In 1991, Dodaj was serving in the JNA. He was one of four soldiers who first deserted the JNA and were then spared from being killed at the Ovcara farm.
"We in the JNA simply came to destroy (Vukovar)," said Dodaj. "If the JNA had wanted to, it could have prevented that crime, because we were all under JNA's command. We were the ones who had the tanks and the weapons. The command in Negoslavci had the Serb and not some other flag," he added.
Dodaj deserted the JNA twice. The first time he was caught and sentenced to jail, while the second time, after his unit was sent to Vukovar, he surrendered to the then National Guard Corps and was at Vukovar's hospital when the town fell.
He and the other prisoners in the hospital were boarded on a bus and taken to a barracks. "I was 18 and a half and I'd never seen such rage. People were breaking shovels, beating on the bus, cursing. There were troops, members of the White Eagles, Arkan's units, all sorts of troops".
Dodaj, an Albanian, said they were then driven to Ovcara, where a soldier asked if there were any Albanians among them. "He told me he would get me as soon as I stepped off the bus, but a soldier from Split, who had also deserted the JNA, said 'Don't, we were captured by the Ustasha,' after which the (former) soldier replied 'You were born again today'."
Dodaj said that at Ovcara, he and another three soldiers who were let go saw that the prisoners were being stripped of money and valuables which had not been taken from them when they were leaving the Vukovar hospital. He added he also saw the Serb troops beat the prisoners.
Dodaj went on to say that he and the three other soldiers remained standing on the road near the farm for a while with two colonels who asked "how come they're all from Croatia and nobody from Serbia". He added that an officer in a vehicle then drove them to Negoslavci.
After three days, Dodaj said he was transferred to Belgrade, where he was sentenced to five years in jail for desertion, armed rebellion, stealing weapons and undermining Socialist Yugoslavia's constitutional order. His sentenced was then reduced to three years. After 24 months in prison he was pardoned by Yugoslavia's then Prime Minister Milan Panic.
The trial resumes tomorrow.