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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable DoubtThe defendant is being informed that he is not obliged to declare himselfin view of the indictment or present his defence, and that he is not obligedto answer certain questions.“I was born in Zadar and my family lived in Dalmatinska Ostrovica. I amcoming from a working class family; my father was a driver and my motherwas a housewife. My parents have two more children, besides me. So,I have a younger brother and a younger sister. The whole family lived inOstrovica where I finished the first four years of elementary school, afterwhich I continued going to elementary school in a village close to Ostrovica.My family was living modestly, honestly, and we believe it was a nicelife. I graduated from the high school for machinists in Benkovac. After thatI graduated from the Military High School in the Education Centre in Vrbas,i.e. Banja Luka.I was in Croatia when the war broke out. My family was in the village whereI was born. The village was attacked on 15 July 1991. All Serb families, womenand children were transferred to Kistanja, near Knin, for safety reasons.There we were accommodated in the collection centre inside the elementaryschool.Two months later, my family returned to Ostrovica in 1992. Because of thewar I went to Banja Luka where I graduated from the military school. Myfamily stayed in Ostrovica. During all that time, my father was mobilised asa driver in the Republic of Srpska Krajina Armed Forces.After I graduated from the military school I received my diploma and wasengaged in the 7th Knin Corps. 2nd Infantry Brigade as a company commander.I was a company commander in two places around Knin, ČistaMala and Čista Velika. After that I was transferred to Benkovac 92nd MotorisedBrigade where I was in charge of training young soldiers. I stayed therefor two months until the infantry training of young soldiers was over. Afterthat I was transferred to the place called Pruška; that was the 72nd EducationCentre Alpha, which was under Captain Dragan’s command.In that education centre I was trained to be a special forces soldier. Afterthat, I took over one Scout Sabotage Detachment of the Republic of SrpskaKrajina Army 92nd Motorised Brigade at Forwarded Operation Base in57