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Humanitarian Law Centerhis platoon thanks to the earlier friendship. We were also roommates. On27 March 1999, the same day we arrived in Prolom Banja, we were issuedwith weapons, conserved 7.62 mm automatic rifles and five clips with ammunition,30 bullets per clip i.e. a total of 150 bullets. If somebody wantedmore ammunition he could take some more. After we cleaned our weaponsplus the weapons for some other unit, Slobodan Medić aka Boca, thecompany commander, told us, “You are an elite unit. You are going in thefight against terrorists and occupiers. You are not going to loot, you are notgoing to steal, and you are going to defend your country, to fight againstterrorists and occupiers.”He spoke to us according to the rules applicable to one regular army intimes of war. At the same time, this was a chance for this unit to becomean elite unit. A certain number of people, I cannot assess the number, thenwithdrew. They had different intentions. They were ordered to climb on thebus and go back to Belgrade. After they left, we went inside the rooms. Iwould only like to add that we were not issued with weapons according tothe serial numbers simply because there was no time for that and, besidesthis, the rifles were conserved when we received them. We prepared weaponsfor a combat task.We took off by buses towards Kosovo on 28 March early in the morning,probably because of the safety and needs of the unit. At that time, we didnot know our final destination. I did not know our final destination andmaybe only platoon leaders or the brigade commander knew where wewere going. We arrived in Podujevo, an area completely unknown to me becauseI had never been there before. That might have been at 6 or 7 o’clockin the morning. I cannot be certain because I do not know the town, but Ithink that we parked in the centre of Podujevo in the vicinity of the policestation. As soon as we arrived, we were told to stay on the buses becauseour commander was going to some meeting with the SAJ Commanders. Itwas a meeting of the company commanders stationed in Podujevo.I noticed in that moment that Podujevo was not in control of the KLA, as Ithought before. I saw a lot of our army and police in Podujevo and practicallyKLA was not present at all in Podujevo. So, I felt a little more comfortable.I was convinced that Podujevo was under KLA control because Iknow that Živko Trajković, the SAJ commander, was injured and his driver60

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