Nachricht Nummer : 455 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 46 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ztn.zer.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary on 23 March, 1994 Kopienempfänger : /REG/NEWS/DIARY/WAM, /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN, /SOC/CULTURE/BOSNA-HERZGVNA, /SOC/CULTURE/CROATIA, /SOC/CULTURE/YUGOSLAVIA Erstellungsdatum : 23.03.1994 10:49:00 W+1 Zagreb Diary 23 March, 1994 Dobar dan, Since I have decided two days ago to stay on "this side", to help Lynette and the two guys from Beograd, the speed up some things on this side and give the people the feeling that we don't suddenly leave them alone, the Polish guys left for Poland to be at home at Easter, I have the feeling that I ended up on an Island. It is such a strange feeling to see the "other side" of Pakrac laying, were all the other volunteers and Skorpija are, in the valley and restricting yourself not to go there. But I reckon I should stay here for a while to get more familiar, or to start to understand at least a bit from what it is not to be able to go to that side. Like all the people who live here and also like our volunteers from Beograd. But it limited me a lot in my communication possibilities, since there are no public telephone lines, only some lines, which are used by the police and some other important people but which only can be used within the village. I could of course go 20 Km south to Okucani and try to phone Beograd from there and asked them to send a message via Germany to Zagreb and from there back to Pakrac on the Croatian controlled side. Just to send a message a few hundred meter further. It is logical that a lot of people made use in the last weeks from the possibility which the Polish guys offered to bring letters over the front-line. Yesterday evening we had a kind of social coming together with the two boys from Beograd in one of what you can call "bars" in the major part of the village. The house were Lynette and I are sleeping is about 3 kilometer from where they are sleeping and the both guys are a bit afraid to walk that way through the dark, so after dark we spend our time mostly together with the families where we live, what is not really helping the group atmosphere. In the talks we had around the wooden stove it became clear that the situation in Beograd is totally different from Zagreb. Not only here, but also at home they are afraid of going into the town in the evening. The much soldiers and "gangsters" are now in Beograd and they destroyed to whole social life in the town they explained. So close to the front-line they are afraid to be beaten up by somebody. Both are really afraid to go alone on the street. Lynette and I are looking at eachother and think the same, we feel hardly any fear. Maybe we excepted the danger and decided not to think about it any longer, but we feel ourselves here more and on the other side more safe than f.e. in our hometowns in the States and Netherlands. But of course we are also foreigners. Back in our house we look at the reports on the Croatian television about the talks between the authorities from Serbian Krajina and Croatian. The results from yesterday weren't very big. The Croatian government didn't send enough important representatives according the Krajina authorities so they didn't really liked to negotiate. The talks took place in the Russian consulate in Zagreb and television showed a demonstration of at least 200 people on the streets around the building. The demonstrators made clear that they didn't like to Russian influences in this talks and stated that with slogans like "No Russian colony in Croatia". They shouted that they would like to go home to their houses finally and that the Serbs weren't welcome in Zagreb. I must say that indeed it was a strange picture to see soldiers in Krajina uniforms protected by Croatian police walking from they UN cars to the consulate in Zagreb. The two Krajina army commanders who were part of the Krajina delegation are indeed the end responsible persons for shelling which is still taking place ones and a while on the Zadar-Sibinik region. And it is understandable that people aren't particular trilled having them in their capital. Lynette and I have been talking about this a lot in the last days. Imagine that in the coming months the agreements are going to be made between the two parties, although I don't think that Croatia ever will recognize Krajina as a separate country (with separate police and army) as is one of the negation points, and the front-line will be open for people to go back and forwards and even to live again on the for their "other side". How will that take place, two days ago we also talked about it with the new Argentinean commander on this side, which is not so easy, firstly he only knows 100 words of English and secondly he is a real soldier and it take a while before he express his personal opinion. But after some rounds of Mate, he and his captain had to admit that they had absolute no idea how this normalisation process should go. And above all what their role is going to be, at this moment they are standing in between the two groups, but when suddenly are free to move again they have the fair that they are totally outnumbered to guarantee security for everybody in the area. They smiled and looked at us, saying that that is our job, they are soldiers, and even not really trained for their peace- keeping job, but peace building is something they are absolute haven't any experience with. Tomorrow there is another day of negotiations in Zagreb, we will see, I know for sure however that if it is all up to most of the women I have met on both sides of the wall it all wouldn't be such a big problem after all. They are not so involved in all what has happened and try to live their life as normal as possible. 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 v2.93 ##