From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de (Wam Kat)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary
Date: 12 Aug 92 04:41:00 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Organization: ComLink-Network Germany - For Peace Zagreb
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Zagreb Diary
11-08-1992

Dobar Dan,

It looks if we have to wait for a few days more before the 
security council takes a decision about a resolution to use 
"all possible means" to deliver humanitarian supplies into 
the desperate cities in BiH. The word force was taken out the 
Belgium resolution and now the seems to more or less discuss 
how far all possible means in reality will go. Clear is that 
it wouldn't be a military intervention as such, but as 
military protection of the humanitarian aid convoys.

In many way such a decision is strange, bringing food to 
people who are living with the dead in their eyes. At ARK we 
get regular questions if we can talk with UNPROFOR about 
bringing family of people from abroad out of Sarajevo. But 
since even to organising the smallest talk with somebody from 
the officials of UNPROFOR is a very long and frustrated 
procedure and we know that UNPROFOR flies back empty, not 
willing to take any civilians out, we mostly have to say that 
they make better changes doing it via their own governments.

On this moment there is anyway a hate and love relation 
between UNPROFOR and Croatian government, UNPROFOR is 
absolute disagree with the Croatian idea of bringing people 
back to to UNPAs (United Nations Protected Areas, Croatia 
better known as the occupied territories). UN has the opinion 
that first a diplomatic solution had to be found before to 
open up those areas for people who like to return. They were 
especially "angry" about the fact that HV took over some 
position in the area of Nova Gradiska a 50 Km west of 
Slavonski Brod. UNPROFOR had to leave their positions since 
the fighting is getting worst.

An interview with Nambiar this afternoon at the "Big Blue" 
showed that they are slowly getting their offices organised 
and ready for the chancing situation. Now in New York 
decisions are taking place and NATO is making plans to bring 
in "real" troops also the role of the peace keeping forces 
will change a lot.

New is also that HTV is again putting a message over the 
screen when somewhere in the land there is airraid alarm. 
They haven't done that for months. But since the elections it 
appeared again, JNA aeroplanes are flying on this moment over 
Djakovo and Zupanja according the messages. Not that they 
will bomb the area, mostly they just fly over low and scare 
people into the shelters. Hope that our volunteers in Gasinci 
(around 19 Km N-W from Djakovo) aren't getting nervous from 
the sounds of the airraid alarm. I promised them it was safe 
and it probably is, but in that camp as all the other 
refugees camps there is not shelter. Returning back to the 
computer a few hours later now it was clear that just some 
JNA MIGs flow over the area, psychological war fair, 
something which is happening in that area for weeks now. 

Nevertheless the bombing on Slavonski Brod and Zupanja was 

again heavy today, it seems to get worst with the day. Also 
this Dutch guy from Doctor without Borders told me the same 
story, he was there in the are for some purpose, had to bring 
some medicines to Brod the other day. And after the delivery 
he did what I did some weeks ago, sitting in the sun on a 
hill about 2 km away from Brod watching how the city was 
bombed. Just like on other hills people are sitting in the 
sun or in the shadow (since the sun is bloody hot the last 
weeks) with a bottle of beer or wine in there hands firing 
their heavy artillery whenever they feel like it. In a Dutch 
newspaper I found a good story about this from a journalist 
which spend some time with a Chetnik brigade on the hills 
around Gorazde (the journalist wanted to go into the town, 
but stayed on the hill, since it was far to dangerous to go 
down in that hell).

After again 4 months here this Dutch logistic worker for the 
doctors is even more cynical then I. Together we tried to 
explain the mess to a German journalists (who came here to 
make interviews to be used on the first of September for 
world anti war day, maybe a good day to have a world wide 
action for peace and relief, most people forget that day). He 
told about the fact that they, the doctors don't need 
military support for there actions, in principle you can come 
every where, okay sometimes you get shot at and some times 
you loose some materials, but mostly their are ways to get 
through the road blocks (buying your way through). What they 
need is money for supplies, with the money the fleet for the 
coast from Montenegro cost per day they could solve a lot of 
problems. Probably with the money of that military 
intervention we could buy the war away. 

They, the doctors, got from the EC only 1/4 of were they 
asked for. That means that they can only deliver about 1/6 of 
what they thought was necessary. This because of the fact 
that medicines in smaller amount are expensive, They have to 
rent smaller trucks, which use relative a lot of petrol, etc. 
When they discussed it with the responsible guy from the EC 
he said that they should use western European standards, for 
example his wife has told him that you could use 6 parts of 
water instead of 4 (which stands on the package) when you 
make milk from milk powder. He reacted back that they already 
had calculated with 8 parts since it is war. And more of 
those things.

We were so cynical about everything that a Croatian girl 
asked us what in the hell kept us going here, why we didn't 
went home, if everything was such a mess. But I think just 
that cynicism keep us going. This guy by the way has decided 
to go on holiday for a while, since he is to used now to 
people with riffles pointed at him, with the finger on the 
tricker. Cynicism is also a kind of realism, bringing the war 
back in normal proportions. not all things which happen are 
unnormal, but they even get presented as being strange and 
war related. For example the Banja Luka babies who died about 
6 weeks ago would probably have died under other 
curcomstances as well, only high equipped hospitals were able 
to keep them alive and even then they probably would have 
been handicapped for the rest of their lives. 


Anyway we laughed a lot telling each other the stories were 
we have been gone through in the last month and what for 
stories we seen or heard. It is a mad house often.

With Love from ZA-mir-GREB,

Wam:-)

P.S. it is 5 in the morning and I hear far away some loud 
explosions let's hope it is thunder and not a re-activation 
of the Sisak front, the wind comes from there.

P.S. I am glad that the Election in Croatian didn't have the 
same results as the Croatian elections in Australia (an 
average of 72% for HDZ and 15% for HSP)
  
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