Page "History of Croatia" Paragraph 51

On 25 July 1990, a Serbian Assembly was established in Srb, north of Knin, as the political representation of the Serbian people in Croatia.

The Serbian Assembly declared " sovereignty and autonomy of the Serb people in Croatia ".

Their position was that if Croatia could secede from Yugoslavia, then the Serbs could secede from Croatia.

Milan Babić, a dentist from the southern town of Knin, was elected president.

The rebel Croatian Serbs established a number of paramilitary militias under the leadership of Milan Martić, the police chief in Knin.

On 17 August 1990, the Serbs began what became known as the Log Revolution, where barricades of logs were placed across roads throughout the South as an expression of their secession from Croatia.

This effectively cut Croatia in two, separating the coastal region of Dalmatia from the rest of the country.

The Croatian government responded to the blockade of roads by sending special police teams in helicopters to the scene, but they were intercepted by SFR Yugoslav Air Force fighter jets and forced to turn back to Zagreb.