Events in the Haloze Region During the War for the Defence of the Sovereignty of the Republic of Slovenia in 1991

With the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980 began the process of the slow decline of the Yugoslav state, which had been anything but peaceful and economically strong in its last decade. Tense relations among Yugoslav nations escalated during the 1980s and at the turn of the decade triggered a series of dominoes that led to the disintegration of a country marked by a war of aggression. Until the second half of the 1980s, Slovenians advocated a more compromising policy towards Belgrade, but this gradually reversed in the second half of the 1980s. Slovenian politics then began to advocate the democratisation of political, cultural and economic life. In the early 1990s, Slovenians unanimously decided that they wanted their own state entity outside the Yugoslav framework. Later, they began to gradually build the path to independence, which took place on 25 June 1991. Even before then, foreign media reported that Yugoslavia was one of the three crisis hotspots in the world at that time. The latter was undoubtedly confirmed by the military intervention of the Yugoslav authorities, which tried their utmost to preserve the former common state. At the end of June 1991, units of the Yugoslav People’s Army marched from their barracks towards the border crossings with neighbouring countries, but were met with resistance from the Slovenian Territorial Defence and the Militia (police). After independence, the protection of the new state border between Slovenia and Croatia became strategically important in the Haloze region. The hilly area of Haloze is bounded to the north by the hydrological boundary of the Dravinja and Drava rivers, while the southern provincial boundary meets the Croatian Zagorje. As the border is barely perceptible in nature, the need for physical protection was great at the time of independence. The border protection was carefully planned by the Territorial Defence Regional Headquarters and the Militia. Security was formed for individual units on individual routes. At the same time, barricades were set up on major road links with the neighbouring country. The defence plan was based on preventing the violent occupation of the territory of the Area Regional Headquarters. On 27 June 1991, when the Yugoslav People’s Army began to move towards Slovenian borders, an order was issued by the Coordination Group of the Republic of Slovenia to defend the border checkpoints on the Slovenian-Croatian border. In this case, there was a possibility of Yugoslav troops invading the Haloze area, via Zavrč and Gruškovje. As no major combat activities took place in the area of Lower Podravje during the War of Independence, the focus of territorial defence activity was on the protection of the southern border and transport corridors (Zagreb-Krapina-Gruškovje-Maribor and Varaždin-Zavrč-Ptuj). In addition to Territorial Defence, there was also a Slovenian Militia on standby in the Haloze area. The focus of Militia activity was the establishment of new border checkpoints at the state border between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia. At the same time, the Militia’s defence activity was complemented by Territorial Defence activities: the Militia actively participated in the surveillance of the border line. In the area of the Podlehnik Militia Department, the reservists of the war of the organizational units of the Militia on standby were accommodated. The Militia was also responsible for protecting the transport corridor, the so-called ‘Pyhrn route’, which is part of the European Transport Corridor X.