Topic: Zagreb Diary 
Response  64  of  67
 Written 12:23 AM  Jul  1, 1992 by wamkat in gn:yugo.antiwar 
Subject: Zagreb Diary

Zagreb Diary
01-07-1992

Dobar(*) Dan,

Totally forgotten to tell you that Croatia has again a more or less critical bigger opinion newspaper, after a month DANAS raise again as a phoenix and returned as novi DANAS in the kiosks last Monday. Sorry for reporting it so late, I know that it is important for a lot of people abroad. Let's hope that most of the money problems are now solved and that it would disappear again. It looks a lot better than before (I can't really read it), so at least on the lay-out side it improved a lot.

Most of you at the networks probably have read the open letter WRI and IFOR send to all peace initiatives in BiH Croatia and Slovenia. The core of the letter was that they are strongly disagree with any type of military FOREIGN intervention or any other type of military activity within BiH and Croatia (or any other state in the world), to simplify it a little bit. I, as well as some other confined pacifist at ARK were very glad with their letter and saw it as a firm support for my sometimes elite standpoint in this case. Other reacted that it was an easy western standpoint, a little naive and out of reality. Within the coming days we can expect the first private reactions. The discussions about this topic look a lot alike the discussion in the green parties about fundamentalists and realists.

And now the war seems to intensify by the day and more "attacks" (let's not discuss who started or who provoked, or whatever) not only in Eastern Hercegovina and North Bosnia, but also more and more on Croatian cities (nearly the whole southern front in Nothern Croatian was under shelling, as well as the south of Dalamtia (big parts of Dalmatian (e.g. the cities Dubrovnik and Zadar) have no electricity)) I can imagine that still people think that military intervention from abroad would bring instant relief.

I think that this open letter will get some discussion on Thursday. But ones again I am happy with it and feel stronger with this support in my own opinion (I would love to see more organisations and individuals speaking out that way, knowing realising what is going on, also accepting that this opinion can costs many lives at this moment in e.g. Sarajevo).

Know that today at least eleven people were killed in BiH, as far as known by the BiH official authorities, from which 4 in Sarajevo and over 80 were wounded, from who 3 UNPROFOR soldiers at Sarajevo airport. And that were again fights and shellings reported from Sarajevo, even in the direct surroundings from the airport. 

But an other discussing also hit the ARK discussion floor today. Namely what is ARK's view about the elections, and not in party political since of the word, but more about the way how elections are prepared, who can vote and how the voting and elections of parliament is organised. The first explanation I got today did me thinking that it is even less democratic than the USAmerican democratic system. But it is not that simple, so whenever I find somebody which can draw the whole picture I surely come back on this topic. 

Anyway the most important part is getting Croatian citizenship and that's not always and for everybody as easy as it sounds. It depends a lot on how long you life in Croatia, and even where your parents were in 1947. For Croatians from Bosnia it seems to be more easier to get a Croatian citizenship (and the right to vote), even when there official have the state-membership from another country than for some people who have lived all there live in Croatia. Even the Croats abroad, and seems to live more Croats abroad then in former Yugoslavia seems to be somehow able to vote in this elections. Since the system is based on a regional electoral system I wonder were those foreigners (if I can call Croats who life outside Croatia for a long time, so went long before the war started) fit in in the system.

One party which thought that they would get it easy, having the absolute majority at the moment (HDZ, Tudjman's party) seems to get a lot more problems. Now even on HTV it was said in Slikum na Sliku that HDZ, in the person of Tudjman mixed up party politics and neutrality as president. It promises to be an interesting 4 weeks. 

At last I have been to the state exhibition in the former museum for the "Victim of fascism", inside the building I suddenly remembered that I was there before, at least 12 years ago, with an official delegation of the Croatian Socialist Youth and a lot of official representatives from WFDY (World Federation of Democratic Youth, the communist youth organisation of the World, strongly under the influence from the Komsomol, youth organisation from the USSR). It was back in the "good" old days of communism in Yugoslavia, were you had to at least been shown two major things in Croatia, this museum and the picture of the fights against Fascism. And ofcourse the birth house of Tito, a simple cottage (house) in one of the mountain Northern regions near the Slovenia. Not far from were Tudjman was born.

Walking through the exhibition, especially through the part where designs of posters are shown I was happy that not every design has made it all the way to the printing machine. But what surprised me the most were the labels from the relief packages send by the different organisation. I never even realised that every package was somehow mark from who (which organisation) it came from. It give a damned if something comes from Germany or the Netherlands, or the states or whatever. But on each package it was mark "This is a gift of the /German/Dutch/Swedish/Canadian/whatever (**) red cross/caritas/americares/etc. (**) . I honestly thought that all those gift and aid good were handed out without those marks. 

The high point of the exhibition is, however not inside but lays in front of the entrance, the left overs from a mig-29 which was shot above Zagreb in November last year. If I recognised the photos well he came down on the square in front of the cathedral.  

With Love from ZA-mir-GREB,

Wam:-)

p.s. 19 days to go to the first workcamps and still not enough volunteers from abroad.

(*) I really thought it was DOBRE (good), but how foolies of me, they said DOBAR instead.
(**) circle the country it cames from (***) same for organization
 End of text from gn:yugo.antiwar **