[3] On 8 July 1989, a large Serb nationalist rally was held in Knin, during which banners threatening Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) intervention in Croatia, as well as Chetnik iconography was displayed.
[5][6] 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.
[8] 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.
[12] The municipality government of Vukovar was led by Slavko Dokmanović, a Serb of Trpinja and his deputy Marin Vidić Bili, a Croat of Lovas.
[16] On 17 August, 1990 inter-ethnic tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs,[16] centered on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin,[17] and parts of Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia.
[19] While the Croatian Ministry of the Interior released Hadžić in an effort to calm down the insurgency, the parts of the HDZ loyal to Tomislav Merčep were keen on preparing for war.
[19] SKH-SDP official Stipo Lovrinčević and the local police chief Slavko Sredoselec had daily meetings with Vukovar Serbs whose properties were bombed and whose houses were shot at during night time, blaming the incidents on a handful of extremists.
Tensions intensified on 2 May 1991 when twelve Croatian policemen were ambushed and massacred by the SAO Krajina militia and White Eagles members in the village of Borovo Selo, near Vukovar.
[21] On 3 May, Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) units moved into Borovo Selo and on 12 May, Croatian Serbs voted in a referendum to stay in Yugoslavia.
Violence in and around Vukovar worsened after the independence referendum, with gun and bomb attacks reported in the town and surrounding villages in June 1991.
[30] The Serbian daily Novosti reported that the bodies of six males were recovered in the Danube from 12 July to August 1991 and autopsies found that they were all shot with firearms.
[30] A number of civilians were reported to have been shot and killed by ZNG forces in the settlement of Borovo Naselje in July and August 1991, including women and children.
[35] Merčep's formal power lasted until 23 July when the Zagreb government intervened to reinstate Vidić as the Commissioner for the city of Vukovar.
[23] The situation was so unbearable that in August 1991, Marin Vidić wrote a letter to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman complaining about Merčep's activities.
[30] Jovan Jakovljević's son spoke out publicly about how only 43 deaths and missing persons were formally reported, suspecting the real number to be much higher.
After the end of the war, Croatia and local Serb authorities signed the Erdut agreement in November 1995 and the region was reintegrated into the Croatian republic.
[30] Serbs have long voiced their concerns about the crimes committed against them in the months leading up to the fall of the Vukovar and the lack of accountability for the perpetrators.