** Topic: Zagreb Diary **Response  38  of  67
** Written 12:36 AM  May 31, 1992 by wamkat in gn:yugo.antiwar **
Subject: Zagreb Diary

Zagreb Diary
1-06-1992

Dear Friends,

News from Vis, the JNA soldiers are now gone (last soldier left the island at 19.30 last evening) and today Croatian army will go in the empty army barracks. Up to now the whole department went peaceful and yesterday evening there was ofcourse a bif party at the island. In this atmosphere the plans for demilitarisation of Vis will be hard to realise. People are waiting until the liberators (Croatia army) will come and absolute not in for another solution. As long the JNA marine is exciting and shooting in the neighbourhood, on Dubrovnik, they rather like to have some protection. And the EC monitors also leave soon, now JNA is gone there is no work for them anymore, so without army and monitors the islanders feel unsecured.

Friday this week we will have a meeting of the international steering committee in Zagreb and discus how to continue with the project on Vis, Vesna J. and Milena have found some youngster which are in for biological agriculture and ecotourism, but they think that the political part (the demilitarisation) has to wait for a while and we should first work on the building of the European house ideas.

It is maybe easier on this moment to ask for a demilitarisation of BiH or Kosovo then for such a little island. Now JNA is gone the world is further not interested in it and maybe the tourist will start to come soon, since the island is a paradise.

No first some reactions on reactions if have got, sorry that I don't answer them personal, what I mostly also do, But like a lot of people here in Zagreb I am just tired today and still like to get something done have to write some applications for the energy group. First of all thanks a lot for the reactions, for some days I thought nobody was reading the diary anymore, but I am sure that that is not the case. 

To those who reacted that the Croatian government didn't sacrificed Vukovar, but that Vukovar was just impossible to defend, I can admit that they are true, maybe. Officially it is not true what I said, at least nobody ever will commit it. But most of the people in Zagreb and for sure in Eastern Slavonia feel it that way. It took too long before the government in Zagreb reacted, after the first volunteer went in, it took some time before the official national guards get their marching orders. The last days the name of Vukovar is again on everybody lips, in every celebration Vukovar is mentioned. And it are not any rumours it are a lot. Nevertheless sorry for mixing up the true and the rumours, I should have said according to rumours to government.... etc.

About different interpretation from the same news we have a good example in our conference from an representative from the Republic of Serbian Krajina, who has total  other information about the events in Sarajevo then most of the newsagencies. Again what to trust. We also got a fax from SDA in Split who told that a reporter from Sky news is not in Sarajevo but lives together with the Chetniks on the top of one of the hills around Sarajevo and report from there. From the same person there are some messages on the soc.cultural.yu conference, which I haven't seen yet on APC which give a total different role on the situation, seen from a total other side. According that information Utachi and Green Berets (members of the Muslim force) are staging the same type of cruelties on Serbian people as what been said about the Chetnik in other messages. I hate to believe that all those messages are just lies, the guy is a doctor and must be able to think as a scientist (mark my words I am not saying that he is speaking the true, I am only saying that were is smoke there is maybe a fire. This things can't be all just fantasy. I don't believe so much in fairy tales were there are only good and only bad guys, even in Yin-Yang you have the balance and good is not good without a evil part and vice versa. 

I have a believe that every time when the world can intervinate without being too late it somehow don't see the writings on the wall. Already long ago peace activists all over former Yugoslavia predicted this war and the bloodshed with is taking place now. Read articles from f.i. Marko from Ljubljana, which are written long before it all started. Somehow the world is always waiting to break in in sovereign nations. F.i. sending from enough UNPROFOR troops in September to BiH was maybe enough to stop the bloodshed from even starting.

But they come now too late they said, they are not peace makers but peace keepers. I have that feeling that somehow the world always wait until armed intervention is the only way out. As within a few weeks from now the world community will come to the conclusion that the economical boycotts wouldn't work and than the mechanism start to work, slowly the troops will start to gather around these countries and the big liberations of BiH will take place. Again the world have shown that only military interventions can stop things.

In that whole scenario jamming of army communication will not been just before the real operations will start. They are a part of the army equipment, and that's why it is not so simply to make it work. Simply because the political will is not their to try it, technically speaking is just a matter of gathering some heavy broadcasting equipment and start working.

Neb, I think you didn't mis understood my quotations, at least not if I have to go for your answers, they were in the same line as I wrote my story. If Serbs are more pride and sturber than other people, I don't know, I never ever looked at it that way. But given up is something which only can be done if you go beyond the pride and sturber and for that you need real heroes and they are not so well spread (most of them will never become politicians anyway or president, they simply don't want to be in such ambitious positions). 

To the one who apologised for deleting some of my message, I don't know if you really deleted messages from me (what you mean with it), I only am on APC networks, and there nobody can delete other peoples messages, then I am glad that we now are on the same line again. It is hard for me to satisfied everybody directly, my mind has to be very flexible to absorb and understand all what is written. One thing deleting message is in my mind a form of censorship, even when you disagree with it, it is a fundamental principle of freedom of opinion.   

Some reaction on the local television news of today on HTV (it is funny to notice that without any help I start to understand already a lot of it, but words as bombedera, explodera, argressora, chetnika, UNPROFORA, Hvratska Vojska (Croatian Army), bomba and detonera (writing as I hear them) are not so hard to follow and for the rest I just have to find the name of the Town. HTV uses also a lot of foreign news from French, Italian and English (Also USA) television and sometimes I am lucky and they put undertitles (in this case I miss the name of the ones who are interviewed, but you can't have everything and most I know) rather then translate it, otherwise I have to turn the sound way high up to hear the original languages behind the translator. 

One of the nicest interviews of today was on some English cancel, I forgot which, and was held with some president of some international council from Tourist organisation. They want to propose to put forwards on the UNCED conference to put city like Dubrovnik on a special UN list and under protection from the Geneva convention. That would save those cities from destruction. They guy seem to really believe what he was saying, he look like he invented the egg of Columbus, the globe is round for god sake, what a bright thinker. That will help a lot, this war is fought totally according to the rules of Geneva, none of the fighting parties are breaking any of them. Shelling on a city like that would then be a warcrime, that would really scare them off, guys. 

Sorry but that type of naivity is nice for UNCED, which is anyway not to be taken serious, but shows that some people still believe that those paper of Geneva makes any difference in war time. War in itself is a crime and rules according who a crime should be committed are just bringing water to the sea. By putting them on a nice piece of paper those cities are not going to be safe in the future, neither and that's possible more important, their civilians. Let those organisation do something, like bringing the money together now to rebuild those city and to educate people that this never is going to happen again, that would be a better protection. Laws never help if people like to fight. And who is going to control them anyway, we have no objective referees controlling any single second and giving yellow and red cards to the players. Even with ten red cards the will still continue.

I also saw the report of this Sky Channel journalist from who we have heard that he is not operating from Sarajevo, but from the areas which are now under SDS or Chetnik control. Anyway it looked pretty real burning behind him, so the part makes not much different. After seeing his report I starts to wonder a bit what made the people in Split so angry. It was the normal (No it is NOT normal) story and pictures as have been told day after day after day about Sarajevo.

The pictures of BiH television, copied on HTV were rather bad this time, half of the time the picture was gone, but what I could see the bombing today and last night (Friday-Saturday) were rather strong. Even the JNA barracks in the town are now under attack (it was not clear if they meant JNA, Chetnik, SDS or Territorial Defence or Green Berets or who else is there). And the big mosque are really substantial damage according to the pictures (by whom ?).

With Love and Peace from Zagreb,

Wam:-)

P.s. I hope that somewhere somebody comes to the rave idea to ask a furniture producer of seller to donate some furniture for our office, f.i. the Swedish I like that wooden stuff a lot and they have some big international producers and sellers of that things over there. Since working and sitting on the ground is not so good and all our files are laying around in big piles.

I forgot it yeasterday to write it well down but we also need lot's of toys for all those children in the refugees. We have to ask the outside world and rather those things in natura then money, since all those products are very expensive here, often expensiver then in the west and furthermore they all have 5% wartax on them.
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