<P> On 12 March 1991, the leadership of the Army met with the Presidency in an attempt to convince them to declare a state of emergency which would allow for the pan-Yugoslav army to take control of the country . Yugoslav army chief Veljko Kadijević declared that there was a conspiracy to destroy the country, saying: </P> <P> An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia . Stage one is civil war . Stage two is foreign intervention . Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia . </P> <P> This statement effectively implied that the new independence - advocating governments of the republics were seen by Serbs as tools of the West . Croatian delegate Stjepan Mesić responded angrily to the proposal, accusing Jović and Kadijević of attempting to use the army to create a Greater Serbia and declared "That means war!". Jović and Kadijević then called upon the delegates of each republic to vote on whether to allow martial law, and warned them that Yugoslavia would likely fall apart if martial law was not introduced . </P> <P> In the meeting, a vote was taken on a proposal to enact martial law to allow for military action to end the crisis in Croatia by providing protection for the Serbs . The proposal was rejected as the Bosnian delegate Bogić Bogićević voted against it, believing that there was still the possibility of diplomacy being able to solve the crisis . </P>

What marked the beginning of the collapse of the yugoslav republic