Nachricht Nummer : 206 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 44 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 23 July, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 05.08.1993 08:44:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 23 July, 1993 Dobar dan, Vesna came home at around 2.30 and I waked up, I thought a bit of going to stay awake till 5 when I have to leave the house to catch the train to Pakrac, but fall asleep again and of course missed my train, I wake up around 7, look at the alarm clock and thought "Big Shit". I phoned to the UNOV office in Pakrac to leave a message on the answering machine that I came later and started to pack properly, a hour later I phoned again to Pakrac and got Duda on the line, who told me that it was no problem anyway, since the UNPROFOR chiefs had phoned her to tell that the meeting couldn't take place in the morning, maybe in the afternoon. She also told ones more that they had receive that special letter from them stating that no civilian could pass the front-line. But up to now it wasn't clear if this as we thought only for Croatian and Serbian citizens or also for International and if holders of UNHCR cards and UNPROFOR press cards are included. I just got in time to catch the train, I walked up and down and so that it was loaded, no sitting places and even finding a standing place would be hard. Just when I decided that I also could take a bus to Byelovar and from there to Daruvar and than the train to Pakrac this ARKzin reporter which Jojo and I met last week in Kutina jumped out of the train. He met this Dutch female photo reporter who would join me today on the ARKzin party and they also missed the first train. So I pressed myself in the corridor and a few minutes later we were on our way to Pakrac. But until Kutina, were we had to change trains we had to stand as herrings in a barrel, as we say in Dutch. I was funny to see how the soldiers, obvious on their way to the HV barracks in Kutina tried to get pressed between us two and this Dutch girl, facing her of course. During the train ride I updated them about the UNPROFOR letter and told them that our planned visit at the "other side" maybe wouldn't take place today. Both showed me proud their UNPROFOR presscard and said they we could try, no, we have got, yes, we can get. I said that it would be a big joke if somebody from Bosnia would be able to go were Croats from Croatia are not allowed to go, since the reporter from ARKzin comes from Zenica. Up to now I thought he was Muslim, but he told me that both his parents are Croat and that he therefor has both passes, his old Yugoslav Bosnian pass, and his new Croatian pass, which he could get since he has a Domovnica, which all Croats can get, where ever they live. So when they will ask at the front-line for his pass he can choose which one he will show. We arrive around 2 in Pakrac and went straight to the UNOV office, Duda is out some where at a meeting with the local officials, Tommy on holidays and the new girl from CARE don't know anything about our visit at the UNPROFOR and "the other side", she only knows that she personal can't go anymore to Japaga (the Serbian part of Pakrac), which is not particular handy for her work, since she has to prepare to rebuilding of the street which crosses the front-line and which should rebuild from two sides at the same time. So we decide to go to Scorpia and wait until something will happen, in any case that is always the best place to find out about the newest things in town. At the door of Scorpia I find a poster from our workcamp, two of our volunteers decided to start giving english lesson and invited every body in the village to join them. Till my big surprise there is nobody in pub, beside the wife of the owner, but for the rest it is totally empty, this is for me something new. We don't have to wait long, within 15 minutes "Mister Belfast", Martin from Dublin comes in and order his gin-tonic. I couldn't refuse and for the first time I ask him straight if he was already drinking so much when he came here or if it started here. He answer me that before he came to this place he wasn't drinking for years, but that the atmosphere and the whole disappointment that everything needs so much more time than he thought in the first place made him drinking again. You he said it is this playing with the your dead all the time, down at the motorway were I live the situation is much more aggressive than here just over the front-line in Japaga. There you have a big amount of Bosnian Serb front-line fighters on leave and they are not particular peacenics, you know. A few weeks ago Simon and I just stop 25 centimetre from a anti tank mine which was laying on the middle of the road and last Saturday they had a party or something and started to shoot like idiots. I didn't know what was going on and thought that the bloody war had started again. In such cases I just take another bottle of gin and offer myself a huge glass to hopefully fall asleep. We tell him that we are waiting for Duda, but that as far as I have heard the meeting with UNPROFOR can't take place today, so if he knows something about this new UNPROFOR rules. No problem, he reacts, if you want to visit Japaga today just wait till I finish my glass and Simon has done all the shopping for people at the "other side" and we can go. An hour and three drinks later we zig zag through the stones of the UNPROFOR road block and nobody even ask for our cards or passes. At the Serbian road block they also wave us through and ten minutes later I am sitting in the living room on "the other side", which I have visit more in the last month than my own one in Zagreb. The other two start a little interview and I sit down enjoying his rakija. 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 ##