From: wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Zagreb Diary
Date: 29 Sep 92 11:14:29 +0100
Article-I.D.: ZAMIR-ZG.5mhJzooZtC
Distribution: soc


  

Zagreb Diary
22-09-1992

Dobar Dan,

I slept this night somewhere else in Zagreb and was waked up 
by children voices outside. In the street there are chestnut 
tree and the whole street lays full of chestnuts (my children 
would have also lot of fun with it). Last year at this time, 
the person in which house a slept there were no children on 
the street. The war was just started and the first airraid 
alarms went of in Zagreb. Their parents wouldn't allowed them 
to play on the streets. The whole period of the airraid, 
until half way January they more or less had to stay inside. 
Yes, she told me, this is a good sign, last year around this 
time every thing look so dark and we were all so afraid. Now 
the people are only complaining about the chestnuts which are 
falling on the cars (if you think on that moment about f.e. 
Sarajevo, where the chestnuts are bullets you feel a little 
ashamed).

When I drove a hour later with Nina to the school where our 
volunteers for the next workcamp are having their 
introduction she run out of petrol. Even after telling her 
for thousand times that she should fill up her tank, she 
still tanks only a few litre and often we are standing 
somewhere in the town without petrol in the tank. This time 
we just had enough petrol to roll into a petrol station. We 
filled up the car and went inside to get a receipt. Nina ask 
a receipt on the name of Centar Za Mir (Center for peace), 
next to her were standing two soldiers from HV (Hrvatska 
Vojska (Croatian Army)) who immediately introduce themselves 
as members of Centar Za Rat (Center for war) and asked us to 
have a drink with them. Nina was clever enough to refuse 
since we had not much time, but at least those two had some 
humour.

Back in our new house we got a visit of our neighbours, which 
told us something we already found out, that the people who 
use to live in our house had Serbian nationality. But he said 
it were good Serbs, a little strange, but good ones. It is 
still strange for me that people talk about each other that 
way. It remind me a lot on the time (some years back) that I 
worked in the Netherlands for a while at a school for 
technical workers as social worker. One of the things I had 
to do their was anti racism lessons. Always the boys on the 
school start to tell me how stupid all Turkish people were 
and how dangerous, since they had so many children. Of course 
Achmed, one of the boys in their class, was a good Turk, 
since they knew him. If you asked a little more, they also 
admit that the owner of the Shoarma snackbar at the corner 
was a good Turk as well, but the rest should be send back to 
their home land. 

Croatia has a new pressure group of people from Baranja, they 
have openly announced to return to Baranja at the 30th of 
September, so in about a week. They have asked UNPROFOR the 
deliver within a week a list of village to which they can 
return. The group also announced that they are going to 

organise a Croatian wide demonstration on the 2th of October 
to put more pressure on the government to give them 
permission to return to the village they came from and 
against UNPROFOR.

Astrid has started to sort out all the medicines we have got 
in the last 5 days, by now we have enough to fill a small 
drugstore. All in all we have over a ton standing in the room 
and most of it came in small boxes collected by the people 
who come to work in the refugee camps. After we complained a 
bit about receiving outdated material we now receive only 
good material. Of course you can't send those boxes straight 
away to the camps, since it are a type of mysterious 
packages, you find all kind of different types in them. But 
we have enough of this boxes to collect lots of the similar 
medicines together in order to make fast deliveries when 
necessary. 

The voluntary doctor from Germany came back from Savudrija 
were he had helped in the medical post, together with a 
refugee doctor of Bosnia he had to take care of the 1800 
people in the camp. They were very happy with the deliveries 
which Astrid could make in the last weeks already. Before the 
post had to trade their medicines with a nearby hospital and 
spend hours to sort out all those strange languages. 
Especially when Astrid managed to deliver within 24 hours a 
very needed blood pressure meter. She had to run around the 
whole of Zagreb nearly, but that was good since she talk with 
all other aid organisations and inform about our stock.

One of the stories our doctor told me was just such a story 
which you only would understand if you have seen it. A few 
days ago some busses came to bring 150 refugees from 
Savudrija to the Netherlands. One of the group was an old 
lady, which had all their bellowings in a plastic bag. This 
bag came from Germany and had a commercial on it for a game 
which is called "Lifestyle" (which was game of the year some 
years back), with big letters it was written on it "Bring 
your lifestyle in the game".

One of the things I remembered from today's television was a 
story about a ship tour for wounded Croatian soldiers in the 
Adriatic. A whole ship full of soldier without legs, arms or 
with this strange pin and screws through their arm or leg. 
You often see them now on the street, especially those with 
this type of torture screws are strange to see. Astrid told 
me that those patient in the Netherlands never would be 
allowed to go of their beds, the have very serious broke 
bones, here however the hospitals are full and as soon 
somebody can walk or move they can go home.

When I returned late in the evening back to our Suncokret 
house I met Burkie, who just returned from Germany, it is 
good to have him around. He will take care now of all those 
people who pass by and wants to talk the whole night. After 
the summer holidays in west Europe were over I thought they 
wouldn't come anymore, but our house is still full of them 
and I am sure more will come.


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.
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But please if you use something drop me a line.
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I dedicate Zagreb Diary to Tyche, Pjort and Rik
to know what their father was doing all that time