Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Please crosspost this message!!
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:23:00 -0500

I would like to request your assistance in relaying the following information
to any appropriate news organization(s) in Yugoslavia, and particularly to the
"sezam" electronic mail system in Belgrade.  I do not know how to.

                   News Bulletin
                   -------------

Sinisa Mihailovic died Tuesday evening, December 15, 1992, at the age of 26.

(In the electronic networking community here in Washington, D.C., he was
affectionately known as "Miha", so that is what I will call him in the rest of
this message.)

Miha is best known as a hard working and courageous activist.  He collected and
redistributed news on Yugoslavia, getting it electronically from numerous
sources inside Yugoslavia and feeding it to the outside world, as well as
translating news reports from the conventional news media to electronic form
and sending it to Yugoslavia.

Miha loved his country and was deeply concerned about it. He felt that he could
make his greatest contribution by using his computer communications skills, and
that there was a vast need for news distribution which he could fulfill.

Miha was so good at collecting and redistributing news that news organizations
would log onto his BBS in their regular daily schedules to get information from
Miha.  However, Miha turned down at least one job offer from a news
organization, because he felt that the organization may produce excessively
biased news reports.

Miha did his best to present the news he collected in a complete, unbiased, and
objective manner.  His sources were diverse.  His main aims seemed to be to get
the truth out and to open useful dialogue between Serbs, Croats and Muslims, as
well as between Yugoslavs and non-Yugoslavs.

Miha worked very long hours, and spent his own savings on his news activities.
I also work long hours, being a self-employed PC communications consultant, and
so we had alot in common.

Sometimes I would send a message to Miha as late as 5:00 a.m., expecting to get
a reply the next day, only to get a reply within 15 minutes!  However, Miha
smoked heavily, and worked very hard.  The reasons for his success may have
been the reasons for his death, as the autopsy report states that he had a
heart attack.  (I am taking this as a warning to myself as well, and have
stopped my long hours of hard work since Miha died.  I urge all others to do
the same.)

I knew Miha for less than a year.  He arrived in this country in the winter of
early 1992.  Within a couple of weeks, he logged into my BBS, probably because
it is Internet related.  He was looking into the most advanced parts of my BBS,
so I chatted with him on-line.  We quickly struck up a friendship.

I helped Miha set up a node on FidoNet.  Miha helped me by writing a complete
and user friendly INSTALL.EXE program for my FidoNet-technology "PerManNet
Quick Startup Kit".  We both linked into UUNET independently.

Miha would help everyone.  He was always giving me advice on various Internet
services, and on the best software to use. He also helped my friend Jim Arnold
to set up an Internet access BBS from square one.  Miha was the kind of guy who
you didn't need to ask things from.  He would see what your interests and needs
are and voluntarily suggest how you could meet them.  His generosity and
openness were exemplary.  If anyone ever needed help, Miha's response was
almost always "no problemo".

Miha was also a most peaceful person.  Even when he would discuss the
atrocities in Yugoslavia, he would seem mainly disappointed with his fellow
humans, not angry.  Miha was a person of understanding, always explaining
things in cultural terms.

There are little things about Miha that brought joy to others.  The first time
he visited our house, he brought flowers and wine "for the lady of the house".
(Miha didn't drink much.)  Miha's private e-mail messages had many smily face
characters within them.

He was not just this way with other "techies".  When Miha died and I announced
it electronically, I discovered many people who had gotten to know Miha.  For
example, one man who was very disturbed about Miha's death was a world
traveller and very much a PC novice.  He had logged in to Miha's "Eastern
Europe Link" BBS, and had discussed many of the world's problems with Miha.
Also, when I and my girlfriend, Diane, went for the casket viewing, we were
very late.  Everyone had left, and the doors were locked. We persisted and were
allowed in.  After us, two women did the same.  I discovered that one of them
knew Miha mainly because Miha had taught her the basics of using a PC at their
embassy.

Miha did not possess a big ego.  He just wanted to do what he could to make a
better world.

Those of us who knew Miha should do more with our own lives in order to
partially make up for this loss to humanity.

Life is so fragile and precious.

==============================================

Miha will arrive in Yugoslavia probably on Sunday.  He will
be buried as soon as possible thereafter.

If you wish to have more information, you may contact me, Mark Prado, at:

  mark.prado@permanet.org
   or
  mark.prado@f168.n109.z1.fidonet.org
   or
  1:109/168 @ FidoNet

Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:10022 soc.culture.croatia:58 soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna:803