The protest caused the JNA to withdraw a portion of military equipment previously based in Split to more secure locations and increase its combat readiness there.

The Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA) then confiscated the weapons of Croatia's Territorial Defence (Teritorijalna obrana) in order to minimize resistance.

[1] On 17 August, tensions escalated into an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs,[2] centred on the predominantly Serb-populated areas of the Dalmatian hinterland around Knin,[3] parts of the Lika, Kordun, Banovina and eastern Croatia.

Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than the preservation of Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency.

The initial plan of Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was to win support from the European Community (EC) and the United States for Croatia, and he disregarded advice to seize JNA barracks and storage facilities in the country.

[11] The immediate cause for a confrontation with the JNA in Split was a blockade of the village of Kijevo, where Croatian authorities had established a new police station,[12] imposed on 29 April.

[13] The village was surrounded by the JNA, commanded by Colonel Ratko Mladić, and the Serb insurgent forces, cutting access and preventing delivery of supplies.

[12] The protest took place on 6 May 1991 in Split, organised by the Croatian Trade Union Association in Brodosplit Shipyard,[15] in response to Tuđman's earlier statement.

[16] The protesters picketed around the Banovina building,[18] which housed the command centres of the JNA Military-Maritime District and the Yugoslav Navy at the time.

[20] The JNA's security service in Split, run by Colonel Ljubiša Beara,[23] identified Mato Sabljić, Ivan Begonja, Roland Zvonarić and Branko Glavinović as organisers of the protest where the killing occurred and arrested them on 5 June.

Furthermore, the Military-Maritime District of the JNA ordered its garrisons to stock up potable water and prepare power generators for use if the supply of electricity were cut.