Testifying via video link from Vukovar, Antolovic told the Belgrade court conducting the trial in this case that he also knew the defendants Milan Devcic, Milan Radojcic and Zeljko Krnjajic, and that they held high positions in the local authorities in Lovas at the time relevant to the indictment.
"Ljuban was in charge of everything happening in the village. What happened was awful to watch and speak about, and it was all under his control," the witness said, adding that he had known Devetak from school days.
The witness spoke about Croatian civilians having been detained, beaten and interrogated at the village's agricultural cooperative and having been subjected to forced labour.
The trial opened on 17 April 2008 after the Serbian state attorney for war crimes indicted 14 former members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the local Serb Territorial Defence and the Dusan Silni paramilitary unit for committing war crimes against 70 civilians in Lovas in October 1991.
The accused are Devetak, Devcic, Radojcic and Krnjajic - members of the local authorities in Lovas at the time; Miodrag Dimitrijevic, Darko Peric, Radovan Vlajkovic and Radisav Josipovic - members of the JNA; and Jovan Dimitrijevic, Sasa Stojanovic, Dragan Bacic, Zoran Kosijer, Petronije Stevanovic and Aleksandar Nikolaidis - members of the Dusan Silni unit.
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.