Nachricht Nummer : 257
Übertragungszeit : 3 min 29 sec
Nachricht von    : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org
Betrifft         : Zagreb Diary 1 September, 1993
Erstellungsdatum : 10.09.1993 19:48:00 S+2

Realname: Wam Kat

Zagreb Diary 1 September, 1993

Dobar dan,

Today happened something which makes it clear how sad it is that I 
don't have a good working laptop around.  So this diary will reach you at 
least a few days later and lost a lot of it's actuality, on the other hand 
maybe that is good, since then the case maybe have been political 
cooled down a bit.

At around 4 o'clock Annette came back from a seminar on the Serbian 
side of Pakrac and drove over the Croatian checkpoint. The Croatian 
police wave them down and ask Simo for the list of volunteers, when 
Goran went with the list on Monday to the station they didn't want to take 
it, anyway the lists was not the most important point. After Simo 
promised to bring the list straight away, the UNOV office is 1 minute 
drive from the checkpoint and the police station is just around the 
corner, behind the Opcina, in which UNOV has there office. 

Than they ask Simo for his UNPROFOR ID card since they want to 
check something, Annette said to Simo not to give his ID and to drive on 
to the office, at the office they discussed what to do, since it was never 
happened before. But at the moment every body thought that it was a 
misunderstanding and that the fact that Simo is already working for the 
UN (first as translator for UN CIV(ilian)POL(ice) and now for UNOV) and 
that before he started to work he was checked by both sides and both of 
them were agree that he crossed the line, would be enough security for 
him.  

So they decided to go to the police station and talk with the commander 
in order to find out what happened, Simo, as Serb from Okucani, firstly 
was afraid, but he also trusted his bleu UN passport, went with them. At 
the station the commander wasn't there, but after 5 minutes the vice 
commander had time to see them. Although the others said that he 
better couldn't do it Simo gave him his ID when he was asked for it. The 
vice-commander told him that he was on the wanted list and that he had 
to come along outside the sector to Virovitia.

The small group decided that Duda would go with Simo in the police van 
to Virovitia and that Annette would go to CIVPOL to get help, but by the 
time Annette could talk with the CIVPOL commander he already knew 
and Simo was on his way to Virovitia and when he arrived there he was 
arrested. Still most of us think that he will be free by tomorrow or so and 
that everything is based on a big mistake since it is not normal that UN 
personal get arrested.

I didn't heard the story before the evening when Annette visit our school 
to join our meeting and looked very very tired and before I could asked 
what happened she told me the story. She felt very responsible for it 
since she convinced that Simo should come with her and Duda to the 
police station. I talked her the same as all the other already told her that 
it was totally unexpected that somebody from the UN would be arrested 
since we are having according to our passports immunity. 

The reason for arresting Simo, who is according to everybody who 
knows him a very nice guy, who absolute wouldn't hurt a fly and is most 
of the time political rather naive instead of involved in the political battle, 
was that he, Simo, was member of a anti-Croatian army or fighting force 
two years ago.

Why after one year of working without any problem, he rather had 
problems on the authorities on the Serbian side, for the fact that he 
crossed the front-line nearly every day a few times and talked with 
Serbs who are out of the grace of the leading authorities in Knin, than 
with the Croatian authorities. Nobody knows what new kind of 
information suddenly pop up to overrule the earlier checks during which 
nothing could be found against him.

Knowing that in the coming week on this, Croatian, side of the line 
another major event will happen, namely the rebuilding of the school at 
the front-line, we have serious doubts about the safety in this part of the 
sector in the coming weeks. This weekend the BBC programme, 
"Challenge Anneke" will namely come by, we received a fax today that 
the announcement on the BBC that Anneke (Rice) wants to rebuild a 
school on the front-line in Croatia resulted in 250.000 telephone calls 
without the first hours of the announcement of people who offered their 
help. 

"Challenge Anneke" is a programme during which Anneke has to fulfil a 
nearly impossible challenge within a certain amount of time, this time it 
is the rebuilding of the primary school on the front-line, next to the 
Hospital in the Croatian part of Pakrac. A place from which Martin 
Lacey, the former leader of the UNOV office in Pakrac said that although 
people were willing to help in rebuilding it couldn't be used in the coming 
years since it lays clear in the shooting line from the "other side", with 
other words a sniper could easily hit anybody in and around the school. 
All in all it promise so time on the sharp of the nice, since I can imagine 
that the people on "the other side" wouldn't like it, especially after the 
arrest of Simo, Annette already convinced the organisers that they 
should donated a part of the help to the "other side", we will see.  

Bok I Mir from Zagreb,

							Wam
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