Nachricht Nummer : 108 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 37 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 19 May, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 20.05.1993 19:55:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 19 May, 1993 Dobar dan, Tried the whole day to phone with my friends in Citluk, to find out if they had any success yesterday in Split in their talks with UNHCR about the rebuilding projects of Terra in Ravno and Capljina, but it was impossible to get through. Logical I thought afterwards, the whole world press is down there and reported the last results of the peace talks and related things from Medjugorje. Yesterday he, Tudjman, looked a little stupid between Vance and Owen, today however he was the great hero, with his hands folded above his head he appeared at the balcony of the monastery on the mountain above Siroki Brijeg, no doubt about his popularity in this area. In fact he is a lot more popular than Boban, who is the president of the Croatian people in Herceg Bosna (Hercegovina, HVO). The square was overfill, when the camera penned over the crowd you could see the monks at the other side of the square standing on a roof of the chapel and sometimes he zooms in at a flag which is hanging down, when the wind goes over the square you suddenly see that the first left top block of the Croatian Weapon of arms is not red, but white (the combination which the NDH republic used during WWII, this change of red and white has happened by the way during every war it seems, it is not really clear what is the most original weapon, according what people told me), the camera man than don't knows how fast he have to zoom in at Tudjman. His speech as far as I could understand it was clear, he thanked the Croats of Hercegovina for their brave actions to defend their homeland and that they were the first in BiH who really understood what was going on and started to fight against the real aggressor in BiH, the Serbs. But that he hoped that in the future the situation between Croats and Muslims would be re-established again and the co-operation restarted. A next report shows the tour from Siroki Brijeg to Ljubuski, along the road again thousands and thousands of people, it is really the major day in the area, they must have come from all over Hercegovina to see him passing by in one of his fast BMW's. In Posusje, on the most crazy crossing I know, in front of the local hotel, he has his next long speech, the stage they made for him also shows clearly the "wrong" flag, the "bastards" (in the funny way of the word) I say to my roommate, they don't even hide it, that flag is always the clearest symbol of the strongly alive Utasa mentality, but if you know them better you know that those strong Utasa are a lot less strong when you talk with them. Especially the major of Posusje and the chief of Red Cross in Hercegovina I like a lot, young guys who are doing their best to help the thousands of refugees in their region. At the same moment I realise that this strong guys (HVO) maybe have killed over 400 Muslims on a square some days ago in the neighbourhood (told to our volunteers down there by some members of the UNPROFOR forces (not really clever from them by the way to go around and telling that story when people are not able to check it)) and it that brings, if it is true, some different feelings. You realise again that the bullets are real and that it is not a child game. You also realise that we are daily fed with this kind of rumours, half of our knowledge we can't really check, it is living with a reality which easily is no reality at all. But those rumours and stories are often more dangerous than bullets, since on that bases people make discussions. And the tension build up abroad are not really helpful for solving the tension here. For weeks the USAmerican government was feeding us with strong stories and heroic actions they would undertake, since everybody went far over the line. And see what happens, nothing, the USA government joint the ranks of the EC politicians and wait, as they say the USA is backing off. Okay their argument was that they don't want to do it alone and that they didn't got any support from the European countries, which is true of course, but the last weeks the feeling was different. What this sudden change of politics of the USAmerican government has on the fights here I don't know, I would say, imagine it, for weeks the reactions from Pale were that they were not afraid of any intervention and would fight back, and then the USAmerican government decided not even to try it. I would say in such position are they afraid to loose. No I am not in favour of the military intervention at all, I still think that the best way is to bomb dollars over BiH rather than grenades, that would have in my view a much bigger impact. But of course I am an peace idiot. My blue plastic card from UNHCR was very helpful today, for some or another reason I was suddenly tonight at least 5 times controlled by normal and by not uniformed police and showing the card made them a lot friendlier than when I showed my Dutch passport in simular cases before. My room mate has at last his long visa, it cost him 17 hours and a lot of paper work, but he got it. I haven't check in at the police at all, after my tries last year in April I gave up after 26 hours, who knows one of this days I will try it again. I should be handy to have some official recognition that I am actual here. For those who followed Vesna illness, she is better and started to work again. 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 ##