Siege of Kijevo 1991
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1991 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Croatia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Croatian War of Independence | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 43.9789, 16.3511 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The 1991 siege of Kijevo was one of the earliest clashes of the Croatian War of Independence. The 9th Corps of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) led by Colonel Ratko Mladić and the forces of so-called Serbian Autonomous Oblast (region) of Krajina (SAO Krajina) under Knin police chief Milan Martić besieged the Croat-inhabited village of Kijevo in late April and early May 1991. The initial siege was lifted after negotiations that followed major protests in Split against the JNA.
The JNA and the SAO Krajina forces renewed the blockade in mid-August. Kijevo was captured on 26 August, and subsequently looted and burned. The fighting in Kijevo was significant as one of the first instances when the JNA openly sided with the SAO Krajina against Croatian authorities. The Croatian police fled Kijevo towards the town of Drniš and the remaining Croatian population left the village.
Martić was tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on several different charges of war crimes including, his involvement in the siege of Kijevo. The trial resulted in a guilty verdict, and the findings of the Trial Chamber regarding Kijevo, made in 2007, were confirmed by the ICTY Appeals Chamber in 2008, based on witness testimonies about it being ethnic cleansing.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Kijevo (revision 1379282346), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Croatian War of Independence
- Battle of Borovo Selo 1991
- Battle of Gospić 1991
- Battle of Kusonje 1991
- Battle of Logorište 1991
- Battle of Osijek 1991
- Battle of Vukovar 1991
- Battle of Zadar 1991
- Battle of the Barracks 1991
- Battle of the Dalmatian Channels 1991
- Battle of Šibenik 1991
All 21 battles of the Croatian War of Independence →
Browse more: battles in Croatia · Europe · Post-1945 battles