From: sharon@world.std.com (Sharon M Gartenberg)
Subject: Re: Yugoslav hams?
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 20:54:13 GMT

tedwards@eng.umd.edu (Thomas Grant Edwards) writes:

>What is the current status of hams in Yugoslavia, especially
>arround the Belgrade area?  Does the U.S. have a third-party
>agreement in effect?

To the best of my knowledge, the U.S. does not have a third-party
agreement with Yugoslavia or any of the ex-Yugoslav republics.

This has little to do with your question, but I'd like to bring
it up anyway ... The lack of a third-party agreement with ex-
Yugoslav republics such as Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, is a  
real problem when trying to pass messages on behalf
of Bosnian refugees in and out of Bosnia.

Ham radio is the only means of communication left in and out of many
Bosnian cities and towns (in fact, I just read this morning that
the UN is going to try harder to get relief into a town 35 miles
from Sarajevo, after a ham in Zagreb, Croatia, told officials
the information he heard from a ham in that town -- that hundreds of
people were dying of hunger and cold, and bodies were just stacking
up inside homes because people are too weak to dig graves in the
frozen ground. ...)

I and a colleague have checked with both the ARRL and FCC about
how we can help Bosnian emigres and students here in the States
get information to and from their families. The responses I received
were, that while one cannot legally pass messages such as "So-and-so
says to tell his father that he is .....," etc., one CAN say that
"I am requesting information about so-and-so," so at least we can
report whether the person is still alive and OK, and where (s)he is.
Everyone understands that this kind of communication is really vital,
because it is the only option left to people worried about the safety
of their loved ones.

Another alternative I have used is to telephone a friend in Slovenia,
with the message from the Bosnian here in the States; then my Slovene
friend passed the message in via ham radio into Bosnia. We got the
return message the same way -- by ham radio out of Bosnia, and then
by telephone from Slovenia to here. Frankly, I would really like to
see the FCC give official permission for 3rd-party traffic anywhere
in the world, if it concerns people in Bosnia. 

Although this was not at all your question, in case anyone reading
is interested, right now it is just about impossible to pass messages
in and out of Sarajevo to a non-ham in Sarajevo, because the local
telephone service is out (along with the electricity, heat, and
running water :-( :-( :-( ). This means that the hams in Sarajevo
cannot make telephone calls within the city to pass messages along.

However, hams throughout Bosnia have been doing incredible work trying
to keep lines of communication open in unimaginably horrible conditions.

If you are asking about passing messages to and from people in Belgrade
to avoid paying long-distance phone bills, that's probably another
issue. Considering that there has been talk to tighten sanctions 
against Yugoslavia, with one option being cutting off postal and
telecommunications links altogether, I doubt the FCC would look
favorably on a request to *add* a third-party agreement with the
Yugoslav government. In fact, I am wondering if such sanctions would
affect the amateur-radio community, and if we would be prohibited from
making contact with YU hams at all if such sanctions were added.
 

73, Sharon KC1YR  


-- 
Sharon Machlis Gartenberg
Framingham, MA  USA
e-mail: sharon@world.std.com