From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary
Date: 6 Oct 92 06:15:23 +0100
Article-I.D.: ZAMIR-ZG.4nKKhVhJtC
Distribution: soc


  

Zagreb Diary
05-10-1992

Dobar Dan,

Yesterday Greg Payton, a vietnam-vet against the war, who 
look like somebody who can start singing "Break the power" 
and rapping away as soon as you see him, went to the medical 
army center in Varazdin, were a lot of the wounded soldiers 
are (mostly those who lost a leg or an arm). He, Greg, was 
surprised by the answers of those soldiers. When he ask them 
if they would like to go back to the front after the 
experience they made they all full heartily admitted that 
they would like to return immediately.

Then Greg ask them what they saw as solution for the war, and 
most answer them that the only solution was to kill all the 
Serbs. When Greg told them that some years ago the general 
opinion of USAmerica government was that all communists were 
criminals and that they only way to get ride of their danger 
is that you should flatten their cities. So Greg ask the 
soldiers if they would be angry with that and again they all 
said yes.

After a while the soldiers started to ask Greg why the 
USAmericans did so less during this war and if he couldn't 
tell Bush to start his preparations now (like if Greg was 
personal adviser of Bush, Vesna T. who was with Greg in 
Varazdin told me). And again Greg return the questions with a 
question if they would send their boys to a country 10.000 km 
away to fight for something they don't know anything about, 
and maybe even get killed there. And if they would send their 
boys, and again all of them reacted positive. Really the guy 
must have had a serious problem up there. All the logical 
question were reacted by the here, but normally unexpected 
answers.

The fascination of war, what can happen, in many ways I 
wonder what I will do when I ever return back from this mad 
house, that is when ever it is cooled down a bit. One of the 
volunteers of the next camp is a former German Nazi soldier, 
who fought with the USA army in Vietnam and now come with his 
65 years to re-organise the Croatian army, since it is wrong 
that they are loosing, a little better organisation would 
help, according to him.

Most Suncokret members in the house get a little set up by 
it, a soldier of fortune in the basement, who came by saying 
he didn't want to fight again, returned back to the front and 
comes every week in his free days to be out of the war and 
UNPROFOR soldiers passing by who fall in love with a 
volunteer who was here before and now a guy which is saying 
that the Jewish probably also have their hands in this war 
and that he showed that American nigger (Greg (I don't know 
if I spell the word "Nigger" right, my spelling checker 
didn't recognised the word)) a lesson. It maybe a little too 
much reality, but still it is our reality and we have to 
learn to handle with it. But honestly who can follow it all.


I think I will become a "father" of youth hostel or so, or 
what ever, but something where I can use all this 
experiences. Where in your life can you experience something 
as mad as here and so open. When Nina ran upstairs to tell me 
that she just found 6 or 7 Danish UNPROFOR soldiers in the 
basement (they are all in camouflage so you never know how 
many there are) I just smile, how far can you go pushing the 
a thing into the water.

In many ways I hope that we have adult and well motivated 
volunteers in the house, who we don't have to pamper, most of 
them have made strange experiences in their live before and 
now they can tell something back home. So we should never be 
afraid of radiating a bad imagine. If people want they always 
can dig out shit you know. 

Living near to the war zone makes you clear how small you 
are. If somebody tells me that we are helping the Croatian 
government solving there problem, I think I am not here to 
make my political point, my dear, there are over 700.000 
people in direct need, let's help first the victims. And when 
you like to do that in Tuzla, it is fine with me. I am not 
forgetting BiH, I only think that this is what I can do. I am 
not able to solve the war in BiH, neither does I think I am 
able to help all the displaced people in Bosnia, in an other 
way then I am doing.

Not one form of help is better or worst than the other, some 
think BiH is the only place help is needed, maybe be, maybe 
not. On the "big" demonstration of solidarity with the 
victims of the war (3 oct.) in former Yugoslavia there where 
about 5000 people (in a country of 14 million). Abby Hoffman 
said one "it doesn't matter how much people there are, just 
enough" (he was talking about the actions against the 
Pentagon to stop the Vietnam war). 

I think back on the days that my father got arrested for 
having stickers with the text "Johnson, War criminal" 
(Johnson was the President of a friendly state) in the 
Netherlands and that was about 27 year ago. It where the days 
that only 100 people would come for an anti-A-bomb 
demonstration and a few thousand against the war in Vietnam.

The whole giant peace movement of the Netherlands, who 
brought over one million people together for the 
demonstration against the Pershing in the beginning of the 
80'ties could not gather more than 5.000 people to show 
sympathy with the victims of the war. That is the reality. 

We are living in those days and I am living in a place where 
those days are a little more clear than elsewhere, but I am 
foolish enough to come here and stay. Thank God that not all 
the fools came yet to Zagreb. The longer I live in Zagreb the 
more I enjoy it, even if "enjoying" is here  in this sentence 
the absolute wrong word. 

Today at last some aeroplanes came through to Sarajevo and 
again shelling on Slavonski Brod.


With Love from ZA-mir-GREB,

                            Wam :-)
--------------------------------------------------------
Zagreb Diary can be found on a lot of different computer
Networks. If you can port it to another, please do.
It has no copyright and may be used in all forms of
of further distribution among all types of media. 
But please if you use something drop me a line.
You can reach me via wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de 
I dedicate Zagreb Diary to Tyche, Pjort and Rik
to know what their father was doing all that time
Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:8941 soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna:181