Nachricht Nummer : 132 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 39 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 28 May, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 31.05.1993 21:43:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 28 May, 1993 Dobar dan, The town is getting ready for the big party on next Sunday, all the shops have posters and stickers on them for the big "Dan Drzavnosti" (the day of the state), to remember that 3 years ago the first multi party elected parliament was established. In the last months it looked more and more "neutral" in Zagreb, you couldn't see much flags and red-white-blue official things in the shops (except from in each shop at least one Croatian weapon of arms), but that has changed completely in the last few days. Nearly over night all shops have at least something saying "Dan Drzavnosti" in or on their shop window. So the town is red-white and blue again. Not only this diary gets "famous" but also the computer from ZaMir Zagreb. Today was a small film team visiting the peace centre especially to film the computer network their. When the journalist called me some weeks ago telling me that he wanted to film it, since he was reading this diary for weeks and like to tell about it on the German television. When he arrived he asked me if I was the same guy who organised years ago, two years after the Chernobyl accident an action bustour to Kiev (with EYFA), which ended a few meters from the atomic plant in Chernobyl, he was on it, I knew that I remembered his name from something. So he and his film man did yoga practice in the small room in the basement of the peace centre to film the computer and the telephone, to make it spectacular we let the light from the hard disks and the modem light up for a few time and had to wait for some phonecalls to film the login procedure (that luckily is mostly not long waiting, but at such a moment). Of course this television team didn't came down only for the network, their main aim was a news report about the different natural reservations in the UNPA area's in Croatia. I think one the first diaries entries last year April was about what happened there. Valentin told me that although still nobody from Croatia forestry has visit those parks it starts to become more and more clear what happened there. He couldn't either visit the parks he planned since a few you can only reach via Krajina and he tried to get the official papers via Beograd, but couldn't get them. And admit it sounds a little funny in the middle of a war to ask for permission to go filming nature in the war zone. The story he brought with him however were maybe a little nuanced since the rumours from last year, but according to satalite picture big parts of the national park are cut or burned. The wood from the virgin forest is been transported abroad (with falsed BiH in the beginning, before the war there, it was said again). Today I went with Joe, from the states, to the UNHCR building to see Amela from ICVA, co-ordination office for voluntary agencies, in the hope to get some light on how we can get some medicals who has been delivered for Nexus to the airport into the country. She told that she is busy to create a hand book for foreign humanitarian organisations how they have to registrated themselves in Croatia in order to import aid. But it will take some time before it is ready, since she hadn't got the right information from the authorities involved yet. Joe and I looked at each other and I remembered the months of running around from one official building to another in order to get material into the country. Or the story from Merhamet, they have also a container with medicines standing at the airport for some months already. We experienced that getting the right information, what you should do and how the do it and which papers you have to produce is not something of just going to an governmental office and asking it simple. It is like playing with an enormous jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece you have to find out what is what and who is who and more often what the newest law really is and what it says. So we smiled and said that a few more weeks for finishing such a handbook is an understatement. On the other hand she told that the Lutheran organisation just hired a lawyer to get their official papers together (and get official registration) and than it worked rather quick, not more than a few weeks. Also that we have tried a few times, but than we as grass root group have of course not such nice official institutions behind us as our big official brothers, like this Lutherans. For abroad this sounds maybe a little strange to have so much work to get humanitarian aid into the country, but as wrote some times ago, besides humanitarian aid a lot of other things are coming also into the country which are not particular humanitarian aid, even when it stands on the boxes. Mostly however if material comes via cars or train (the Basques volunteers still have the habit to bring a lot of boxes with material for in the camps and medicines with them when they come with the train) it mostly is not much problems, but like this at the airport it is crime. NeXus has not the real papers for medical work, we should find an organisations who can give us the allows to use their papers. The only thing what Amela could do so far for us was giving us a small leaflet with guidelines how to get it done and here best hopes that it will go fast. Anyway we found a translator to have our official papers at least translated from Dutch to Croatian and after that the long trail from office to office will start. 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. 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