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From notes@igc5.igc.org Tue Oct 17 10:43:34 1995 Received: from igc5.igc.org (192.82.108.36) by MediaFilter.org with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:43:34 -0500 Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (cdp.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.1]) by igc5.igc.org (8.7.1/8.7.1) id GAA22158 for "conf-zamir.chat"; Tue, 17 Oct 1995 06:54:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: 17 Oct 1995 06:10:25 Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat"From: jo@xs4all.nl Subject: Pascal In Tuzla To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l Message-ID: <199510171310.AA13637@xs1.xs4all.nl> X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 42 From: jo Sanja and me hugged Pascal together in Zagreb. Sanja is from Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where practically everyone tries to behave as if there were no war going on. When I returned to Amsterdam in May, the war became suddenly very real in Zagreb. Serbs launched a few rockets, some people were killed and a kind of small parachutes were hanging n the trees, which exploded when you touched them. Sanja, with 6 months Pascal in her belly in Zagreb. Your reporter in Amsterdam. He read on teletext that Belgrade was sending a tank division to Zagreb and that total war seemed to be coming up. I can assure you: at such a moment itUs better to be with your pregnant lover, than watching TV in Amsterdam. The information from Teletext proved wrong, but it sure hit me. In Zagreb everything is quiet again. President Franjo Tudjman is celebrating his triumph. His party, his state and his country are going to vote for each other on the 29th of October. They call it democracy. Anyway, in Bosnia there is a peace breaking out. Because the world needs it. The international community is playing the game of whoUll get the praise and who the blame, as a prelude to the big forgetting of Bosnia. In a collective refugee center Tuzla I met Ahmed Sulemanovic. He is a 35 year old electrician from Koljevic Polje in the area around Srebrenica. He thanked God for making it to free Tuzla after 82 days of feeding on grass and fleeing Serbian killer-comman doUs. And for not finding his brother amongst the 300 slaughtered bodies he found lying in a field near Srebrenica. And which he turned over one by one. Pascal is now two months old, a world citizen, at home in Zagreb, Amsterdam, Sarajewo or in Tuzla. ThatUs how I would like to see it. And he too, I hope. In a refugee house in Tuzla I saw Mirsad, one week older than Pascal and just as big, gay and (almost) guiltless. He is born a refugee. Maybe he will be a world citizen too, but maybe his parents only want to return to Srebrenica, from where they had to f lee from some kind of neo-nazis, already three years ago. I would like Mirsad and Pascal to play together, in the world, in our world, in their world, with a place to feel at home and secure. I am afraid, however, that these two babies will not get eachothers messages when they grow up. IUm afraid that Mirsad will ask Pascal: RWhat did your father do when my people were killed in Srebrenica?S. I only hope that Pascal will try to unde rstandwhat he is talking about. And I hope that Mirsad will not have to hate the whole world. Because they say that thereUs a peace coming up in Bosnia, and are playing games about Srebrenica. Because they forget that there are still hundreds of fathers and sons, refugees and soldiers eating grass and fleeing for Serbian killer-commandoUs. Because their airplanes take pictures from a safe distance of massgraves, and noone even tries to reach survivors. I have more friends than enemies in Tuzla. I hope to keep it that way. And I hope so for you too. Because I hope that Mirsad will come over to visit us in Holland one day. And then I will show him the Auschwitz Memorial. Jo van der Spek Zagreb14th of October 1995 jo@xs4all.nl