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

Banija

The Banija region of Croatia was among the first to be hit by Serbian aggression. Although the region is quite a distance from the republic of Serbia, Serbian forces were not deterred in their push to enter and occupy the area (much in the same way as Serb forces had forces had in Croatia's Eastern Slavonia region). Serbian forces received enormous aid and support in their drive from the large Serbian population in the so-called "Bosanska Krajina" in the neighbouring Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Banija is a nationally mixed region, with a relatively narrow belt of Croatian settlements located along the banks of the Kupa and Sava rivers in the north, and a wider belt comprised of Serbian settlements towards the South. There are several enclaves within the Serbian ethnic belt that contain Croatian majorities. However, the settlements are surrounded, in geographical terms, by Serbian settlements. On the basis of such an ethnic composition, as well as the atrocities committed by Serb military forces in the Knin region and Eastern Slavonia, the fate of Croatian enclaves was predictable. What was perhaps amazing was the level of brutality with which Serb forces carried out their drive for a greater Serbia in the Banija region.

Croatian police endeavoured to establish police posts in encircled villages with the aim of protecting endangered civilians, but due to insufficient man power and weapons, they failed to stem the onslaught of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian irregulars. The Serbian plan of ethnic cleansing began in Banija in mid-July 1991 with attacks launched on villages around the Petrinja district. The first villages to be attacked were: Dragotinci (population: 160, 76.3 % Croats), Kraljevcani (pop: 223, 93.3 % Croats) and Hrvatski Cuntic (pop: 223, 89 % Croats). The residents of these villages, mainly senior citizens, were forced out of their homes and many houses were set on fire.

Later during summer 1991, the Serbs attacked villages located in Pounje, northeast of Dvor, on the road to Hrvatska Kostajnica. That group of villages, comprised of Zamlaca (pop: 232, 91.8 % Croats), Banska Struga (pop: 254, 94.1 % Croats), Uncani (pop: 383, 70 % Croats) and Kuljani (pop: 246, 37.4 % Croats) shall be remembered for the unprecedented crimes committed in them by Serb forces. A dreadful massacre took place on July 26, 1991 when the Serb irregulars (Chetniks) went on an ethnic cleansing mission in Dvor borough. The first villages on their way Zamlaca and Banska Struga. Serb forces killed 20 people while the rest were used as a human shield to protect Serbs against the few Croatian policemen that were present. The level of brutality was recorded in detail by soldiers from JNA (Yugoslav National Army) who happened to be at the scene of many of these crimes.Even for them, Chetnik allies without a doubt, their crimes surpassed all bounds. After crimes in Pounje, the cleansing of the rest of the Banija region of the Croat population was only a matter of time.

In Kostajnica, the most eastern part of the Banija district, Croats, who comprised a minority in most of the villages, were either killed or expelled. Besides Kostajnica (pop: 3.480, 31.2 % Croats), which until 1961 had a Croatian majority, a group of villages between Kostajnica and Sunja, comprised of Majur (pop: 532, 85.9 % Croats), Mracaj (pop: 171, 53.2 % Croats), Grabostani (pop: 201, 88 % Croats) and Seliste (pop: 159, 89.3 % Croats), were subject to Serbian aggression.

By the beginning of September 1991, Serbian plans of genocide had been realized in these villages.

The district of Glina found itself in a complex, and ultimately deadly situation. Several villages, including Maja (pop: 274, 90.9 % Croats), Dolnjaki (pop: 229, 96.1 % Croats), Prijeka (pop: 163, 99.4 % Croats), Josevica (pop: 133, 94.7 % Croats) and Svracica (pop: 137, 97.8 % Croats), south of the district centre, were surrounded by villages with absolute Serbian majorities. Croats living in the town of Glina (pop: 6.933, 20.9 % Croats), besides those in the surrounding villages, represented a stumbling block to the Serbian planners of ethnic cleansing, although Glina like Kostajnica had historically had a Croatian majority. The worst hit sectors in Glina were the outskirts of Jukinac and two villages adjacent to the town centre, namely, Vidusevac and Prekopa.

Besides Kostajnica, which fell under Serbian control on September 13, 1991, the longest resistance to the aggressor in Banija was offered by combatants from the village of Topusko (pop: 1587, 26.2 % Croats) despite the fact that Croats are not the majority in the village of Topusko, the village constitutes the convergence point of several outlying villages with Croatian majorities, namely, Gredjani (pop: 745, 72.6 % Croats), Ponikvari (pop: 712, 49.6 % Croats), Hrvatsko Selo (pop: 550, 94.5 % Croats) and Velika Vranovina (pop: 294, 95.6 % Croats).