Vukovar is a city in the eastern
region of
Slavonia, located at the confluence of the
Vuka and the
Danube rivers. According to the 1991 census, the city was ethnically mixed with Croats making up 47% of the population while Serbs made up 32.3%; 35% of marriages were mixed. In 1988-89, a series of street protests dubbed
anti-bureaucratic revolutions by supporters of
Serbian leader
Slobodan Milošević succeeded in overthrowing the government of the
Socialist Republic of Montenegro, as well as the governments of the Serbian autonomous provinces of
Vojvodina and
Kosovo, replacing their leaders with Milošević allies. As a result, the western Yugoslav republics of
Slovenia and
Croatia turned against Milošević.
Franjo Tudjman, leader of the
Croatian Democratic Union (, HDZ), came to prominence as a Croatian nationalist dissident and pushed for Croatian independence, while he and his party instilled xenophobic rhetoric and attitudes towards the country's
Serb minority. In 1990, following the
electoral defeat of the
communist government of the
Socialist Republic of Croatia by the HDZ, ethnic tensions between
Croats and
Serbs worsened. The election period in the Vukovar municipality was marked with intense electioneering along national lines. The Serbs were well represented in the
SKH-SDP, beyond their representation in the total population. In the villages around Vukovar, numerous protests were organized against the rise of the HDZ on the national level, following the politics of Slobodan Milošević in nearby Vojvodina and Serbia. The municipality committee of the SKH-SDP protested the Croatian delegation's withdrawal from the
14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. The local HDZ on the other hand organized rallies in Croat-populated villages, advocated for being seen as a representative of all Croats, and represented a grass-roots, less educated section of the population of the municipality, with a relatively inexperienced leadership composed of people outside the intelligentsia, which also made overtures towards reassessing the legacy of the
Ustaše, causing dismay among the local Serbs. The election itself went through generally peacefully, with four members of
SKH-SDP and an independent elected into the
Sabor, four of which were ethnic Croats and one ethnic Serb, and all five were publicly known as people interested in peaceful coexistence. The HDZ was the largest minority party in the local council, and held sway in local governments of Croat-populated villages, while the SKH-SDP dominated the rest, as it received votes from the Serbs, other ethnicities, and some Croats as well. After the election, the Serbs created a local branch of the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in June 1990, which initiated rallies converse in content to those of the HDZ but similar in the style of nationalism, and also gained power by having numerous SKH-SDP delegates switch parties. The municipality government of Vukovar was led by
Slavko Dokmanović, a Serb of
Trpinja and his deputy Marin Vidić Bili, a Croat of
Lovas. In the summer of 1990, Dokmanović appeared on a rally organized by the SDS in
Srb, and joined their newly-founded Serbian National Council (SNV). This was met with widespread condemnation, and he was forced to leave that position. Nevertheless, in August 1990, SDS organized a referendum in Serb-populated villages in the region about establishing a Serbian autonomy, that passed overwhelmingly. ==Prelude==