• The region of Baranja
• Western Slavonia
• Banija
• Kordun
• Eastern Lika
• The Knin Area
• Bukovica and Ravni Kotari

The region of Baranja

The drive for a "greater Serbia" was made known in the Croatian Baranja region through a speech delivered by Paroski, a member of the Serbian parliament, in the spring of 1991. The speech from this high-ranking Serbian official, representing one legislative body of the Serbian state, became renowned for its support of a policy of genocide against all non-Serbian peoples in the region.

The real occupation of Baranja began in July of 1991 when tanks crossed the Batina bridge (on the Danube) between Baranja and Backa (Vojvodina), and were deployed over the whole region.

When Baranja fell to Serbian forces on August 25, 1991, the amassed mechanized units were a decisive factor. It was very unlikely that the Serbian residents in the region, one quarter of the population, could take over the whole region without Yugoslav Army assistance.

The location of settlements in Baranja is such that the zones inhabited by Croatians and Hungarians were encircled by Serbian dominated settlements located between the district centre, Beli Manastir (37% Serbs, 32.2% Croats, 8.5% Hungarians), and the Drava River on the west and the Republic of Serbia on the east. Assuming the Batina bridge had been disabled in time, the federal army would not have been able to occupy Baranja, and thus such an encirclement would have remained merely a hypothesis.

Although the level of brutality of the occupying Serb forces in Baranja was slightly less severe than in Slavonia and Srijem, the vast majority of non-Serbs were still forced to flee their homes.