Nachricht Nummer : 261 Übertragungszeit : 4 min 14 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ZER.sub.org Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 5 September, 1993 Erstellungsdatum : 13.09.1993 11:33:00 S+2 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 5 September, 1993 Dobar dan, Standing up a little later than the rest, but still around 9 o'clock, I realise immediately which big mistake I have made by giving Djakula that bank book at the moment that the volunteers who found it tells me before even letting me wait for a morning coffee that the whole mystery has been solved, it was not the house of Djakula's parents what the volunteers took down but the house next door of somebody else, somebody had taken the documents out of Djakula's parents house and dropped them in the other house. Oh, shit I think, I have should a big mouth, hope that this thing don't goes to far out of control, what in the hell have I said to Djakula, I think I promised him yesterday evening that I would do a last check before I could be absolute sure, hope he got it that way. Directly afterwards I make another mistake, or rather I think I made it at the moment now that I write this evening, I ask the volunteer who found it if he wants to join me to visit Djakula this morning. Together we can maybe explain what happened and make clear that it where just mis interpretations. So we went over by bike, which is probably the first time that anybody pass the border here by bike, the population in the Serbian side was rather surprised. At Djakula's place every body was sound a sleep and I left a message to clear up the misunderstanding. And back we went, at the Serbian checkpoint they kept us for 10 minutes about to let us wait for translator of the Serbian police. When we stood there at the checkpoint about 25 man gathered around us and looked at the school at "the other side", "Utashi skola" I hear somebody say, "UNPROFOR" says another. But their is a non aggressive atmosphere in the air. When the translator arrives he tells us that we are free to go anywhere we want, that there is nothing special only that somebody alarmed the guard at the checkpoint that somebody was in the village on a bike. It is still not clear to me what he meant by that, if it is forbidden to go by bike over the checkpoint or something else, I don't know. We return back even before the church on both sides start their morning services. I hope that nobody have seen us, for me it is not such a problem, everybody knows that I go over ones and awhile and after the Danas article I am anyway a "Chetnik" friend, so that blow my whole reputation on the Croat side. But the guy with me has not yet that stigma, hope it has not too much influences on him, anyway it happened and we talked about it before we went, he said that he understood the effects and was willing to take them. Still it worries me. Since the last day the atmosphere has changed, there is hanging more high feeling in the air. Most of this tension on the Croatian side is exploding in the rebuilding of the primary school, which is on the Croatian side of the cease-fire line. Today the project will start, but the working brigades already started yesterday with preparing the school for rebuilding. At this moment our volunteers and their working groups are involved of cleaning up the building, in most of the classrooms the ceiling came down and the straw and plaster lays on the ground. With the lopetas (shovels) and the wheel barriers they remove the things from the rooms. When I arrive at the workplace I see with a half eye that the Croatian authorities has place the "Croatian flag" on the school, wonders what the effect of the red cross will be on that one. I just started to help cleaning or the leader of the workings brigades has another job for us, removing school furniture in they other wing of the school, which has been standing in the rain for two years one the first floor to the second floor. Not everybody fully understands this order, since most of the furniture is totally destroyed from the rain and falls more or less apart when we move it. The British MedBat gives also a helping hand, half of them are on the roof and the spares are put in to help us carrying the things upstairs. Everytime when I carry something upstairs I have to pass a part of the building which fully can been seen from the "other side" and I know they are watching, it is a strange feeling. When we are ready the leader of the working brigades is gone for lunch or so, anyway everybody stands around and is waiting for something. So I pick up a lopeta and rounds up the Internationals and start continuing our cleaning job from which we were so brutally interrupted. Five minutes later all the locals from the working brigades join us and we are working like hell and finish the remaining rooms in no-time, probably a lot faster than planned. Under the work the atmosphere is great. And than waiting, waiting for the trucks, about 1 hour before the big green Truck of "Challenge Anneke" and behind them about 10 more trucks comes driving up the road. This is the big moment and everybody is standing ready to unload. But now the British Red Cross has seen the Croatian flag on the building and want to have it removed and replaced with the Red Cross flag as long as they, the BBC and British Red Cross is responsible for the project. The most lucky Croatian volunteer of our group, she is from Osijek and found clovers four where ever she is going, she walks next to you and suddenly reach out into the green and that's out a clover four, any way she had the unlucky job the stand in the neighbourhood and she had to translate the whole first part of the discussion between the head of the British Red Cross and the Local authorities. And it is not particular easy to stand behind two shouting men. When she finally comes out of the production office she is totally warn out and we go for a walk, when we arrive two hours later back on the school the discussion is still going on, with the official Red Cross translators this time. We sit down and watch, a little later the police arrives, they have heard that somebody wants to remove the Croatian flag and come to arrest that people, since the law says that every public building in Croatia must have a Croatian flag on it (hospitals and schools are public buildings). The comprise is found by placing the red cross flag on the building and the Croatian flag at the entrance of the building ground. About 3 hours later than planned Anneke can start to give the order "get it off the trucks", we have up to Wednesday morning 9 o'clock to finish the job. 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 ##