Nachricht Nummer : 331 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 37 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 9 December, 1993 Kopienempfänger : /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN Erstellungsdatum : 15.12.1993 14:36:00 W+1 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 9 December, 1993 Dobar dan, In the morning we, Goran, Vanja (the two co-leaders) and me had our weekly meeting with Selic, the head of the reconstruction office on the Croatian part of Pakrac. He was glad to see me, we hadn't met officially since I came back from Netherlands some months ago, always too busy and mostly I had something else to do. But he hadn't much time for a long meeting. Nevertheless it took nearly two hours and became one of our most relax meetings with him. His first question was to find out how the "world" re-acts on our project. And more concrete how the volunteers and all those guest think about Pakrac when they have been here. I tried to explain him that none of the volunteers had complained so far about his town, that most were too moved by the destruction and the stories of the people. But how do they thing about Croatia, was his next question. A question which is often asked, he at least didn't asked the standard question, namely, who was and is, according our volunteers, the victim or the aggressor in this war. He knows probably that he will never get an answer from me as well as from most Internationals workings here, (aid workers or others). Everybody related to the UN (what we also are in many ways) are even not allowed to answer that question other than to say that we are neutral. I mostly pull up my shoulders, produced a nice smile and say that I live now for nearly two years in Croatia (if the last part can be considered positive or negative towards my host country I leave in the middle). Anyway in this case I told him that most people who had come lost a lot of pre-judicious, negative as well as positive ones. One thing which is clear that, just like the Serbian intellectuals who visit officially Zagreb some weeks ago, a lot of people are surprised that you wouldn't find soldiers in black uniforms at every street corner (when I came HOS had still something to say, but in the last year they nearly totally disappeared out of the daily, but also political life. Only in Split and in Bosnia there still seems to be some of them active). With other words in Croatia you wouldn't find Swastika's, big "U" 's (Ustase) and other fascistic symbols on every corner, at least not as much as most people who come here the first time expects to find. You can find them, even in or maybe especially on the front-line, in Pakrac you also find texts on the walls, like "NEWER SERBS IN THIS TOWN" or "BORN AS SERB KILLER", but since they are both in the same hand writing and still about 15-25% from the people on the Croatian side have the Serbian nationality it is a bit more relative than you would think at the first moment. So I told him all this and than we went to some other plans he had, since the beginning of this year he start to get funding for a new community center, with sport hall, meeting room, first aid post, youth club and all those other things and we know how important that is now the town is growing again and no building with roof is big enough to host more than 200 people, but of course no change. My wallet is also by far not big enough to even start with the fundament of it. He is obvious a bit jalours on his neighbouring town Lipik, were next week the total renewed orphanage will be opened, that project is done by Captain Cook from the UK (who use to be sector commander of UNPROFOR), who raise all the money for it. After the meeting I went with Robert, from the Austrian volunteers to "the other side" in the hope to meet Simo again. Simo waited for us in the "pub" near the opcina and convinced me to go with him to see some friends in Okucani. At the ArgBat house on this "other side" we picked up some boxes with baby and children clothes, which have been "smuggle" over in the last weeks and went over the normal road, which looks now more a fishing pound, since all the snow started to melt since this morning to his home town. There we visit one of his friends, who is probably the only "youngster" in Okucani who build up his own company in the last two years and who knows a lot about possible "small scale money generating projects" in this part of the sector. Up to now there were a lot of plans but now of them really worked. UNHCR has given CARE a lump sum in order to initiate such projects, but due to all kind of bigger and smaller problems the project is still in the development stage. They guy took us to his office, which is about the only building which came undamaged through the war of the wood factory in this town. This factory is, if possible even more destroyed than the wood-factory on the Croatian side of Pakrac and this hasn't been done by war activities but by blowing them up and burning them down in the first weeks of September in 1991. It is always a little spooky to walk through such damaged building, were the steal constructions has been melted and formed themselves a lot different than they use to be. A kind of picture what you normally would see in video-clips or something like that. After making a phonecall with Beograd, what to my surprise was possible with tone dialling, we went back to Pakrac, one stop on the road at the UNCIVPOL post in Okucani to bring them the clothes, but for the rest nema problema, beside a special paper we had to sign at the ArgBat checkpoint, but that is something for tomorrow. 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 ##