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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable DoubtAfter cleaning the arms, not only those that had been issued to us, but alsothose for another group of soldiers expected to arrive soon, the whole unitwas addressed by Slobodan Medić, aka Boca, the commander of the unit,and he told us something like this: “You are an elite unit and you are goingto fight invaders and terrorists. You are not going to plunder, to kill; you aregoing to defend the country, to fight invaders and terrorists”.He addressed us following the regulations applicable to a regular army atwar and this was, at the same time, a chance for this unit to acquire theimage of an elite unit. A number of people, I can’t say how many of them,fell out, certainly the people who went to war for some other reasons, whowere then ordered to return to the bus and return toward Belgrade. Afterthey had left, we were assigned to rooms. I would like to add just one morething here, namely, that at the time we were issued the arms, I mean rifles,their factory numbers were not recorded, as there was not time enoughand, besides, the rifles were oiled when they were given to us. We got ourarms ready for the assignment.On 28 March, early in the morning, probably because of the security andthe needs of the unit, we boarded the buses for Kosovo. We did not knowour destination at the time. I did not know the destination although theplatoon commanders and the brigade commander did know it. We arrivedin Podujevo, to a terrain I knew nothing about, as I had never been therebefore. It was probably 7 or 8 o’clock in the morning. I couldn’t tell wherewe were, I did not know the town, but we had stopped somewhere in thetown centre of Podujevo, close to the police station. The moment we arrivedwe were told first to remain in the buses because our commanderhad gone to consult the commander of the Special Antiterrorist Unit, at ameeting, that is, the meeting of the commanders of the units stationed inPodujevo.Then I realised that, in fact, Podujevo had not been held by KLA, as I hadthought until then, but that in Podujevo there was quite a number of oursoldiers, our police, and that Podujevo was, practically, without the presenceof KLA and I felt, then, a bit easier. I was convinced that Podujevo hadbeen taken by KLA because I knew that before that, there had been an attemptto assassinate Živko Trajković, the commander of the Special AntiterroristUnit, when his driver was killed and he himself was wounded.265