After a bloodless skirmish between Serb insurgents and Croatian special police in March, the JNA itself, supported by Serbia and its allies, asked the Federal Presidency to give it wartime authorities and declare a state of emergency. The request was denied on 15 March, and in consequence, Serbia abandoned the goal of a more centralised Yugoslavia for that of the Greater Serbia. The leadership of the JNA, fragmented between supporters of the federal government of Ante Marković and others aligned with Serbia since the breakup of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1990, came under the control of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. The control shifted after Milošević publicly declared that he no longer recognized the authority of the Federal Presidency and planned to establish a Serbian army which would draw JNA's Serbian personnel to the new force. The initial objective of the JNA, that of Yugoslav unity, was either abandoned or sought through support for Milošević. Even though he preferred a campaign to expand Serbia rather than to preserve Yugoslavia, the JNA equated protecting Serbs in Croatia with preservation of Yugoslavia. By summer, Milošević had the JNA under full control through his control of the rump Federal Presidency and his influence over the federal defence minister and top-ranked JNA officer, General of the Army Veljko Kadijević and JNA chief of staff, Colonel General Blagoje Adžić.