When in 1989, the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo was celebrated in Serbia, Milosevic directly announced Serbia's policy of aggression towards other republics particularly Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with his intention to create a greater Serbia. Since then Belgrade has continued to supply Serbs out of Serbia with weapons clearing the JNA of other nations and disarming territorial defences in Croatia and elsewhere.
When in Spring 1990, Croatia held its first democratic elections, and ousted the Communist system, Serbia directly threatened Croatia with war. On the 30th May 1990, the Republic of Croatia was proclaimed and in December of the same year its first constitution was accepted. The Serbs in Croatia thus initiated a rebellion in response, which in summer 1991 turned into a real war lead by the ex and already Serbified Yugoslav army.
In July 1991 direct aggression on Croatia started, with emphasis on the town of Vukovar. The slaughter of Croats in Celije, Erdut, Dalj, Aljmas and the siege of Vukovar and the bombardment of Osijek and other Croatian cities in Slavonija, as well as the occupation, robbery and devastation of everything Croatian became a reality. After 3 months of strong defence, Serbs captured the city of Vukovar, the symbol of heroism, and killed thousands of Croats, not only soldiers, but also those wounded, civilians, children and forced tens of thousands to leave their homes. Thus the whole Eastern Slavonia was ethnically cleansed.
The main aim of Serbian aggression was to occupy Croatia all the way to the line Virovitica-Karlovac-Karlobag, to acquire the approach to the Adriatic Sea and to control the area around Danube. Thanking Croatian people and all minorities except Serbian, Serbian aggressors managed to occupy only one third of the Croatia and formed so called Republic of Srpska krajina. They also conquered about 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to partly fulfil their dream o Great Serbia.
Between May and August 1995. Croatia liberated Western Slavonia and after the action Storm established its sovereignty in so called "krajina" and the city of Knin. The only occupied territory remained Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem. It makes only 4.6% of Croatian territory, but it is the richest part. Serbia has never throughout history crossed the border on Danube and Sava rivers.
