Nachricht Nummer : 214 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 39 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 1 August, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 05.08.1993 09:28:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 1 August, 1993 Dobar dan, When we arrived in Split Ognjen, Orlon (Ognjen's little son of 1.90 high) and me more or less proudly told that we took the Maslenica bridge, the family of Biljana (Ognjen "wife") looked at us if we were totally idiots, who in the hell would take that road if they are not yet ready to die. But we kept on saying that it was totally safe, that we didn't see any soldiers, no Croatian and no UNPROFOR. That safety is a very relative thing in these countries was shown of today, in the morning the bridge and the road to it were closed for public cars and the Croatian soldiers withdrawn themselves from the positions protecting the bridge and the airport of Zadar and in the afternoon the shelling on their old positions as well around the bridge started from Serbian Krajina positions. We were more or less lucky that we got through two days ago, although we knew that nothing would happen on that day, we just felt it. And we were also sure that if it was unsafe the control post wouldn't have us let through. But anyway we have been one of the only ones in the last one and half year which passed the bridge and were not one way or another connected to any of the armies, a pitty that they didn't stamped my passport. I wonder now how this new attack on Maslenica will influence our relationships with the Krajina Serbs in West Slavonia, in Pakrac, in principle I have to deal there with authorities connected to the one who just gave orders to shell at the bridge. Anyway I am on holidays now and I will see in a couple of days. At the moment that I am writing this I am in a small fishing boat in front of the coast at Omis, about 20 kilometer down of Split. From the boat I have a perfect view on the UNPROFOR campement in one of the auto camps north of Omis. As far as I can see and hear from their shouting those are UK soldiers and from the look of it is probably one of their relaxation camps, cause the beach is full with sun bathing soldiers. Just a few minutes ago a small boat full with heavy weight, short hair cut, fat red sun burned ones passed our boat. They obvious thought that we had a boat full of girls since they came straight up to us load screaming and waving, but when they recognised that the only girl in the boat is Ognjen's 8 years old daughter they changed course and make noise of incoming grenade, tjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjiiiiiiiiiiii, bang, flash. Big laugh and again. Even when they are a few hundred meters passed our place I still hear the bangs and the laughs. Omis is also one of those nice holidays resorts. Ognjen told that the real tourist industry only started some years ago, but nowadays every second house is or a hotel, pub or ice cream selling place. It is one of the only place in south Dalmatia were they have electricity during the whole day thanks to 15 heavy generators, which are rented in the Netherlands and placed at the parking place of one of the local factories. Never the less also hardly any foreign tourists in this place. Walking through the town it is clear that people haven't break so heavily with the recent past as in a lot of other places, something you can notice all over Dalmatia. The nice signs on houses were some special meeting of the communist party has taken place in the past are still there and also the local partisan monument is undamaged. Maybe this is the result of the old ladies which have their meeting point in front of the monument, it is obvious there monument and of course the monument stands there probably to remind the people of their son, lovers or husbands which have been killed in the second world war. In the evening we start packing in order to be able to take the first ferry to Brac tomorrow, Biljana and her mother are going through the cupboard in order to find some food to take with us, on the Island the prices are at least two times higher then here in Split, were it is already a lot more expensive than in Zagreb (which is indeed very relative, since for westerners the prices are absurd low). One of the relatives of Biljana is professor on the university in Split and member of the "right" labour union, not only is his income a lot higher than the average income of all Croats, but thanks to his membership of the labour union he is also entitled it seems to get food package from the EC. Strange you may think, but it is reality, some people which are relative rich (what he earns is at least 300 times less than a professor on a Dutch University) get humanitarian aid around here and some who absolute have nothing receive also nothing. But in this case, and I think that will happen in most cases the humanitarian aid is given to relatives which have even less and that way one good working person in the family can support his whole circle of relatives. And so we pack all the left overs from the European "milk lakes", the "butter mountains", the "cheese castles", the "flour hills", all nicely rewrapped into package with the blue flag and the twelve yellow stars in a big box, without this the holiday would be unpayable. We have a late evening meal with nice tomatoes from another relative, whose factory is closed down due the electricity break down and who now spend all his time in the garden of his parents, who use to live in one of the little mountain villages outside Split and watch the late evening news in which they show how the Maslenica bridge is shelled. Bok I Mir from Zagreb, Wam ------------------------------------------------------ Zagreb Diary can be found on a lot of different electronic networks, it is copyright free and can be ported to any network or other means of communication you like, but please drop my a line, you can reach by sending a message to wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de or wam@zamir-zg.comlink.apc.org. Zagreb Diary is dedicated to Tyche, Pjort and Rik, so that they found out what there father have been doing all that time in Zagreb. Financial support for Grassroot relief work in Croatia or BiH can be send to Kollektief Rampenplan (atn. Lylette, Postbox 780, 6130 AN Sittard, Netherlands, tel:. +31-46-524803 and fax: +31-46-516460 or to Zagrebacka Banka, Zagreb, accountnr.: 2440291594, to Kat, Pieter Jan Herman Fredrik, Brace Domany 6 6fl nr3, 41000 Zagreb. Please notify me if you send or have send any donations. ## CrossPoint v2.1 ##