Miroslav Valter

“It was a night shift. I was in service for only half a year. I didn't shoot with a 58 submachine gun in the military. I didn't know how to load it or cock it, nothing. And so you are bored on night duty. Nothing happens. You're just staring into space. I played around with the submachine gun to see how it worked. I overfired twice, and my cartridge got stuck. It wasn't until the third time I cocked it that the breech slipped out of my hand, and it loaded. I tried a few more times and found I had to release it. In about two weeks, there was an escape. Well - it didn't seem like an escape at first. I saw three figures approaching the first strip where the dogs were running. Where the barbed wire was. Then the dogs ran, behind them was a fence, a sniper zone... The dogs didn't react to them, they ran towards them, but they didn't bark. So I thought they were dog handlers. I continued to talk to other towers on the phone. That's when I found out they were jumping over the fence, and the dogs were still not doing anything. They ran to the next fence. That's when I flew out and shouted, 'Stop! Stop, or I'll shoot!' And [I shot] into the air. By the time he was halfway through his innings, I was already shooting at him. I trembled like this. Those bullets of mine... Later, when they were doing the reconstruction, they found the line where he was sneaking, and those bullets of mine were flying fifty centimetres away from him. I supposedly shot his heel off. He ran away.”