Nachricht Nummer : 246 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 44 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 21 August, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 28.08.1993 08:47:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 21 August, 1993 Dobar dan, Annette will leave by helicopter to Zagreb this afternoon and from there she continues to Sarajevo to meet her women group she worked with in the last months, by Monday evening she hopes to be back again in Pakrac. At such a moment you start to be interested to know what in the hell has been going on down there in the last week, enough is happening in Pakrac so even so close by you forget to watch or listen to the news every day. According to the latest news, which the people from Austria brought with them, the both mountains in Sarajevo are cleared by the Bosnian Serb Army and taken into control by the UNPROFOR troops. This led to a very funny remark from one of the UNPROFOR commanders, or since it was meant serious, not so funny at all. He claimed that Sarajevo is no longer under besieged, but is now only surrounded. The spokesman of UNHCR reacted that he is not seeing much difference between being in a besieged or surrounded city, for him it is only important that the humanitarian aid will come through and that is not clear yet. Izetbegovic reacted more or less the same way, he also claimed that the security of the city haven't increased by the movements of the Bosnian Serbian Army, since they are now closer to the city than ever before. Overall it must however been said that already for some days it is relative quiet in Sarajevo, the shelling has more or less stopped 5 or more days ago, but in the town snipers are still active. Nevertheless the people can go on the streets. Much worst the situation is in other central Bosnian cities and especially in Mostar. In the morning we had a meeting with Mr. Platzer to straighten out the working relationship between ARK and UNOV in the Pakrac, after that they, the officials from Austria, had a meeting with the mayor and the leader from the rebuilding committee of the Croatian part of Pakrac. This meeting was to avoid that we meet all the officials on both sides, as I had done last weekend with the delegation from the Netherlands. After that meeting in the sun in front of Skorpia, those officials should go over the cease fire line in order to visit the "major" on the "other" side. Just before they wanted to leave Simo arrived with an official message from Vites, the official one in power in the Serbian part of UNPA West. He announced that Vites have said that morning that he will it impossible that aid organisations any longer visit the "major", he, Vites, will take care that those he do so no longer can work in the Serbian part of the UNPA zone. Since all organisation, inclusive UNHCR and UNICEF are working together with Djakula (the "major") we will see what will happen when they are going to visit Djakula today. I myself went on my way to Djakovo to see Vesna, we didn't went to Vis last week as planned since Vesna farther was still not better and in hospital. So after a two hours ride with the local small train to Virovitica, during which at nearly every station UNPROFOR soldiers dropped in and out of the train North of Darovar. IN Virovitica I had to wait a bit for the train from Zagreb to Osijek, but since my train was delayed and the train from Zagreb was on time the break was not so long. In Osijek I was surprised, I haven't been there for a long time and the change already starts at the station platform, not only are there a lot more people and a lot less soldiers than before, but all the protection installations are gone. No wood standing around the entrance and also the other little skloniste (shelters) are gone at the railway station. In front of the station the situation is even more changed, even the building direct in front of the station from which everybody said that it never would be rebuild, since it should stand there to remember the people what happened, was nearly repaired. Just when I left the station building I saw a nice red tram, I knew that they existed in Osijek and saw them on television but never saw them in the wild. And indeed the tram gives a city something like life is back to normal again. The second strange thing was that there was something change all-over and the first 10 minute I couldn't figure out what it was, something has changed in the town what gave it a total new atmosphere. It could have been all the people on the street, but then I remembered, when I passed by the shop were Eric was nearly arrested last year for taking photo's, the glass is back in the town. Nearly all the broken windows has been repaired and that special sound of wind playing with plastic windows is gone. Also the cars windows are brand new, as the fact that it looks like that all grenade and bullet holes in the cars have been repaired and repainted. The military post in the faculty of law was removed and the market is back to normal again, the line of black market exchangers which did the best business during the periods I came before disappeared and the normal vegetables and burek sells man took over their places. Also the insects were gone, although most people still had this smell around them produced by anti insect soaps. But the story goes that the spraying of pesticides has started again in Croatia. Last but not least the children and youth are back in the town, something what was also the case in all the village the bus to Djakovo passed by, suddenly those dead places are starting to live again, even here maybe 3 kilometer from the front-line life starts the be lived again. Only the hospital in Osijek is still a mass, the rebuilding only the basements at the moment. 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 ##