The Podujevo massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Podujevës; Serbian: Masakr u Podujevu) is the name generally used to refer to the killing of 14 Kosovo Albanian civilians, mostly women and children, committed in March 1999 by the Scorpions, a Serbian paramilitary organisation in conjunction with the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of Serbia, during the Kosovo War.
One of the survivors of this massacre, Saranda Bogujevci, 13 years old when it occurred, received mass media attention after she successfully managed to bring to justice her case with the help of several organizations from Serbia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
[2] Saranda Bogujevi, a survivor of the massacre, said that when a police vehicle parked outside of her family's house, they ran into a neighbour's backyard.
[6] Stoparić said that Saša Cvjetan, another member of the Scorpions, lead a group of women and children into the backyard of a house, and he heard 'four to five bursts of automatic gunfire'.
[7][8] Goran Stoparić, at the time of the events serving in the Anti-Terrorism Unit (SAJ), gave evidence to bring the culprits to justice.
In an interview to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he speculated over the motives behind the actions committed by the irregular forces: Serbian police arrested two members of a paramilitary unit called the Scorpions, Saša Cvjetan and Dejan Demirović, who freely gave incriminating statements and signed them.
Demirović had moved to Canada and applied for political asylum but was deported back to his home country after a campaign orchestrated by human rights organizations.