From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de (Wam Kat)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 92 10:11:00 MET
Organization: ComLink-Network Germany - For Peace Zagreb
X-Z-Path: ZAMIR-ZG!LINK-ATU!LINK-HH!SHLINK
X-Gateway: US SHLINK [shgate V1.91]


Zagreb Diary
04-09-1992

Dobar Dan,

This morning I was again afraid that something happened with 
"my" gypsies, since for days they were not on the normal 
spot. One of the reasons is of course that it is raining at 
last in Zagreb, but even when it was nor raining they weren't 
there. And then I found out that they also found the new 
pedestrian zone in Ilica as better working place. Now the 
trams are driving again the place were they were sitting 
before is not so intensive used anymore. Most of the trams 
are driving like racing cars through the center of town 
again.

As always the last day before you really get in panic most 
smaller problems get solved, so was today. At last just a few 
days before the next workcamp starts we have found a place 
for the volunteers to sleep in Zagreb. I should not have 
taken one day more. We hope to get the wing in the school of 
Social Work soon and who knows it will work. Anyway we have 
got offers from different official places to open our office 
in their building.

One of the best comes from the official governmental office 
for refugees, we can get in their building in the rooms UNHCR 
left some weeks ago. Such a thing is remarkable, since we are 
a voluntary organisation formed basically by pacifists and 
other war resisters and we are offered an office in an 
official state building (a former military barrack). If that 
works out we are very close to the fire. The head of the 
state office was very enthusiastic about our work and the 
indirect effects of it. Some people of course were a little 
worried that we get too close to the state and loose our 
freedom if we work so closely together with the official 
institutions. But I still believe if you really believe in 
your ideals and do what you think is good it can't be bad.

Imagine I am more or less illegal in this country, I still 
have got no official papers and maybe in a few weeks from now 
I am having my office in an state building. It give our work 
some legal status and we need that in many ways. Today I 
looked in my wallet and saw that he is nearly empty again. We 
are still waiting for all those official institutions and so 
on from abroad, who showed so much interest in our work, but 
nevertheless we are waiting for the first concrete grant who 
make us (me) without a lot of worries. I must say that I 
often have a hard time imagine what to say to the rest when 
my wallet is empty and I am not able to pay all the small and 
big bills anymore. I hope that day never will come, but I am 
afraid of it.

It is a bit like everybody waiting for the winter, hoping and 
praying some miracles will happen (but probably there 
wouldn't). The representative from BiH on the UNHCR meeting 
in Geneva today was talking about two wars they (the BiH 
people) had to fight, one against an enemy (used her in the 
general sense) and one the elements. And when you see the 

thousands and thousands of destroyed houses all around the 
BiH, you will know that it never can be repaired in time. 
Especially when you imagine that last week it was here in 
Zagreb bloody hot (too hot to work often) and today and 
yesterday it was raining and we walk around with woollen 
sweaters in order not the catch a cold. You may can imagine 
what the situation in the refugees camps is at the moment, 
tents from the desert region which are not waterproof and 
blown away at the first little storm, children and people 
without shoes. Bicky gave her shoes to a boy in Gasinci and 
he walk on them until they started to smell really badly, 
then he washed them and hang them to dry. Somebody stool them 
from the drying line and his only answer was (since Bicky was 
real angry) "somebody else needed shoes as well"

On that same meeting Mrs. Ogata, THE UNHCR, for another 434.1 
USdollars needed for food, medicines and shelter. The 
representative of the US government, who just gave 40 Million 
(which is a lot of money, but not much in percentage if you 
compare it with states as Germany, Netherlands, Denmark and 
Sweden), but were willing to give more if needed, but they 
stressed that the first priority is that people should go 
back to their houses, not to get them through the winter 
(somewhere else). I wonder how he thinks to do that and where 
this people in this piles of rubble, which they find on the 
places where there house just to be standing, will life from 
this winter. Please be a little more realistic around 2.5 
million people have next to nothing to return too., it is not 
such a dazzling figure as f.e. in Somalia, I know, but you 
can't compare them. Somalia is another continent, another 
culture and another problem. 
 
The world starts reacting at the start to organise meetings 
and demonstration. Nearly every second day we get a 
invitation to come to some meeting somewhere and to speech on 
another demonstration somewhere else. It is very important 
that you come says the local organiser from an information 
evening in Somewherehausen, we maybe can pay you train 
ticket, but if you try to organise it that way that you have 
also other meetings in this area, we are sure that you can 
spend the night at our place, and there will be at least 50 
or even 100 people coming.

Can you imagine the hilarity at the office. When the Dutch 
send an invitation me to come and speech at the big public 
demonstration in Amsterdam on the 3th of Oct. (they think at 
least 20.000) will come I thought about it for some time 
(they will send me an aeroplane ticket), but it will cost me 
too much time and I will be deadly tired when I return. As 
said before my main concern is getting the money together for 
the projects, that's my job here. And there are enough good 
speakers in the Netherlands, I am sure.

The last days we have had more and more electricity black 
outs in Zagreb, suddenly the whole block or a whole part of 
the town is without electricity. Maybe it are just some 
technical problems, which appair co-incedently one after 
another, maybe it is a warning for what will come. Anyway it 
is not so handy, when you work like me with computer and 

suddenly your screen disappairs. But we are of course a lot 
better of than our friends in Sarajevo where they don't have 
electricity at all for more than 3 weeks now.

With Love from ZA-mir-GREB,

Wam:-)

P.S. ZaMir-Zg will change his telephone number soon I think, 
not that we at last found a free telephone line but more 
because of the fact that I have to move from where I live 
now. It is too expensive to organise an own telephone line, 
so we are looking for a splitter who can split voice messages 
from computer messages.