Sarajevo Update, July 1, 1995

	---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 01 Jul 95 17:42:37 EDT
From: Stacy Sullivan <73163.1165@compuserve.com>
To: BlindCopyReceiver:  ;
Subject: sarajevo

Sarajevo, July 1, 1995
Hi all,
Please forgive this group message. The combination of my computer
problems and lack of electricity prevent me from writing at the moment
but I thought you might want an update since the city is having the hell
shelled out of it.  For those of you who don't know, I arrived in
Sarajevo about 3 weeks ago (that's two days before the Bosnians began
an offensive that has provoked the Serbs to shell the hell out of the
city).  The day the offensive started, my computer collapsed.  Joel had
left me some disks with copies of his stories and contacts and phone
numbers on it.  It was infected with a virus that had been going around
and debilitated my and four other journalists' computers. I was able to
restore my computer, but lost all of my data, modem software included.
Because it is a Mac (a company I use to be an advocate for but now vow
never to own one again since it is compatible with nothing) I can't use
it much. I file stories everyday for the Times of London, which means
everyday is either a mad scramble to borrow someone else's computer,
or an expensive phonebill from dictating to London.  I walked around
the first week terrified and stunned and out of the loop but the learning
curve moves quickly and I've learned the back roads, met people,
figured out what the story is (sort of) and have been studying maps
and learning about military strategy.  Professionally, things are well. 
I'm working for Newsweek for the next month which gives me a nice
house and office and pays my expenses (phone, fuel, translators,
etc...) even if the writing isn't very gratifying.  Emotionally, things
are difficult.  It's been three weeks and already I am so disgusted with
what I see.  I spent a day last week with a father who lost his 9 yearold
little girl last week.  A shell landed in the courtyard where she was
skipping rope with her three friends who were also killed.  Her little
yellow skipping rope lay next to a puddle of her blood.  As her father
clutched a piece of pink sweater she had been knitting for her barbie
doll which was perched on the sofa, he cried and told me how his wife
and daughter lived as refugees in Croatia for two years and came back
to Sarajevo last summer because things had calmed down.  That's the
problem here.  The city was shelled to hell in 1992 and 93, then a sense
of normalcy prevaded after the NATO ultimatium.  Stores and cafes
reopened, factories started producing stuff, kids started playing
outside again. Now the city is getting pounded again, but people don't
take precautions.  They  are either defiant and insist on living their
lives, or they just don't care about living anymore.
The Bosnian government, sick of three years of living under siege,
realizing the internatinal community, though it might care, isn't going
to do anything, finally put together a decent army and began a slow
summer crawl to lift the siege of the city.  The UN, incidentally has had
only one land convoy into this place in more than a month and it was
enough to run the bakery for three days.  The weapons exclusion zones
have collapsed, the UN held secret negociations with the Bosnian SErbs
(named by the Hague as war criminals) promising no more NATO
airstrikes in exchange for a release of the hostages.  Since the
airstrikes were the only possible deterrent to the Serb attacks against
the civilian population, they now have free reign to shell the
city. It's not really the UN's fault, but nevertheless, its conduct has
been despicable and at the moment it is accomplishing little here.  UN
officials admit they are doing nothing and soldiers are bored and
frustrated. I expect an October pullout. 
Since the offensive began, the Serbs have shelled the city everyday. 
Most recently, they have taken to launching homemade rocket bombs. 
This is a 550 pound bomb attacked to some pipes with a parachute on the
end.  One of them landed in the atrium of the television building,
destroying the offices of CNN, WTN, ZDF and AP television.  I had
only been here two weeks, but the best friend I made in that time had
his face cut up and may lose his eye.  He and four other journalists now
lie in a hospital that the SErbs have shelled 14 times in the past 10
days.  I keep proposing features to the times about say the hospital or
the familly of the little girl, but they're more interested in the latest
visit of the new EC mediator, or the latest philanderings of the UN.  I
was inspired by the challenge to show how politics affects peoples' lives
here, but the siege of this city has gone on for three years and the
world has heard it all before.  Another sad story about a little girls
killed by mortar while skipping rope won't matter. In that sense it is
very frustrating.  In another sense, I derive great satisfaction because
I feel this story is so important.  I'm not sure if that answers any of
your questions about what I'm doing here.  It feels right and I'm being
careful.  MOre personal communication to follow when my computer
problem is resolved.  Love Stacy 
/EX