Nachricht Nummer : 190
Übertragungszeit : 3 min 42 sec
Nachricht von    : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org
Betrifft         : Zagreb Diary 12 July 1993
Erstellungsdatum : 18.07.1993 09:40:00 S+2

Realname: Wam Kat

Zagreb Diary 12 July 1993

Dobar dan,

Another day early up, we are going to Pacras today with the filmcrew, we 
also like to film a refugee camp, but I am sure we wouldn't manage in one 
day, 10 minutes filming will take hours, but at least on the way to Pacras we 
will travel on the nice highway of "Brotherhood and Unity", this highway was 
build to connect the west of Europe with Greece basically. They started the 
highway a few years after the war and thousand of foreign volunteers came 
in the fifties and sixties to Yugoslavia to help. Somewhere in the beginning 
of the sixties to finally had the road finished from Ljubljana over Zagreb, 
Beograd to Skopje and further to the Greece border. 

In the early 80'ties they started to rebuild the road into a highway, with more 
lane's. But unfortunately Yugoslavia didn't exist long enough to finish the 
building all the way. From Ljubljana you can travel up to Slavonski Brod and 
from there up to the Croatia-Serbian border a major part is missing, which 
should have been build in the last 2 years. South of Beograd to Skopje also 
a lot of part are missing. In a couple of years maybe again international 
volunteers are send into Eastern Slavonia to build the last part of the 
highway between Zagreb and Beograd.

Normally you wouldn't see much traffic on the highway east of Zagreb as I 
wrote some days ago, but just when you like to film it half of Kutina seems 
to have decided to go to Zagreb today and a part of the dramatic picture is 
disturb by cars on the other lane, but it is nothing if you compare it with the 
intensive travelling about to years ago, cars full with Turkish guest workers 
in Germany use to stand her bumper to bumper in this time of the summer 
and now not one who travel east.

Just before we enter Pacras we drop of at the Gaj, a Serbian village, which 
is home by home blown up after the fighting had stopped. An APC 
(Armoured Personnel Carrier) comes driving up the road behind us and our 
driver put the hammer down to set up the camera on a dramatic spot after a 
small hill next to some destroyed houses. We hear the griming sound of the 
metal rollers going up to hill towards us, but just at the moment that it would 
come over the hill it take a turn to the left and disappear between the trees 
of a side road.

Sitting inside the Hrvatski Dom in Pakrac on the stairs (which lead to the 
bleu sky) in the sun, listening to the sound of passing APC's from 
UNPROFOR CanBat (Canadian Battalion) passing by at the street below. 
Since about two years the roof replaced from the top part of the building to 
the basement and the first volunteers from Suncokret are now trying 
together with the local work brigades, the modern trummerfrauen from 
Croatia to get it out of the basement in order to make the building ready for 
rebuilding. When I look up to the right I see at the skyline of the building 
situated against the bleu sky the wheels of the film projectors, since this 
was up to two years ago the local cinema. It also served as cultural centre 
for the Croatian people in Pakrac, were they had their parties and weddings. 
It is situated next to the catholic church just around the corner from Skorpia.

Since all the Suncokret volunteers know the name Hrvatski Dom to sing 
along with one of the more or less Utashi songs which are sometimes been 
played in one of the pubs and which has as finishing line "Hrvatski Dom, 
Hrvatski Dome". Up to now I didn't translated the rest of the song, since 
they are I think a little bit surprised when they found out that in the song they 
are singing about another Hrvatski Dom, the mother state of Croatia.

In the last two days they must have shuffled about 3 or more tons roof out of 
the basements with their shuffle and wheel barriers, it is really impressive to 
see what they have done in this heat. The Croatia female workers are even 
sometime complaining that our international volunteers are working to hard. 
Since they planned to work much longer on this building than is now the 
case. My volunteers were "complaining"  that they need to have too much 
"pause" (breaks) since they seems really enormous motivated to get this 
place clean in the three weeks that they are here. We will see, for the time 
being there is still about 3 rooms to go and with this speed they will have it 
finished by the end of the week. But it is strange sitting inside a building in 
the sun.

The next place I find some time to write on today's diary is in the Diana Bar 
of the Intercontinental Hotel in Zagreb. The Muzak as we call it Dutch is 
coming out of the speakers just at a level that you can understand the 
people speaking at the other table, but also to nerve you since it seems the 
be an unendless tape. Poor people from UNHCR and other big 
organisations who are staying in this place, I can imagine that they try to 
find another place to live as the people at the table next to me.

Back in Zagreb from the war zone, I am happy that I am not a reporter or 
member of such big organisations since I think I would be having problem 
adopting the changing all the time. You hear, see and film all that shit and 
just a few minutes later you are sitting in an Interconti or something simular 
where life is totally different. Maybe are rather like to sit on those stairs in 
Pacras I some how feel more at home there. Even the fact that Intercontu 
has everything what they are leaking in Pacras, showers, regular electricity, 
no war picture's where ever you look I prefer to be there rather than here. 

Bok I Mir from Zagreb,

							Wam
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