Nachricht Nummer : 468 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 41 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ztn.zer.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary on 3 April, 1994 Kopienempfänger : /REG/NEWS/DIARY/WAM, /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN, /SOC/CULTURE/BOSNA-HERZGVNA, /SOC/CULTURE/CROATIA, /SOC/CULTURE/YUGOSLAVIA Erstellungsdatum : 12.04.1994 13:09:00 W+1 Zagreb Diary 3 April, 1994 Dobar dan, Since the Catholic Church in town is destroyed Easter Sunday start quiet and not with so many bells as I am normally use to in the Netherlands. It is today precisely 2 years ago that I started writing my electronic diary, what a period, it seems to be a hundred years of more, nearly the whole war in BiH has started and "solved" in that period. We heard positive messages about the situation in that part in the last week. Beside the No of the Bosnian Serbs, the Croats of Herceg-Bosna as well as the Muslim of BiH parliament agreed on the proposed federation and the first joint meetings have been taken place already, although its was not always as quiet in the government room as people hoped it would be, but what do you want after nearly a year of fighting eachother. I heard that a German, former Mayor of Hamburg, will be Mayor of Mostar in the next year, in the name of the EC. And more of that news dripped through to this place, but the local situation is for us at this moment more actual. The Easter service is going on and nearly the whole town is in the (open-air) church, later I hear from some volunteers who have been to the service that they were surprised about the national symbols in the church. When they first saw the red-white and blue band around the candles in the church they thought for a second that they were put their for them (the colour of the Dutch flag), but when they saw the Croatian checkerboard on the candles they knew it had nothing to do with them. Most of the volunteers are invited somewhere for a Easter lunch at some family and I make a scroll with one of the ones who is unluckily, and we end up, how is it possible at the terrace of Skorpija, to drink tea. Suddenly I heard the sound of a revolver which clicks the bullet into the chamber behind my head and feel the gun pointing at my forehead. "You come with me", Jura say with a big laugh, the show the other guy that the gun is real he shows the bullet in the chamber. "Where we are going" I asked Nena and Tomislav his son, but they reply that you never know with Jura, he is full of surprises. My Dutch friend can come with me. After a short drive with full speed in the direction of his new pub he make a sharp turn and we end at his house in the middle of Pakrac. We are invited to have our Easter lunch at his place. Poor Nena has to serve two persons more suddenly, we chat a bit in the living room and Jura shows my friend the pictures he have got from me the other week, made by a photographer from my home region. After the normal small chat I tell Jura that I have a problem, he noticed that more and more young and "strange" people are coming to Pakrac. And that we can't take care about all of them, if it wasn't good idea to open a campaign, we talked about it about a month before but the time get's closer now to the summer. His wife helps me in explaining where we are looking for. Then he comes with an idea, why not on the little field in front of "Hrvatski Dom" (Croatian House). It is a bit outside the centre, but still in middle of the town and has electricity lines and maybe we can repair the toilet block. I explain him that next to the grass there is a forest full of landmines, which you can't see so easily, that we maybe of course could lay a barrier of empty mines and nice signs in front of the forest, but that he has to imagine that when young people, boys and girls come together some will go in the forest to have some privacy (even when there are mines, they simply forget). Further on that when the campaign on this side is on Hrvatski Dom the campaign on the other side, if there will be one, should be on "Srbski Kuca" (Serbian house) to neutralise the story and don't loose to much time explaining people, tourist, why we are at Hrvatski Dom. Jura and his wife smile and see my problem. Also the second alternative on the un-used field of the Hajduk football team on this side (the players mostly live on the "other side" as I wrote a week ago), wasn't acceptable. Remember your second pub, was my answer. Here we are sitting the owner of the pub with the most aggressive imagine in the town and a peace activists from the Netherlands, discussing how the town and he can profit, financially, from all those war tourists who maybe will start coming soon. Strange that a former vice commander of the local special defence brigade is maybe making his money with International Peace activists. I ask him and his wife if they don't feel a bit worried that their town is maybe becoming a type of alternative Disneyland, like a journalist of a local newspaper wrote some weeks ago about the fact that the town and everything in it is like on open exhibition. Jura is as pragmatic as I they will come anyway, we can be better prepared for it. We joke a bit about what kind of special effect we can organise to make it more exiting for the guests. And when I go I tell him that I have heard that there are plans to invite the Patriarch from Beograd to Pakrac, if he can keep it a secret, but if he wants to organise a meeting for me with the local priest in the coming weeks, since I like to talk about it with him. Later in the evening the Dutch people pass by again for a long talk, especially the guy from Mi Za Mir has a lot to tell and to ask. Mir from somewhere in Hrvatska, 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.ztn.zer.de . 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 (postbox 33), 41000 Zagreb. Please notify me if you send or have send any donations. Old numbers can be found by sending a message's with as subject "FILES" to pakrac.info@ZAMIR-ZG.ztn.zer.de, to order a file send a message with subject "SEND " to same address. ## CrossPoint v3.0 ##