Nachricht Nummer : 258 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 33 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 2 September, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 11.09.1993 08:26:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 2 September, 1993 Dobar dan, Simo is still in jail, in the main time the whole UN family is informed and most of the Croatian translators are afraid to cross the front-line, more or less aware that they now also can get arrested in order to get exchanged for Simo, at least they can imagine it. The shock among all the international and local UN people is big, what does it mean when somebody travelling under UN protection suddenly can be arrested. Svetlina, who also works for UNOV as Croatian translator and who often cross the line to do translation work in the Serbian side had here birthday yesterday, but her party ended up in a disaster. She anyway planned to have a time of to get holidays, but when I saw her today at the office she looked horrible and in her voice and statements it was clear that she had serious thoughts about coming back in Pakrac or for that matter staying any longer in Croatia. She left for Zagreb this afternoon and it is very open if she will come back. The officials from UN CIVPOL in Ocucani informed yesterday evening already Simo's mother, who was very surprised that her son didn't came back from his work as every evening. Simo is very popular in Serbian part of the sector among the people, we noticed, partly because he or rather his mother owns a pub in Ocucani and partly since he is able to go over the line and keep the contact with "the other side". The people from the UNOV office rather would have been able to tell it herself. At this moment the arrest is already know all over the Serbian part of the sector, it even was mentioned on Banja Luka and Beograd radio. Annette went down to see Simo's mother this morning, which wasn't easy for her, since she feels very guilty for the fact that she brought Simo with her to the Croatian police station. Simo is brought to the police prison in Nova Gradiska, that was the town from were the question for his arrest came. UN CIVPOL from Ocucani went to that police station this afternoon to visit him, but wasn't allowed into the cell, they were told that is allergist. When we went to the UN CIVPOL office in Pakrac to ask if they could force the authorities to see Simo, they told us that the most important policy of them is to work closely together with the local police authorities, since they are only guests in this country. As soon as somebody is in a local jail they can't do anything. They only "power" is mobilising the UN authorities to put pressure on the national authorities. And that is done in the main time, Mr. Platzer has already complains towards the local and national authorities, as special assistant of the Director General of the Vienna UN office he can pull some strings. We still hope that it all is a misunderstanding. Later in the afternoon Annette went down with some clothes, cigarettes and personal stuff to Nova Gradiska in order to see Simo in his jail. Before I wrote this part of the diary I haven't seen her yet and I don't know what happened, but after the experiences of UN CIVPOL the change that they let her in is next to nothing. In Pakrac hardly nobody knows about it yet, in the evening we meet up with a group of the local youth, it the core group of the youngsters which came to the party in school a few days ago. We talk about the future, their personal future and the future of Pakrac. Soon the stories come out, one guy who has a German farther, who split with his Croatian mother 15 years ago, she went back to her home-town with her children and he stayed in Germany. His sister already went back to her farther a year ago and he hopes to follow soon. Another guy has relatives in Italy, he belongs to Italian community which came to this area in the beginning of this century. He tells that his uncle back in Italy is rich and that his uncle will find a job for him so that he can go their and build up his future in Italy. And so has each so their story. If you dig deeper they tell you that they are afraid that the war will restart and that they have to join the army to fight, something hardly any of them wants. Most of them were most of the war in Pakrac and saw what happened. They don't like to go through it again and see no need to fight. This is the future feelings of most of the youngsters between 16 and 22 in this town and it represent the feelings of most of their age in at least this part of the country, but I have heard the stories many times before. What can they build up in a totally destroyed area. At the moment they help their families to rebuild their houses and grow vegetables in their gardens, but they expected more in life, something they don't think to establish in Pakrac. A little later some of them take me apart in one of the corners and ask me about the "other side", how does it look there and who is there at the moment. I tell them a bit from what I know and soon the big word comes out, they would like to see the youngsters on "the other side". I answer that that in principle could be organised, but like them I feel that it wouldn't be a good idea to do it in Pakrac itself, maybe we could find an organisation outside of Croatia, which is willing to host and pay the travel cost for a meeting outside the country, we will see. 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 ##