Topic: Zagreb Diary 
Response  57  of  67
 Written 10:55 AM  Jun 25, 1992 by wamkat in gn:yugo.antiwar 
Subject: Zagreb Diary

Zagreb Diary
22/24-06-1992

Dobre Dan,

So I few days were so full with work that I even didn't had the time to write anything on Email. And there was enough to write about. Since things, even when you are here for nearly 3 months are still not normal. On the counter, since I have been here things are getting maybe even more abnormal then before, I came, you still remember, when the war in BiH started. Yesterday 19 dead and day before yesterday 22 dead in Sarajevo. About opening the airport nobody talk anymore, especially the Olympic village is under heavy attack and if the Serbian irregulars take that village they have a better view on the airport.

President Izetbegovic declared WAR on Saturday and that means that all man above 17 years are under mobilisation in BiH, but not only those the man from that age from BiH who are as refugee in Croatia are also not seen here as refugee anymore (they are not yet send back), but as deserters. He, Izetbegovic, also declared the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party) forbidden, since this party often fight together with Chetniks, JNA and other Serbian irregulars. 

But things seems to be changing in BiH, the Northern part of Bosnia, around Banja Luka (were there is the biggest concentration of JNA soldiers and equipment some weeks ago) is cut of from Serbia, Croatia, HOS and BiH Army have taken the only highway. Croatian and Muslim forces from BiH are about 30 km away from Sarajevo (coming from the south-west). The well known pilgrim village Medugorie is already safe for some weeks and thousands of people arrived there over the last days. Tomorrow on the 25th it is 11 years ago that the Madonna was seen the first time. The pictures shown on HTV from Medugorie showed how mysteriously this town has been saved from any destruction.

Now Joel will come tomorrow I really feel the lust to travel all the way down to Neum or Dubrovnik and go into BiH myself to see Mostar and so. It is good to see it in the first face after the war, since that picture will change fast. people will return back and it is surprising how fast town, which have been under very heavy attack starts to life a somehow normal life again.

This experience I made when I went yesterday (Tuesday) with some representatives from Austrian and Italian green parliamentarians and a SCI-Italy to Osijek. About 70% of the people return and together with the round 40.000 displaced people in the town, the place is nearly back to it's original amount of inhabitants of before the war started. The town is full now, you even have to look for the cars if you cross the street and for the first time we had problems finding a parking place.

In 10 days the image from Osijek has changed a lot, trams are running and people are busy to repair the broken windows, shops have taken the hardboards away from the windows and the other destructions are being repaired more finally. It is a lot like Zagreb, within the last 3 months nearly all symbols of war disappear (except from the prices, which are still raising). But ofcourse Osijek if you see it now for the first time still is not half as "normal" as Zagreb, the destruction of 9 month of shelling is very well visiable and it will take a long, long time (and money) before everything looks a little bit the same as it use to be.

It was by the way the first time that I went by car all the way from Zagreb to Osijek (over 600 km in one day), passing by the places were last year heavy fighting took place. JNA had tried in the autumn of last year to break Croatian in two part over the line Djurdjevac-Bjelovar-Kutina. In Bjelovar the streets around the JNA barracks are nearly totally destroyed, whole blocks of houses are shot into pieces.

Passing through the country side you see in nearly all village east of Bjelovar that they use to be mixed (Croats and Serbian). Besides from some small village, where there was and still is a Serbian majority (surrounded still by police controls) all village are more or less "cleaned" from Serbian inhabitants. Where the Serbians lived is easy to see, there houses are blown up with dynamite and the ruins are still standing there (often with a Croatian flag proudly placed on it). Some of them are now taking over by Croatian people, who are rebuilding the destroyed places.

I noticed that I am sometimes a little to used to say to people, "look an other Serbian house" (pointing at a pile of stones) or "Here there was not so much fighting" (passing by some houses full of bullet holes) in a speaking tone as "look what a nice flowers there" or "see a stork nest". But you have to know that after a while you start to measure destruction and destruction. War comes in different forms and the war which is now fought in BiH and on part of the southern front of Croatia is much harder and much more destructive than the fights in the earlier days of the war in Croatia.   

From Osijek we went to the refugees camp Gasiuci near Djakovo, when we arrived the population there was around 1650 people (the nearly 1000, who were there already 10 days ago, when we visit it the first time, and the 500 who were brought there from Zagreb station some days ago, plus some people from other parts of Croatia), by the time we left it were already 1950, 300 more came from the station in Zagreb.

The campleader who was completely quiet and calm 10 days ago, when we talk with him the first time, was now turned into a panicking, nervous person. There is not enough food (especially food which can be used for Muslims), not enough clothes, not enough showers and toilets, not enough help (still 7 people are doing the job), not enough tents, not enough anything. The camp is now nearly half of his planned capacity of 5000 and still not equipped for more then 300 persons. They are building like hell, the two big barracks, which weren't under roof 10 days ago are now already finished and the third 3/4 on it's way. But they just offer enough space for dining rooms for so much people.

His speech was clear the world pays not enough attention to the problem, the representative of the centre for Social Work for East Slavonia in Osijek was a little bit milder, but in generally things are getting worst and worst and the stream of refugees is getting bigger with the day. Croatia has not enough resources to take care of all of them, especially not in the sense which the EC and UNHCR likes it to take care. 

The camppopulation are now more used to visitors, just before we came the was an UNHCR delegation, when we enter the camp the EC monitors use left and when we left there just arrived a caritas delegation. Children immediately surround them, asking for money to buy candies in the campshop (you can only buy things there with Croatian Dinars, and most of them have none) and for help in finding there relatives.

The most impressive picture, however, is the people gathering in silence around the loudspeakers, placed in the open air, broadcasting Croatian news. Every word from BiH is a word from home, waiting for that spark of hope that things will change fast.

Back in Zagreb the rumour hit the street that at the 2nd of August there will elections for parliament and president, tonight it was announced in a special broadcasting of Tudjman and the leader of the parliament. The election battle which was already going on will no burst out in all fields. I am anxious to see what the highlines will be, in the coming weeks you will hear more about it.

With Love from Za-mir-greb,

Wam:-)

P.S. When I wrote that in Beograd history was made, this was also meant skeptical. History is made all over former Yugoslavia. And the student protest in Beograd are not anymore frontpage news in Zagreb. It is a bit like always, Marko from Ljubljana was two weeks ago in Libya and according to the western papers there should have been big demonstrations against the government there in that time. Marko didn't see any big demonstrations. If the protest in Beograd is of the same caliber we don't know, but it is surely good that some people go there fast to get some more balanced news. Anyway it is not clear what will happen if Milosovic disappair and another warhead takes over his place. The only one who can stop the war from that side is somebody with a lot of influence on the army and the different Chetnik forces and for the time being I don't know of anybody.

P.S. Croatian Army is getting more and more organized in the sence that they are becoming more and more a regular army, inclusive their staff of burocrats, who drive in expensives brand new cars (inclusive hyper modern carphones) around the country

P.s. The last 3 days my computer was out of working, the screen disppaered some days ago, but thanks to Ogjen it is working again.
 End of text from gn:yugo.antiwar **