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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubtthe shooting, seen the ambulances and some civilians taken into those vehicles.All these witnesses, in addition to their claims that they did not knowwho was shooting at the civilians, also claimed that they did not know whytheir unit had been returned to Prolom Banja. Claims like these are, obviously,given for the purpose of avoiding answers to essential questions thatit is impossible for them not to have known. The reason the members ofthe Scorpions unit were returned from Podujevo to Prolom Banja is nothingelse but the fact that the members of this unit had shot the civilians. Forthe same reason, the commander of the unit, Slobodan Medić, lined themup, dressed them down, ordered them back into the buses and then, followingthe order of the SAJ commander, returned the unit back to ProlomBanja, and then to Šid and Novi Sad.All this has been determined on the basis of the statements of the witnesseswhich the court has accepted, and, on the basis of the statement of witnessGoran Stoparić, it has been doubtlessly determined that, during the returnride in the buses to Prolom Banja, and their stay in Prolom Banja, the membersof the unit spoke of nothing else but of the event because of whichthey had been returned - and that is the murder of the civilians in Podujevo.It is quite logical that the members of this unit spoke of nothing elsebut this because, for those who had not taken part in the event in question,the return had been quite an unexpected and unusual situation. The reasonwhy the said witnesses refuse to tell the truth is an obvious attempt to avoidcriminal charges both against themselves and their comrade from the unit.This is the reason the court refused to accept their statements as true.During the trial, witness Sran Manojlović, also a member of the Scorpionsunit, was heard. He was in charge of receiving and issuing arms to membersof the unit. A number of times, during the hearing, this witness hadstated that every member of the Scorpions unit was issued an automaticrifle 7.62 mm, type M-70, and the combat set consisting of five 30 roundscartridge clips, totalling 150 rounds. Not one of the members of the unitwas issued arms against the record of its factory number; he simply gavethem the arms without any records and, upon their return to Belgrade, theyhanded the arms back by simply placing them into a truck. On this occasion,too, there was no official return of the arms, there was no record of thenumber of arms returned, nor of ammunition. Both the arms and the ammunitionwere given to them by the Ministry of the Interior of the Repub-333