Battle of Borovo Selo

Overview

The Battle of Borovo Selo of 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 became known as the Croatian War of Independence. The clash was precipitated by months of rising ethnic tensions, violence, and armed combat in Pakrac and at the Plitvice Lakes in March. The immediate cause for the confrontation in the heavily ethnic Serb village of Borovo Selo, just north of Vukovar, was a failed attempt to replace the Yugoslav flag in the village with the flag of Croatia. The unauthorised effort by four Croatian policemen resulted in the capture of two by a Croatian Serb militia in the village. To retrieve the captives, the Croatian authorities deployed additional police, who drove into an ambush. Twelve Croatian policemen and one Serb paramilitary were killed before the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) intervened and put an end to the clashes.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The clash at Borovo Selo on 2 May 1991 was one of the first armed engagements of the Croatian War of Independence, occurring against a backdrop of prior violence at Pakrac and the Plitvice Lakes in March 1991. The immediate trigger was an unauthorised attempt by four Croatian policemen to replace the Yugoslav flag in the ethnic Serb village of Borovo Selo with the Croatian flag; the capture of two of those officers by a Croatian Serb militia set in motion a response that ended in an ambush killing twelve Croatian policemen and one Serb paramilitary. The episode illustrated the pattern of escalation that would define the early conflict: local ethnic tensions, irregular militia activity, and the Yugoslav People's Army acting as an intermittent brake on violence rather than a neutral guarantor of order. The event is remembered under sharply different names in Croatia and Serbia — 'massacre' versus 'incident' — reflecting the contested narratives that accompanied and outlasted the war itself.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)