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Humanitarian Law Centerwounding of several unidentified persons on 28 March 1999 in Podujevo,Kosovo.At trial, the defendant retracted the statement he gave to the investigatingjudge in May 1999 in which he confessed to the killings. Like Cvjetan, thewitnesses, also members of the Scorpion unit, appear to be frighteninglynormal. They all reiterated under oath that “nobody killed anyone, nobodyfired at women and children”. They do not deny seeing the bodies ofdead civilians on 28 March 1999 in an Albanian yard in Podujevo but, likeCvjetan, do not know who killed them or when.The trial chamber denied the prosecutor’s motion that I be called as a witnessto tell the court what I had heard from eyewitnesses and survivors. Itthus openly demonstrated its bias in favour of the witnesses, who in givingtestimony do their very best to shield the defendants. These witnessesset the tone of the trial.The court has shown no interest in obtaining evidence of the crimes, andseems determined to treat grave breaches of international law as sporadicacts committed by individuals under the pressure of the NATO bombing.Can the Prokuplje District Court see to it that justice is done? Can it bringany kind of relief to the victims? My answer is that the trial of Saša Cvjetangravely undermines justice and the human dignity of the victims. Such trialsare not an appropriate place for victims to appear and be heard.Belgrade, 18 November 2002Nataša KandićHLC Executive Director98