Nachricht Nummer : 329 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 25 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 7 December, 1993 Kopienempfänger : /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN Erstellungsdatum : 14.12.1993 06:44:00 W+1 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 7 December, 1993 Dobar dan, I had to get up really early this morning, since somewhere yesterday afternoon Sophy called and asked if I was interested to go by helicopter back to the sector, since we as UN consultants (what a tittle) have the right to fly on those things for free the whole idea looked very interesting. I mean beside from a short but very nice ride on a HV (Croatian Army) helicopter I never ever have been on the UN ones and for over a year those this are always flying over our house waking us up. I had to be at 7.30 at UNPROFOR HQ in Ulica to be in time for the shuttle (nothing special a normal bus, just a "softskin", nothing like the shuttle in Sarajevo, the APC from the French) to the airport. Of course at such a moment you miss the tramstop in front of the barracks and I had to run back to be sure to be in time. Passing through the control is not a big thing with my UN pass (not an UNPROFOR or UNHCR by the way) and although this is a military place there are working a few thousand civilians (locals as well as Internationals), so they are used that all kind of people pass the gates. Waiting for the shuttle somebody calls my name, it is Ivana, who came a year ago back from Beograd, she is Croat, but lived a big part of her life in Beograd, she works now for the UNPROFOR. Since March, when she still often helped ARK to bring materials between Beograd and Zagreb I hadn't seen her and she actual was too busy with her job to pass by. So we have the bus ride to update each other a bit and she was happy to hear that we at last started that front-line work in sector west in the summer. Last year we talked already about it, but nobody thought that the time was ripe. Coming out of the town it starts to be clear that it is rather foggy today, so foggy that it is nearly impossible to look more than 50 meter outside the bus. The world were we drive through is now totally new, just at the last moment you recognize were you are. This is not the fast shuttle, but the bus which picks up the locals who are working for UNPROFOR, since I don't know the time I am a little nervous if I will make it in time for the helicopter. As we drive down the road to the airport we see in the other lane a nice accident two UNPROFOR trucks had a nice little love story with eachother and are now blocking the road which is full because of the morning rush hour. It is at least 3 months ago that I was at the military part of the airport, last time I visit this place was with Jojo when we went to check out the Dutch bar, for the rest this place lays so outside the normal world I am living in that there is hardly any reason to go there. I find my way to "Move Control" as it call in military terms, the barracks of the Norwegian soldiers which are in charge of organising the air transport, that is they have to decided who is flying with which flight. On his desk I see the form with my name on it and realise that it is really organised. I heard from others that it was most of the time a kind of chaos, last minute bookings and so on, which drives the pilots, especially those flying on Sarajevo, nearly crazy. They show me the way to a big white tent ("UNPROFOR property" is printed on it each second meter) in which people for the helicopters and aeroplanes have to wait. In the summer this is maybe a nice place, but now it is bloody cold, the one working blower is not capable to heat up the place, only to let the temperature circle around the freezing point. In the tent twenty or more soldiers waiting for their flight to Sarajevo. Some of them are rather used to it ,it seems, they went shopping in Zagreb and walk around with ghetto blasters and keyboards (if I were them I would have let them in Zagreb, since I think you don't move so well with those big boxes, but it is their material and their lives). Other, like a group of at least 8 Dutch soldiers (they are really young), starts with a lot of noise, but after a while they become very, very quiet and stand there watching each other and waiting to be brought to hell. "To Sarajevo, not more than 1 bottle alcohol and 1000 cigarettes" says a little poster on the wall, I wonder who will control that. Sophy arrives and we wait together. An officer of "MovCon" comes in telling that all flights are cancelled, we have to wait at least 2 more hours before a new decision can be made. We decided to have a breakfast in one of the military restaurants, since we are not flying to Sarajevo, were you dive as it were into the town and your food in your stomach get's thrown around like in a roller coaster, we wouldn't have much problems with it. In the restaurant we meet some soldiers from Kenya, based in sector South, here in Zagreb for a two weeks leave and bored like hell. The rest of the morning and the early afternoon we spend this way, walking up and down between "MovCon" and the restaurant talking with the Kenyans, until they at "MovCon" decided that all flights are cancelled. 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 v2.92 ##