** Topic: Zagreb Diary ** Response  13  of  67

 ** Written  9:34 PM  May  1, 1992 by ark in gn:yugo.antiwar 

** Subject: Zagreb Diary   

Zagreb Diary 30 April   

It is incredible how fast war is becoming part of your daily life, things which I took as THE symbols of the war about a month ago I now hardly see anymore. Thanks to this diary I keep alert that I shouldn't forget were I am and that a lot of things I see are not normal and part of this nightmare called civil war. It is not normal that on shops and bars you find a sticker saying that it is forbidden to enter with guns (except if you are a soldier), it is not normal that cars drive around in the city with camoflage nets on it, it is not normal that nearly every second car has another numberplate or even none number plate at all, it is not normal to see soldiers everywhere in the most fancy uniforms (you need a book to keep them apart and to find out who is who), it is not normal that when you walk on the sidewalk you have to look out not to fall over one of the sandbags (which are now laying about everywhere, except from were they should be), it is not normal that you see the Croatian flag and symbols all over the place (even on our building), it is not normal to be one of the only foreigner in European city, it is not normal that a war takes place....

On the other hand I wonder why I don't see many wounded soldiers, or even wounded at all, I specially went to the area of the hospital, but in the town you only see guy with the arms or legs in plaster, but not real wounded as you expect in a wararea. I have got the feeling that they are somehow kept in special army sanatoriums, since I can imagine that if you see them in the streets all the time people would be much more aware of the dirty parts of this war

I try to picture this town 12 years back when I visit it the first time, I am not so sure anymore if it look that worn out in those days, if I have seen people sleeping in the streets (half hanging over a market stand), so much cheap alcohol in the shopwindows, I can't remember

Another picture which is burned in my brain is a girl sitting behind a type of take under a parasol selling lotery tickets (on the take she has a ghettoblaster (which mostly don't work and a megaphone)), nobody ever buys a ticket from her (at least I never saw), next to this girl stands (and that is the strang element in the picture) a brand new European red Opel Astra (the first price), on the back of this little scenary there is the line (always about 150 meters, app. 300 persons) waiting to get there Croatian citizenshippapers, next to that building is HOS HQ with always a few black uniforms in front of it and the flag of Great Croatia, around it the grey blue trams, the broken asfalt, the grey buildings and people running as ants from some place to other. This red ASTRA is breaking that whole picture of total 1984 feeling, it somehow don't fit in this grey surroundings and still it is a part of this total absurdity. It is like the lotto and lotery announcements between the news on the Croatian television, the colours are too red or too yellow, the television girls smiles just a little too much, the flowers are too colourfull and the whole thing is broadcasted between to bulletin about the war in Bosnia

If you than know that today the minimum wages went down to 8700 dinar or next to 83 German Mark (about 45 dollar) and the price for gasoline up to nearly 200 dinar a liter, you know that the lucky person who wins that car can tank about once a month, or just once and than drive all the way up to Germany (which just announce today that all Croatian citizens get political asylium as lomg as the war last, not people with Yugoslav pasport, only those with a Croatian pass (no serbs, no citizens of Bosnia Herzegovina, no deserteurs who went out before the Croatian pass excisted, just real Croats, I ask myself why)) to get the hell out of this place

The whole scenary has something like a total abstrac avantgarde film, a modern remake of the depression of the thirties, total anarchy like the Sec. Gen. from the UN wrote in his report about UNPROFOR when he discripe the scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two soldiers in there red opera uniform in front of some important govermental building are completing to film

This whole war is a cheap B-movie, in which even Reagan coukd have a part, it is not real, the main players are too much outside reality to be true. Only the misery is ugly true, the stories you hear, over and over again about new places I have to find on my map, the pictures on the television, the tention in the air

In which town in the world would it be possible that parties have their own armed forces running around, openly threathening the president (who is therefore always surrounded by soldiers and bodygaurds (he transports himself in 7 cars and the highway is blocked when he passes by)) or where .........

An other joke is in this whole theatre are the article about Vis (our Peace Island) in the papers, where high military and ministers declare that those peace activists are acting against the interest of the state Croatia. If they know how many people are really involved they would keep there mounth close and didn't gave the whole action so much credit. I am still here in Zagreb, since we can find the money to go to Vis, put up a communication office there and start planning our activities

As said before this whole scenery is a cheap movie, but it sticks...

Since if it is true, and the amount of rumours are raising (even the girl from Helsinki Watch talked about it) that in Bosnia chemical or biological weapons are used this war because dirtier with the moment

More out of reality, a story you can't make up since nobody would believe you

That's also Zagreb....

Love and Peace, still from Zagreb Wam ;-) sleep well, there is no reason to panic

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