Nachricht Nummer : 178 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 39 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 27 June, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 05.07.1993 14:16:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 27 June, 1993 Dobar dan, Today I was picked up by Burkie and Paula at Vesna's place i order to join them in the Peace Hostel to cook for the volunteers who arrived today. This weekend they arrived to go to Medjugorje, Posusje in Herzegovina and to some camps on Brac. It is not a big group this week since some travel direct to their camps and those for Istria are been trained in the Pula office. Still there are at least 17 people from nearly 10 different countries. Normally some other people cook in the hostel, at the moment we have there two guys from Osijek. They are normally no cooks, but you can learn fast if it is needed. The guys just to work on the roofs in Osijek. Directly after, or even during the shelling they had to go on the roofs to repair them. During the cutting of the vegetables I talk with them, there is maybe a possibility that they can help us fixing the roofs in Pacras and they seem to like the idea. It must not be that hard to find a new vegetarian cook for the hostels and roofs workers who speak English and have a lot of experience you met not every day around here. As soon as we find a way of getting funding we will invite them on the project in Pacras. Will I am cutting I hear in the other room that Valentine is busy to learn the volunteers the first words in Croatia. One, two three, pivo, hvala, bok and all the things which I picked up so over the year. I am often so in my element that people (Croat friends) talk English with the volunteers and other foreigners and Croat with me. By the time that I can't follow it anymore and a big question mark appears on my face, and that can happen after a few lines, during which I also don't noted that they change language, they react, with "Oh yes, sorry, I forgot it that you were not a Croat." After the dinner Valentina start with her general introduction about Croatia, of course she asked me the tell a bit about the history of Suncokret. About two and half hours I was still talking and the room was a lot fuller then when I started. Since this volunteers went to Hercegovina and Brac I emphasised the paradoxes which will stroke them as they stroke me. More or less I explain the two big paradoxes which I try to get figured out, but are not so easy to explain. They are also very related to each other. Shortly you can describe them as follows. One the one hand the Croatian state helps in many ways the refugees from BiH, who are mostly Muslim, you can discuss if they do it the right way or not but that is another discussion. They co-operate also openly with Izetbegovic government in Sarajevo, recognised the state and it's rights. On the other side they are supporting the state of Croatian people in Herceg Bosna. And this state, if you accepted as a separate state is also another discussion, but the reality is that they act separate from Sarajevo, is now in an open war with the BiH armija, which is the mostly Muslim army controlled by Sarajevo (how strong that control is is also an open discussion). Herceg Bosna also has made an agreement with the Bosnia Serbian which more or less crave BiH in three ethnical "clean" parts. This plan is in principle disagree with the principles of one BiH state as is the line from government in Sarajevo. By supporting Herceg Bosna the Croatia government also supports the plan from Karadzic and Boban. That is in my eyes the first paradox. The second one is the fact that in is more than obvious that there are connections and trade between HVO (the Croatian army from Herceg Bosna) and the Bosnian Serbian forces from Karadzic. On the other side HV (the Croatian army in Croatia) fights with the forces from the Krajina Serbs, who just massively spoke out that they like to be part of the Bosnian Serbia republic. During the last visit in Pacras I was on the "other side", were they told me that the Soldiers of the Bosnian Serbian army come in that region to have their holidays away from the front in the South, were they fight with the Muslims. And within this all you have HOS in BiH, which is obvious an Croatia private militia, although lot's of Muslim in BiH joint it, but which fights at the side of the Muslim, and it could in principle be possible that they fight against the troops of HVO. If it in practice is happening I do not know. But that is just an element to increase the question marks on the faces of the new volunteers. This is a lot more complicated story than they read in the news papers at home. The first symptoms of total confusing is appearing in the room. It was so perfectly simple if you look at it from far away. But now they get drop in the lions cave and start to find out the every things is relative. "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind" After the evening session almost all volunteers went straight to bed, tired from the long trip down to this country, and maybe a bit overfeed by information. So with Burkie, Paula, and so others we went down to the pub in the village. Which must be doing well the last months since we opened the peace hostel. When you are sitting so around with foreigners in a Croatian pub you have that idiot thing over you, what in the hell are we doing here. We do we all love one way or another this are and especially what attack us to be here, how hard the work sometimes maybe and how surprising the next day will be. "The answer my friends is blowing in the wind" 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 ##