Nachricht Nummer : 459 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 41 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.ztn.zer.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary on 25 March, 1994 Kopienempfänger : /REG/NEWS/DIARY/WAM, /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN, /SOC/CULTURE/BOSNA-HERZGVNA, /SOC/CULTURE/CROATIA, /SOC/CULTURE/YUGOSLAVIA Erstellungsdatum : 11.04.1994 21:50:00 W+1 Zagreb Diary 25 March, 1994 Dobar dan, When we stand up the electricity is still not repaired. The people in the house are really use to it, I look at my computer from which I have used up all the juice last evening and which stands now useless next to the also useless television. It is so ridiculous just 500 meter down the road they have energy enough, you almost can buy everything in the shops and here there is nothing at the moment. On the road to major village from "this part" of Pakrac we pass by one of the distribution points from I think UNHCR. A long line of people with wheelbarrows is waiting for their turn. It is somehow also a social event during which all the women from one village are meeting eachother and exchange the latest news. In the garden stands a big pile of boxes, cans and bags, which is brought here early in the morning by a tractor from Red Cross. I recognise the food, mostly Feta from Denmark, Fish in cans from the Netherlands, Oil from Spain and Italy, Flower from all over the EC, Rice from UNHCR, vegetable in cans from UScare (or something like that). The women are talking and some are already driving their wheelbarrows out of the garden to make place for others. I am glad that the spring is now starting and the family were we are staying has some land on their own, now we get at least some fresh spring vegetables. Back in the main village we see that if you want to move something you have to use another strategy. One of the main problems here in this village is that most of the inhabitants are displaced people. Most of them are coming from Pakrac town, which is now under Croatian government control, they see their houses laying in the valley. They are not really interesting to build up the place where they are now living. They like to go back as soon as possible. This results that organisations who like to build or rebuild the houses here are becoming part of a nearly unbeatable game from walking from the wall to the table and back again, as we say in my part of the Netherlands. It seems to be impossible to get the permission to put one stone on another and when you have the permission somebody tells you that he has a much better solution. We have for example already for over a month 2 containers standing on this side which should have been used already as children gardens. By now we have visit at least 25 different places where they could be placed, but they haven't moved an inch yet. Anyway in the village to "pubs" have been able to build a sun terrace within a day in the last two days. They of course don't look as professional as the terraces in Zagreb, but it is a huge improvement. It shows that if somebody wants to get something done around here it get done. Also one of the other "pubs" is busy to rebuild it's place from the inside and near to the school in the supermarket people are busy in the garden to open another open air pub. For the rest it is quiet in the village, the militia men who normally are all over the place have left yesterday morning. The bus, which normally should go to Beograd, was more or less mobilised and all people who planned to take it had to stay, waiting for the next one, next week. Where the militia men went and when they come back, nobody knows. Not only the "strange" (from outside Pakrac) militia left, also some of the local militia men has left. On such moment you think, shit, let's hope that the next days it will stay quiet in the other UNPA zones and in BiH. Every time when a soldier have become a human being for you, you start to think about what can happen with him. It doesn't really matter on which side of the line he is fighting. I often have the feeling that most soldiers any way don't really knows anymore for what they are fighting, only against which power, which enemy, they are fighting. It is strange to hear the stories here how people defend their houses against the people on the "other side". On that "other side" they told me the same about the people from this side. And both stories sounds real and believable. Like on "the other side" I try to avoid discussions about heavy politics. I just like to find out what kind of people lived and are living in this area. On "this side" it becomes ones more clear that most of the people didn't really wanted the war, but were kept in it and ended on one of the sides, even when they didn't really wanted to choose. In the afternoon I sit again in the sun, I was able to load my computer on the generator of the rebuilding center and I have juice enough to write some article for "Kako Si". The english newsletter we are making about our project to promote it around the world. My task is to write an article about the economical situation or rather the economical non-situation. When I look at my notes and realise that from all what was on industry in this area, don't exist anymore. It makes me a little hopeless, one of my main hopes is that when we are able to rebuild to economy the people have no time to "fight" eachother and slowly will start to live "together". And if you multiply the problems from this area with the problems of the whole of Croatia and multiply that with the situation in BiH the piles of money needed to rebuild something become reaching in the sky. Will there ever be enough. 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. 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