Nachricht Nummer : 248 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 53 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 23 August, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 02.09.1993 08:28:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 23 August, 1993 Dobar dan, Today some foreign UNHCR observers have been in Mostar on the Muslim side of the river Neretva, they haven't been there for over two months (neither any other organisation have brought food to this part of the city in that period), due to the still heavy fighting in the city, the distances between the HVO (Croatian) and Muslim parts of the city is just about 50 meters, just a few months ago they build a new bridge over the Neretva to connect both parts, surprisingly this bridge is still undamaged, but nobody, even not UNPROFOR is able to pass it. The UNHCR observer was shocked about what she found on the east bank, the app. 55.000 Muslims in this small part of the town are near to starvation. On the SKY report, which was broadcasted on HTV she explained that people can go a long time without food without really getting into problems, but suddenly they go over the line and will die very rapidly. According to her experiences most of the people she saw in Mostar have already or will pass that line very soon. Although HVO authorities and commanders have said that they don't allow anybody into the eastern part of the city as long as Muslim (BiH armija) hold Croatian HVO soldiers in prison and wounded people in the Croatia pockets in central Bosnia are not free to leave, UNHCR is planning a new convoy into the Eastern part of the city for Wednesday this weeks. If that will be impossible they, UNHCR, will asked UNPROFOR to airdrop food in to that part, knowing the city I think that that would be not a simple task to do. I was shocked as well when I saw the newest pictures coming out of the East part of the town, just a few months ago I walked around in that part and was at that moment surprised that although the heavy shelling in the summer and winter by the Serbian forces on the hill top over looking the city a lot was still not totally destroyed, the situation has changed a lot since then. Houses or at least parts of it which I could recognize were now shot into pieces, a bit simular like the pictures from Vukovar, building eaten by giant insects. It is sad to see, especially when you have spend some time in the city at the end of the fighting between the Muslim and the Croats versus the Serbians and made plans for rebuilding it all. The next item on television is an interview with somebody in Sarajevo, the UN spokesman explain that the wording "not besieged, but surrounded" is indeed chosen unlucky, but that on the other side Mladic, the general from the Bosnian Serbs don't like that the UN is any longer talking about the besieged city of Sarajevo now he has withdrawn his troops from two of the mountains. Further on the interview went back to the situation in Mostar and the need for food to be brought into the city, the background were this interview was hold stroke me the most however, on the wall directly after the speaker was a huge painted commercial for Nuts, Twix and Mars. In such a mood I left Djakovo, a mood in which everything was shit, after all those months I still don't want to understand the logic behind the war, there is still no logic, maybe that is the most significant part of war, never try to find out it's logic, it has no. You can analyse it, look upon it from all sides, turn it against the sun, determinate it under a microscope, but you never can predict it. Every time it surprise you again, when it takes another detour and burns open in all it's aggression on another place. Travelling back from Djakovo to Pakrac you pass by in the bus to Nacisce the small village in West Slavonia, the villages in which their use to live Serbs and Croats together, the village which are now house (Croat), house (Croats), pile of rubbish (Serbian), house, pile of rubbish. The road blocks or the left overs from it which still stood on the streets in the country side are gone, indeed the piles of rubbish are about the only things which remind you on the war which was fought in this area two years ago. I was lucky in Nascisce, the train to Virovitica went about ten minutes after we arrived with the bus, in the shade it is bearable, the temperature outside must be today about 37 degrees Celsius, in the bus I was watching the other people, how in the hell could those two soldiers survive in their uniform, they must sweat litres. In the train the heat get's if possible hotter, the windows can't open and the only place free I can find is next to the window at the sun side of the train, so I am sitting as it were in a glass house at one of the hottest moments of the day. In Virovitica the connection is not so well organised I have to wait for some hours before the small local train will leave from here to Pakrac, I walk through the small town and found a burek place open were I had my lunch and evening meal. At last around 6 o'clock the local train went of to Pakrac, two hours more in a train which has the speed of a biker against the wind with a flat tire, it goes faster as walking, but that is about it. The first hour up to near Daruvar there are some Argentinian soldiers in the train, who obvious are coming back from their weekend outside the UNPA zone. In Daruvar they leave the train and 6 reservists from Croatian police are entering the two wagons of the train, outside is dark now and the train now goes over the front-line track, one side of the track will sometimes be Croatian controlled and the other side Serbian controlled. When we arriving at the point near were the 4 police men were killed three weeks ago all the lights went out and the police is sitting on the ground and the conductor tries to make it clear to me that hanging out of the window with a white T- shirt is dangerous and that I should also go to sit on the ground, I like the smell of the evening trees however and let him talk. 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 ##