From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary
Date: 6 Oct 92 06:14:32 +0100
Article-I.D.: ZAMIR-ZG.4nGKacqZtC
Distribution: soc


  

Zagreb Diary
02-10-1992

Dobar Dan,

It was again such a day that thousand things happened and 
some were even positive. Of course Zoric couldn't finish his 
letters in time, we couldn't find the name of the Croatian 
General Svemir talked with in time. The whole telephone 
system in the house seem to went crazy, after functioning for 
a week properly on the bases of my installation last week 
with the Slovenian manual (it was the outside line which went 
crazy by the way, not my installation). The bathroom lamps 
seemed to give it up and no solution with new fuzzes helped. 
During the day I tried via many numbers to reach 
International Red Cross in the hope to trash down that friend 
of Marjolein, which maybe bring me greetings from my 
daughter. But I think that Red Cross has to find me instead 
since the telephone lines are always busy.

And a lot of people passed through today. A Danish filmcrew 
who would like to make a story about what children had 
experienced during and before they had to leave their homes 
and went on the run. They needed to have information about 
Gasinci, since that was the camp they picked. They wanted to 
go their tomorrow early and make the "shootings" already the 
afternoon, sleep in Djakovo and return on Sunday to Zagreb.

When I told them that some other film crews take at least a 
week to make such a story they looked a little confused. Why 
such a long time, you only need a good translator and the 
children to talk. In a flash did I thought about a children 
programme in the Netherlands (but also in other European 
countries) it calls "in the box" and what the makers are 
doing is putting up a box with a static camera inside and 
children can go in the box and do what ever they like to do 
in front of a camera, which is behind a mirror. A tour 
through the refugee centres or camps by such a film team such 
gather a lot of good stories, but still you need to take your 
time to do it. 

Later a German teacher on a school for social work in the 
north of Germany returned from Varazdin, he was very 
impressed with what he has seen there. He also found a lot of 
proof for what we keep on saying in the northern parts of 
Croatia and Istria life is absolute safe, no war. He 
especially made pictures to show that it safe in Varazdin and 
Zagreb and that it really is like Casablanca.

The guy was very enthusiastic about the workcamp he and 25 
students of his school will have in Varazdin in two weeks 
from now. He told that this road signs Slavonski Brod, 
Osijek, Vukovar remind him in his un consciousness on Dachau, 
Treblinca, Ravenburgs and Auswitzch. Not that they had the 
same value, but it was like driving through history. Suddenly 
you see the signs from places you know from television and 
newspapers, just standing next to the road. It is just if 
somebody has placed them there to remind us on those places, 
but they are still there, as were they there before the war 

started and this places got destroyed.

Late in the evening I had to go to Hotel Inter Continental to 
pick up some money we had been promised some time ago by the 
greens from Austria. A translator (English/German- Croatian, 
who is member of the Austrian greens) stayed there with some 
official delegation. I raced down the mountain, my backlight 
of course was not strong enough to cope with the speed and 
the high energy she sudden got and broke. In main street I 
forgot to turn left and had to turn to get to Inter 
Continental, but it is an one-way street. The two police cops 
saw my move and more or less looked if they want to stop me. 
So I stopped in front of them and asked to way in English to 
Inter Continental. When they tried to answer it showed that 
they had obvious one too much and send me into another 
street, which was a wrong one-way street for cars, but a lot 
faster. 

In Inter Continental I met the guy and he told me that they 
were in sector West today, and talk with representatives from 
Croatian government and Krajina. The representative from 
Krajina was dressed in a blue working throwers and directly 
took the slicowitz bottle from the shelf and gave them 
something to drink, thumb in the glass when he filled the 
glasses. The Croatian representatives were more official, 
they let the drink serve.

The  next day he, this translator, should with his delegation 
fly to Vukovar by helicopter. I immediately asked him if he 
know already something about that shooting on those UN 
helicopter, but he didn't knew anything about it. He realised 
that his UN helicopter would fly over the same area, so it 
was not so wise of my to mention it. But he was basically 
afraid since he never ever has flown in an aeroplane and to 
start with a helicopter is something.

He told me a little of the background stories of being 
translator in such a situation. When politicians talk with 
each other and one has a long and sayless speech which I have 
to translate and the one to who it was addresses return with 
an even longer sayless speech rejecting on totally something 
different than the former speaker said, they always look at 
me and say that I am not translating well, he told me. 

Today was the 182th day in a row of Slavonski Brod in which 
general alarm was heard. Like in Sarajevo normal life is next 
to impossible. According to a spokesman on HTV today 18.000 
children have been evacuated since the beginning of that 182 
days. And when I write this word there is again alarm in Brod 
on both sides of the river. That is not a guess since about 
15 minute ago it was mentioned on television in the top of 
screen.

Still no Aeroplane to Sarajevo, but there is a promise that 
tomorrow the flight, after more than a month will be resumed 
again, at least 3 planes will fly tomorrow. There are rumours 
that for 165 million US$ good of relief material is waiting 
for Sarajevo to be flown in. 


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