SLOVENES ATTACKED JNA PERSONNEL

BIJELJINA, JUNE 26 /SRNA/ - On June 27, 1991, Slovenia's Territorial Defense forces attacked Yugoslav People's Army /JNA/ soldiers, marking the beginning of the war in the northern Yugoslav republic and the first casualties of the violent secession.

Two days earlier, the Slovenian Assembly had declared the republic's independence, and the following day its delegates withdrew from the Assembly of the SFRY.

The first crime was committed on June 29, 1991, at the Škofje border crossing, when two soldiers and one officer surrendered to members of the Slovenian Territorial Defense, who then killed them with shots to the back of the head.

Former Slovenian President Milan Kučan acknowledged this crime during the trial of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague in 2003.