Nachricht Nummer : 87 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 33 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 12 May 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 13.05.1993 00:55:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 12 May 1993 Dobar Dan, "Listening the wind of changes", I think the song is of the Scorpions, but somehow I heard it somewhere today and as so often such song stay in my head. It think I was somewhere in the Baltic states or the Ukraine when I heard that song the first time and I get got the famous shiver over my back. Anyway listening to the wind of changes means here the sound of riffle, mortars, and soon bombers. Just 5 more days to go up to the Bosnian D-Day if I have to believe the USAmerican news agencies. The count down is running. We will see. I just heard that my diary is also readable on all systems of the American defence ministries and all army places around the states, now guys just for you know what you are doing up there if you start, we are down here, we are human beings, and so are the ones you maybe will kill in your actions. More over remember that nearly everybody here is living in reach of the big guns. But let's not always talk war, the normal every day life in Zagreb or in Croatia as a whole was if I understood the reactions in the last days also a reason to read my diary. Now every day life in Zagreb is not much different then every day life in a normal city anywhere in the world. We are not running around in bullet proof jackets, neither are there sandbags laying in front of my door. The signs "Skloniste" (Shelter) have been disappeared already for months. No so on the first look there is nothing special in Zagreb, you need to look deeper before you can find something special. Today I went to the bank to change some money, the differences between the black market and the normal exchange are so low at the moment (I have got the feeling that the Croatian National Bank follows the black market) and I got over 135.000 HDR for my last 100 DEM. That means that we had an inflation of about 20% in the last two weeks. At least if you compare it with what I have got two weeks ago for the simular amount. However if you go into the shops you will notice that the prices are extremely high for the average income, I bought food today for myself to survive for some days and at the cash register I had to pay a little less then 40.000 HDR (about 35 DEM), I can do that about 4 times a month if I had an average income and than I have no money for paying anything else left over. No rent, no electricity, no telephone, no television tax. And all in all I have maybe food for 15 or 17 days al together, yes most people have a big part of the month left over after there income is gone. Therefore you see more regular people going through the waste paper basket (not many, but still) in the hope to find something eatable. The first look at the Zagreb is not the best look, if you look passed the facades you will find a city which is getting slowly poorer and poorer. Also the safety in the city has gone down a lot in the last year, Zagreb was as most Eastern European city very safe during the night, the crime rate was extreme low. That have changed a lot. The government issued a report some weeks ago in which they stated that the growing crime rate is a result of the war. Not so strange in a country were the whole civil system has been destroyed (it is getting build up again, but still) and where a lot of people have experienced the most unbelievable things, and on top of it where weapons are often not so hard to get. I don't think that many institutions know what kind of armament is among the people. I visit people who has enough weaponry in their homes to start a small local war. They have collected them on the front and they are now hanging proudly as war souvenir on the wall, but the ammunition is laying in the drawer next to it. That's the way it goes. From Pancevo (in East Serbia) a received an Email today which is for me characteristic for the destruction of the normal social life during this war, it shows how close people use to be. The guy didn't wrote anything special, just that he like to visit Zagreb again as he use to do every month in the past and that he hoped that he lived long enough to do so. And so we are back in the war, I am thinking about Elu and Joseph, who are now down in Dalmatia and will drive up to Zenica tomorrow if everything goes according to plan. Nevertheless the fact that today in Medjugorje (in the same room where we as SunCokret volunteers in Hercegovina had our famous New Years evening party) the Muslims and Croat forces have signed an other agreement to secure a free moving of people who are involved in transport of Humanitarian Aid you never know what will happen. If I have to believe the foreign press agencies UNPROFOR is still not allowed into Mostar. On the news a reporter of SKY was even talking about Croatian Detention camps in Mostar (the football stadium). She said that the people were threaten relatively well, but that there was a shortness of food (she was also not allowed in the city). An HVO spokesman declared yesterday that this are not prisoners, but people who are brought in safety by them. That those people are not allowed to leave the place was not said so clearly. The emphasise in the news was today that 8 people died today in the fights in Mostar (mostly by sniper fire). 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 ##