Nachricht Nummer : 301 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 30 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.zer.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 9 November, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 11.11.1993 12:51:00 W+1 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 9 November, 1993 Dobar dan, Bang, or rather BANG !!!!!!. I really don't know how old it was, but must have been at least more than 400, they said 430 to be precise. In those years it must have seen a lot of wars, the Ottomans against the locals, the Austrians against the Ottomans, the Ustase against the partisans and god knows who have been fighting against who in that area in the last 400 years. The last one and half year it was battle field of the JNA against the TO (Croats and Muslims), and in the last months it have seen the fights between BiH armija and HVO. All those centuries it has been there, hanging over the river and every time when you came back from Mostar people would asked you, "Is the bridge still there" and you always were happy to be able to say, "Yes, it is still there, nobody is that idiot that they destroy it". Even after the JNA left Mostar, they blown up all the 12 new bridges in the town, but they didn't mined the old one, the bridge of bridges you may say, the bridge which was more or less symbolic for the town (Mostar means something like bridge). Yes, the bridge is destroyed today, two parts of it are still reaching out to each other, but the middle is gone. It must have a hell of an explosion, since during the first fights in August last year the bridge was hit a couple of time by grenade's, but they could really impress the medieval construction. The bridge was more or less the connection between modern Mostar (now mostly under HVO control) and the old Mostar (now under BiH Armija control). The speaker on Croatian Television only had to say that due to the war and the heavy fighting's in the town the bridge was more or less collapsed today. No word how it happened or whom was responsible. Just a couple of hundred meters before you came on the bridge the western world suddenly was changing in to the orient. Just a few meters (on the western side of the Neretva) was full of the well known small shops, selling copper plates, waterpipes, hand made carpets and all that other things which we automatically connect with a far away thousand and one night story. Coming from Split BiH, the other mysterious world for me started more or less on that bridge. And now it is gone, it feels a bit like a symbol, the last chain between the two worlds has been cut with a big bang. The only thing left over to say is that we should hope that they, we, are able to rebuild that bridge soon. For the rest what can I say. I look in old travelguides from Yugoslavia and see photo's from how it was, the Mosques in Banja Luka, the historical inner-city from Sarajevo and this bridge (build in 1566 or something according Croatian Foreign Press Bureau). It shows ones more that the fight's in BiH are not over yet, the situation in central Bosnia is bad, very bad. Ten of thousands of refugees extra are somewhere out there after BiH armija took over command of Vares. Since weeks the southern road from Split to Tuzla is only been usable for UNHCR related organisations (the rules for this co-operation are strict, only bulk transport, no personal mail or package). For all the more independed organisations I have heard stories (mostly via their reports on our Email system) that they can't get through anymore. But also UNHCR, or the organisation working together with them, have a hard time getting to Tuzla, the only workable way is for UNHCR via the Beograd connection. More and more talks that the next deliveries will go via Banja Luka and the new front-line passings. In the main time food transports to Bihac, Banja Luka as well as Knin are driving without any problems, they run as a clock work. It getting harder and harder to get personal messages from the outside world into the pockets in BiH. In principle only the International Red Cross is doing it. When we were discussing the expansion of our network into BiH some months ago this was also a point of discussion, if you restrict yourselves to humanitarian aid information only you may get co-operations of the big brothers, but if we also send personal mail and political messages over the line than it will become difficult. More and more I am looking forwards to the moment that "Droite du parole" (remember the ship) is able to broadcast over this whole region. I have notice the feeling both from the people inside the pockets as the refugees outside to let eachother know, just know, that they are still alive and loving and thinking about eachother. Yes the news today is not so positive. When you walk through Zagreb you see that the winter is coming soon, the trees are loosing their leaves and it is cold. In the mountain the first temperatures under the zero degree Celsius are already announced. Towns as Gorazde and Sarajevo are making themselves ready for another strong winter, pictures show how hard that is in e.g. Sarajevo, where the last winter already took all the trees in the city. What is left over is the half burned wood from the destroyed buildings. A city which is eating itself to keep itself warm, yes it is going to be a rough winter. Bok I Mir from Zagreb, Wam P.S. My both brothers had their birthdays today and yesterday. ------------------------------------------------------ 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 ##