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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubttween the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the NATO coalition which beganwith the bombardment of the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslaviaby the NATO pact coalition on 24 March 1999.On 28 March 1999, in the town of Podujevo, there were no engagementsbetween special police units of the Republic of Serbia and the members ofKLA, although, at that time, members of KLA, at a distance of three to fourkilometres from Podujevo, dug out trenches which they were using to starttheir actions from so that special units of the Ministry of the Interior of theRepublic of Serbia were engaged to prevent attacks by KLA members fromthose positions, which was the reason for the presence of a large numberof members of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, includingthe Scorpions unit at that time in Podujevo.The Scorpions unit was formed as a volunteer unit and had 128 members.The defendant, Saša Cvjetan, was a member of this unit in March 1999.The commander of the Scorpions was Slobodan Medić, aka Boca, and hisdeputy Sran Manojlović. On 25 March 1999, this unit was assigned to theReserve Corps of SAJ of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbiaand sent to Prolom Banja for further engagement. On 27 March 1999,Zoran Simović, the then commander of SAJ, went to Prolom Banja to takeover the command of the Scorpions unit and, on 28 March 1999, around04:00 hours, upon agreement with Slobodan Medić, he took over the commandof the unit. All this was determined on the basis of the report of theMinistry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia - the Directorate for FightingOrganised Crime - dated 11 March 2002.Upon their arrival in Podujevo, members of the Scorpions unit were directedto the houses belonging to persons of Albanian nationality, located nearthe police station, to secure accommodation.From the statement of the SAJ commander, Zoran Simović, and the membersof the Scorpions, questioned during the trial, it has been unequivocallydetermined that the Scorpions unit, on 28 March 1999, did arrive in Podujevo.Members of the unit were armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifleswhich they had been issued before starting for Podujevo. At the time theywere issued the rifles, factory numbers of the rifles were not recorded, norwere the numbers of the rounds of ammunition issued them recorded, and,293