 After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the federal Presidency declare a state of emergency and grant the JNA wartime powers.The request was denied on 15 March, and the JNA came under control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević.Milošević, preferring a campaign to expand Serbia rather than preservation of Yugoslavia, publicly threatened to replace the JNA with a Serbian army and declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the federal Presidency.