The witness also testified about the brutality of another defendant, Petronije Stevanovic, who had stabbed Croat villagers detained in the local agricultural cooperative's building a day before they were forced to walk through a minefield.
Speaking of the forced march through the minefield, which he survived, the witness said the detained villagers had been forced to enter the minefield. "Some armed men, who called themselves special forces from Nis, were walking behind us. They said that any of us who lies down would be killed," Bosnjakovic said.
According to his testimony, several captured villagers had died in the minefield, and those who survived, including the wounded ones, were returned back to the village. Some of the wounded died overnight, he said.
The Serbian Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes indicted the 14 men of war crimes against 70 Lovas civilians in October 1991, as members of the Yugoslav army, local territorial authorities and the Dusan Silni militia.
The Lovas trial began on 17 April 2008.
According to the indictment, Devetak, with the help of members of the Serbian National Renewal party led by Mirko Jovic, formed a unit of 60 volunteers in Sid and Nova Pazova, Serbia, with intent to attack the predominantly Croat village of Lovas. The Serbian forces attacked the village in the early morning hours of October 10, 1991, shooting randomly and throwing bombs at civilians in their homes and in the streets.
The local authorities led by Devetak ordered on October 17 that all men aged 18-65 should gather outside the local agricultural cooperative, and 70 or so villagers responded to the order. That day and the next, members of the Dusan Silni unit brutally tortured about 20 civilian prisoners, and on October 18 they forced a group of some 50 villagers to walk across a minefield, as a result of which 20 civilians were killed and 12 were wounded.