Inquiry into Lovas war crimes case under way in Serbia

29/11/2005

Serbian war crimes prosecutors are working together with counterparts in Croatia to establish the truth about 1991 atrocities in the Croatian village of Lovas, where some 24 civilians were killed when the Yugoslav National Army ordered them to walk through a minefield.

By Davor Konjikusic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 29/11/05

The Humanitarian Law Centre wants the inquiry to include former Yugoslav National Army officers who had command responsibility in the area. [HLC]

One more war crimes case is under way in Serbian domestic courts. In October, the republic's prosecutor for war crimes, Vladimir Vukcevic, began proceedings to establish responsibility for the murder of Croatian civilians in the village of Lovas, near Iloka, in the fall of 1991.

Speaking to local and foreign media, Vukcevic said his office has gathered information on those who were in Lovas at that time, and is trying to gather relevant information from military intelligence services to discover the perpetrators of the war crimes.

He also said his office is in touch with the Croatian state prosecutor's office and the war crimes committee of the regional court of Vukovar, where a retrial is being held in absentia for 17 persons accused of genocide and other crimes against the civilian population in Lovas.

On 10 October 1991, members of the Yugoslav National Army's (JNA) Novi Sad Corps, local territorial defence units and the "Dusan Silni" paramilitary group launched an artillery attack on the Croatian village of Lovas, killing as many as 30 residents in the process. After the forces took control of the village, they reportedly subjected its non-Serb population to abuses including forced labour, torture and rape. On 18 October, a large group of Lovas residents was forced to pass through a minefield; 24 died as a result.

The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre has been calling for a full investigation, charging that many of the perpetrators remain at large and live in Serbia. The scope of the inquiry should include former JNA officers who had command positions in Lovas and Tovarnik, the group said.

One of those being tried in absentia in Vukovar, Ljuban Devetak, has come forward in Belgrade to deny his personal involvement in crimes at Lovas. In a statement quoted by the Humanitarian Law Centre, he also said the minefield incident was orchestrated by the military, following the killing of a soldier the previous night. According to Devetak, an order to round up Croats and force them into the minefield was probably given by a Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrijevic, the village commander at the time. His immediate superior was Colonel Dusan Loncar, later promoted to general