by months of rising ethnic tensions and armed combat in Pakrac and at the Plitvice Lakes in March . The immediate cause for the confrontation in the village of Borovo Selo , just to the north of Vukovar , was a failed attempt to replace a Yugoslav flag , hoisted in the village , with a Croatian one . The unauthorised effort by four Croatian policemen resulted in the capture of two of them by a Croatian Serb militia in the village . In an effort to retrieve the captives , Croatian authorities deployed additional police who drove into an ambush . At least twelve Croatian policemen and three Serb militiamen were killed in battle before the Yugoslav People ' s Army ( JNA ) intervened and stopped the fighting . The fighting resulted in a further deterioration of the overall situation in Croatia , leading Croats and Serbs to accuse each other of overt aggression and of being enemies of their nation . For Croatia , the event was provocative because some of the police killed in the incident were subsequently mutilated . In consequence , the clash in Borovo Selo eliminated any hopes that the escalating conflict could be defused politically and virtually made the war inevitable . The Presidency of Yugoslavia met days after the fighting and authorised the JNA to deploy to the area and prevent further conflict , but skirmishes quickly spread in the region regardless of their intervention . Background . In 1990 , following the electoral defeat of the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia , ethnic tensions in the republic worsened . The Yugoslav People ' s Army ( " Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija " – JNA ) confiscated Croatia ' s Territorial Defence ( " Teritorijalna obrana " – TO ) weapons to miminize the possibility of resistance following the elections . On 17 August , the tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs , centred on the predominantly Serb - populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin , parts of the Lika , Kordun , Banovina and eastern Croatia . They established a Serbian National Council in July 1990 to coordinate opposition to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman ' s policy of pursuing independence for Croatia . Milan Babić , a dentist from the southern town of Knin , was elected president . Knin ' s police chief , Milan Martić , established paramilitary militias . The two men eventually became the political and military leaders of the SAO Krajina , a self - declared state incorporating the Serb - inhabited areas of Croatia . In March 1991 , the SAO Krajina authorities backed by the Serbian government started to consolidate control over Serb - populated areas of Croatia . The move resulted in a bloodless skirmish in Pakrac and the first fatalities in the Plitvice Lakes incident . In the beginning of 1991 , Croatia had no regular army and in an effort to bolster its defence , it doubled the number of police personnel to about 20 , 000 . The most effective part of the force was the 3 , 000 - strong special police deployed in twelve battalions adopting military organisation . In addition there were 9 , 000 – 10 , 000 regionally organised reserve police . The reserve police was set up in 16 battalions and 10 companies , but they lacked weapons . Prelude . In 1991 , the village of Borovo Selo , situated on the right bank of the Danube opposite Serbia , was a part of the Vukovar municipality . While the city of Vukovar itself had an ethnically mixed population of 47 . 2 % Croats and 32 . 2 % Serbs , smaller settlements in the area were more homogenous — 14 were predominantly populated by Croats , ten , including Borovo Selo , by Serbs , two by Ruthenians and the remaining two were ethnically mixed . Amid the worsening ethnic tensions , Borovo Selo was barricaded on 1 April , one day after the Plitvice Lakes clash . Two days later , the JNA garrison in Vukovar increased its combat readiness to the maximum level . In early spring , an agreement was made that Croatian police would not enter Borovo Selo without explicit consent from local Serb authorities to do so . The situation became more volatile by the end of the month , following a political rally in Borovo Selo on 14 April . Speakers at the rally — Vojislav Šešelj , leader of the Serbian Radical Party , Serbian National Assembly member Milan Paroški and Stanko Cvijan , Serbian Minister of Diaspora — spoke in favour of the creation of Greater Serbia . The same speeches were repeated by the trio a week later in Jagodnjak , north of Osijek , complete with an open call for dissenting Croats to be killed . In addition , White Eagles paramilitaries arrived to Borovo Selo in mid - April , at the request of Borovo Selo militia commander Vukašin Šoškoćanin . The paramilitaries were armed by the Serbian police directly , or the SAO Krajina - aligned local militia under approval of the Serbian officials . By the end of the month , the White Eagles in Borovo Selo were joined by " Dušan Silni " paramilitaries , linked to the Serbian National Renewal party . Aiming to inflame the situation , three Armbrust rockets were fired from Croatian positions outside Borovo Selo into the village in mid - April . One of the missiles hit a house and another landed in a field , failing to explode . Nobody was killed or injured , but the already tense situation was made worse as the unexploded rocket was shown on Serbian Television as evidence of Croatian aggression against Serbs . The rockets were fired by a group of men including Gojko Šušak , a high - ranking official of Croatia ' s ruling Croatian Democratic Union at the time . They were led to the site by Osijek police chief Josip Reihl - Kir , even though Reihl - Kir initially objected to the idea . Šušak later denied he had anything to do with the incident , but admitted he was in the area at the time . Josip Boljkovac , Croatia ' s interior minister at the time , claimed the group included Šušak , Branimir Glavaš and Vice Vukojević . Timeline . In the evening of 1 May , four Croatian policemen entered Borovo Selo , in an unauthorised attempt to replace a Yugoslav flag , hoisted in the village , with a Croatian one . The attempt resulted in an armed clash . Two of the policemen were wounded and taken prisoner , and the remaining two managed to flee , sustaining minor injuries — one a wounded foot and another a grazing wound to his head . According to the Croatian Ministry of the Interior , the police had been on patrol on the Dalj – Borovo Selo road at the time of the incident . Even though the police officers were assigned to Osijek police administration , Vinkovci police administration , which was assigned authority over the Vukovar municipality , requested Vukovar police station contact Šoškoćanin regarding the incident . Vukovar police contacted him at 4 : 30 that morning , but Šoškoćanin reportedly said he knew nothing . At 9 : 00 , Vinkovci police chief Josip Džaja telephoned Šoškoćanin only to receive the same answer . Reihl - Kir contacted Šoškoćanin half an hour later , when the latter confirmed the incident saying the police had shot at members of the local population wounding one , but Reihl - Kir failed to secure release of the two captured officers . Reihl - Kir and Džaja concluded that a party should be sent to Borovo Selo , and Šoškoćanin agreed to grant the police safe passage under a white flag . However , when the force of 20 to 30 policemen entered Borovo Selo under white flag , the local milita and the paramilitaries ambushed them . Approximately 150 police were deployed as reinforcements by buses , arriving from Osijek and Vinkovci . While the reinforcements sent from Osijek via Dalj were stopped at a roadblock north of Borovo Selo and failed to enter the village , the force dispatched from Vinkovci entered Borovo Selo and was ambushed . The ensuing firefight lasted until 14 : 30 , when seven JNA armoured personnel carrier s ( APCs ) moved into the village from Dalj . Another convoy of APCs deployed by the JNA through Borovo Naselje , just south of Borovo Selo , was stopped by a crowd of Croat women , refusing to let them through . Aftermath . At least 12 Croatian policemen were killed in the ambush , and 21 were injured . The two captured policemen were ferried across the Danube and transported to Novi Sad , but released and returned to Osijek by the evening of 2 May . Several Serbs in Borovo Selo were killed in the fighting , and the figure was never officially released . Sources disagree on Serb casualties — the figure ranges from three dead , to seventeen militiamen and 20 civilians killed . Šešelj claimed only one civilian died in Borovo Selo , while a 22 - strong defending force he led in the battle killed a hundred policemen . Residents of Borovo Selo interviewed by reporters claimed 13 policemen were killed after they took women and children hostages and that the residents defeated the police unassisted , freeing the hostages while sustaining one fatality . Some of the police killed at Borovo Selso were found to have been mutilated , their ears cut , eyes gouged out and throats slit , making the incident provocative in Croatia . The act was meant to inflame ethnic hatred . The clash led Tuđman ' s advisers to advocate an immediate declaration of independence from Yugoslavia , and retaliation against the JNA which was viewed as pro - Serb . On 3 May , Tuđman said Croatia and Serbia were virtually at war , but refrained from retaliation , hoping the international community would stop the violence . The outcome of the fighting reinforced the cautious approach of the Croatian leadership towards long - term decisions . According to Croatian historian Davor Marijan , Tuđman ' s decision not to retaliate against the JNA was often interpreted as cowardice bordering treason at the time , leading to public criticism and the resignation of General Martin Špegelj from the post of defence minister . Nonetheless , the decision afforded Croatia much needed time to prepare for war , as acknowledged by Yugoslav Navy Fleet Admiral Branko Mamula . The incident shocked the Croatian public causing a massive shift in public opinion , supported by the media , towards demonisation of Serbs . They were collectively labelled " Chetniks " , " terrorists " and " enemies " of Croatia . Similarly , Serbs referred to the Croats as " Ustaše " and " enemies " of the Serb people . In turn , chances for a political settlement to avoid an all - out war were greatly reduced . After the clash , a war appeared to be unavoidable . On 8 – 9 May , the Presidency of Yugoslavia met to discuss the events in Borovo Selo and a JNA request for a military intervention . Presidents of all Yugoslav constituent republics were also present at the meeting where the Croatian leadership accepted the decision to deploy the JNA in crisis areas of Croatia . On 9 May , representatives of the federal and Croatian governments visited Vukovar . The federal representatives also visited Borovo Selo , unlike the Croatian government officials who stated that they " refused to talk to terrorists " . In response to the Borovo Selo clash , the JNA redeployed a part of the 12th Proletarian Mechanised Brigade from Osijek and the 1st Mechanised Battalion of the 453rd Mechanised Brigade based in Sremska Mitrovica to the area of Vukovar . At the same time , the 2nd Mechanised Battalion of the 36th Mechanised Brigade was moved from Subotica to Vinkovci . Yet despite the deployment of the JNA in the area , ethnically motivated skirmishes persisted until the Battle of Vukovar in late August . Memorial . During the 1996 – 98 United Nations administration established pursuant to the Erdut Agreement in order to restore the area to Croatian control , three Croatian non - governmental organizations erected a memorial on public property at the entrance to Borovo Selo , but the site was quickly vandalised . A new monument was erected in the centre of the village in 2002 . The new monument was also vandalised soon after completion . A new plaque was added to the monument in 2012 , the names of the 12 Croatian policemen killed in the incident , but it was soon vandalised as well . Although the vandalism was condemned by local Serb politicians , they complained that the memorial is offensive to the Serb minority and imposes guilt on the entire community because it brands the Serb forces at Borovo Selo in 1991 as " Serb terrorists " .