Pekre developments in 1991

On 15 May 1991, the first generation of Territorial Defence of the Republic of Slovenia (TD) conscripts arrived to TD defence training centres in Pekre near Maribor and Ig near Ljubljana. On 23 May 1991 just before 8 a.m., TD members captured two Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) scouts in the immediate vicinity of the TD Training Centre No 710 in Pekre and brought them into the training centre. After half an hour they were released. They later confirmed themselves to have been treated fairly.

As the commander of 31st YPA Corps, Major General Mićo Delić, found out about the TD members having captured two of his soldiers, he threatened to send tanks on the Pekre centre to knock it down.

At 11 a.m. he contacted the commander of the TD for Vzhodnoštajerska Region, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Miloševič, notifying him that tanks had set out for the Training Centre No 710. The siege was headed by officers of the military security, Lieutenant Colonels Milan Stevilović and Ratko Katalina. They demanded that Chief of the Centre, Major Andrej Kocbek, hand over the unit that in the morning had captured the YPA member and security officer Franc Pulko, and to surrender the conscripts and conscript files...