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From notes@igc5.igc.org Sun Nov 12 17:15:10 1995
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Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 12:24:23 -0800 (PST)
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat"
From: Ivo Skoric
Subject: F.U.S.A.
To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l
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From: Ivo Skoric
Now it is perfect time to remember this summer tour of Croatian
human rights
activists around the U.S. as it was orchestrated by the USIA.
Only, one of the
five Croatian activists was actually a Serb judge from then
Serbian held Krajina
region in Croatia. Richard Holtzapple with USIA, who put that
unlikely group
together, wanted a minority (Serb) representative, and that was
supposed to be
Pero Ladjevic. Pero Ladjevic (member of Serbian Democratic Forum
and based in
Zagreb, Croatia) recommended Radovan Jovic. Radovan Jovic had no
favorable
opinion on Pero Ladjevic at that time, however.
Jovic traveled from Glina over Belgrade and Budapest to Frankfurt
where he
joined the rest of the crew. He had no association with any human
rights group
either in Croatia or in Serbia at that time. His presence made
others in the
group quite uneasy - particularly Vjeko Magas of HHO (Croatian
Helsinki
Committee) and Ivan Ozic of DA (Dalmatian Action), whose
credibility was
crippled by subsequent derogatory articles in Croatian regime
dailies (Vecernji
List and Nedjeljna Dalmacija). Magas and Ozic were asinine in
their futile efforts
to disassociate themselves from Jovic in their letters to
Congressmen and to
powerful Croatian emigree lobby CAA (who pestered them in Phoenix,
AZ),
creating just a worse situation for themselves (that must have
pleased Croatian
government).
Croatian human rights activists returned to Croatia. But Jovic,
with his
infamous notebook in which he openly fastidiously kept notes of
each meeting
that group had, never returned to Krajina. Anticipating the
Croatian offensive,
which followed in three weeks after their return, he remained in
Belgrade, where
he joined Belgrade's chapter of HCA (Helsinki Citizens Assembly).
His sister
meanwhile remained living in Zagreb.
In October HCA organized an international meeting in Tuzla,
probably to prove
that Bosnia is safe now. However, while HCA dignitaries like Mary
Caldor and
Ian Mint Faber "choppered" to Tuzla by U.N. helicopters, other
mere mortals took
excruciating days-long bus rides. Belgrade delegation, for
example, needed
almost four days to reach Tuzla, although Tuzla is just a four
hours bus ride
away from Belgrade. Methodical HCA organization required what I
would call a
"centripetal travel": they created a large circle from Belgrade to
Tuzla, and
participants from other cities were supposed to join the convoy
creating a pretty
sight of a convoy of buses full of human rights activists
traveling straight
through Bosnia - again, proving that Bosnia is now safe for travel
(damned be the
bad backs of participants constrained to their bus seats for four
days).
Radovan Jovic was in the Belgrade delegation. He traveled on
invitation by Peter
Galbraith, the American envoy in Croatia. Journey lead from
Belgrade through
Vojvodina to Hungary, then they were joined by buses coming from
Prague in
Mohacs, and crossed Croatian-Hungarian border at its northernmost
part (they
were held there for ten hours). Bunch of Serbs then enjoyed a
travel through
freshly "liberated" Krajina. I guess Jovic could even see the
place where his
house once stood. In Split the big convoy was formed traveling to
Metkovic and
then turning towards Bosnia and Tuzla. They also had to pass a
Serbian
checkpoint on their way. Serb guards were curious and annoyed
because one of
participants had an American passport and a Serbian last name (and
he spoke
English better than Serbian), but no other problems were
detected.
The actual session in Tuzla, I'd describe later. Because the
return is what is so
captivating: again, buses were allowed in Croatia. Radovan Jovic
was at that
time already having a severe back pain. However, in a motel in
Tucepi (who said
that Serbs would not see the Adriatic sea again?) he was taken
away not by EMS
but by POLICE. Police promised to take him to a hospital.
hehehehe
The next day Tudjman's TV announced that 15 spies had been
arrested. One of
the names on the list was - Radovan Jovic. His friends checked on
Split
hospitals - he was never checked in any of them. There is no
further information
available at this time (only that his sister was arrested, too).
Summary:
A Serb from occupied parts of Croatia was invited by a U.S.
government official
as a part of Croatian human rights activists delegation to visit
the States, ruining
reputation of other activists. The same Serb, now a Serbian human
rights
activists, is invited by yet another U.S. government official to
attend a human
rights meeting in Bosnia, only to be arrested by Croatian police
as a spy on his
return (that had to go through Croatia?!). Did he change sides
untimely? Any
other bright ideas?
-/-
Tuzla meeting - as it was reported to me by several participants -
was indeed a
breakthrough in the way how people feel about Bosnia. HCA managed
to bring
enough celebrities to prove that Bosnia is now safe and cool place
to be: Peter
Galbraith came, Suzanne Sontag came, Ian Miazoweczki came. Yet,
the meeting
then became overshadowed by HCA's leadership trying to please and
accommodate those dignitaries, which alienated other activists and
obstructed
the actual work that had to be done. Consequently, the meeting
had more
symbolic meaning. However, it was poorly reported in the media
(particularly
American), which diminished its potential value as a symbolic
event. The real
success of this meeting would be if it opened the way for other,
more actual-work
oriented, meetings in Tuzla in the future. This is not to say
that there was not a
lot of useful work done in workshops where Croatian, Bosnian and
Serbian
activist met in person (they communicated for past several years
only by e-mail
and saw each other infrequently in western capitals), which they
were eager to
do.
Meanwhile their leaders confined to Wright-Patterson air base in
Dayton, Ohio
tried to minimize their contact as much as possible. Warren
Christopher got
Tudjman and Izetbegovic to basically resign the Washington
agreement from the
year and a half ago and then he presented it as a great
breakthrough in the
negotiations. The U.S. government also convinced Russians to
serve under an
American general. Not only that - they also train together in
Kansas, fighting the
imaginary Kanzans. I bet that makes local militia types happy.
President
Clinton seems to be ready to live up to his pledge and send
American troops
there regardless of Congressional approval - if there is a peace
agreement. But,
there is none so far. I mean, Serbs are still recalcitrant. Why
would they agree
upon peace if that means 20,000 American troops policing them?
Back to the
drawing table. Maybe some more bombing is due, huh? But then
Russians may
drop out of the deal (and send more arms to Serbs). Plus this is
a bad time for
Clinton to gamble, with the imminent government shut-down and all
that.
That's probably why American independent, free press missed the
opportunity to
hear what Peter Galbraith had to say in Tuzla. In an impromptu
session he said:
"All Western democracies treat their citizens equally." That one
got a ripple of
laughter from the audience. Most of the time he just slipped
around people's
questions and evaded them, just like US foreign policy does:
friendly and liberal
on the surface, but underneath, evasive and arrogant and
completely wrapped up
in his own self-interest. Furthermore he claimed that the US
played no role in
helping the Croatians in Operation Storm (except, perhaps, lending
to it its
name). One woman from Danish Parliament asked him who in the
Dayton
meeting would be representing the perspective of a multi-ethnic
Bosnia:
Milosevic? Tudjman? Izetbegovic? His answer: "The Americans will.
Because we
are the most multi-ethnic country in the world and we understand
the
importance of this." I guess that means that Bosnia outperformed
Puerto Rico in
becoming the 51st state.
ivo skoric
Other considerations:
Happy Veterans day everybody. New York had its largest
military parade ever. An F-16 was dragged up the Fifth Avenue.
In Washington D.C. Clinton revealed a brand new monument to
the World War II heroes. In the meantime his government is
scheduled to shut down Monday at midnight. For us from
former countries this is nothing new. We are intrinsically
familiar with large military parades and with governments
shying away from daily problems into safety of the indisputable
victory carved in bronze or marble monuments, distinctively
present rather everywhere in our former countries. Also,
government shut-downs are a prosaic event for us coming from
countries that shut-down altogether. The emphasis in "former
countries" is on "former".
Meanwhile in Sarajevo, the city in which two world wars - the
first and the third - started, the Veteran's day was not missed
either: veterans of United Nations Protection Forces celebrated
the day at Sarajevo soccer stadium. Honor salvoes from Serbian
controlled surrounding mountain-tops were greatly missed. It
seems that they run out of ammo.
In Israel, a country with sure a lot of veterans from all the
wars
they fought, the Vet-day was overshadowed by mourning for
their dead president, who was shot a week ago by a fellow Jew.
The killer used hollow-point bullets, the kind that is prohibited
by world conventions even in the open warfare against enemies,
the kind that was often used in the war in Croatia and Bosnia.
He said that maybe God guarded his murderous hand. He said
that maybe God steered his fatal two bullets through Rabin's
spleen, spine and major arteries. Curiously, killer's enemies
from Hamas and Hizzbolah, and even the Iran's foreign minister
said that - yes - his act might be the implementation of the will
of God. It is so relieving to see Jews and Arabs united at last.
Rabin's death revealed that this was the same God that both
Jewish and Arab extremists worship, the same God worshiped
by Serb, Croat and Muslim war criminals - a long-forgotten
ancient war-monger bloodthirsty deity that demanded a human
sacrifice at its unholy altar.
I was absent for a while because I was finishing the Peacenet's
Balkan Resources web page. You can preview it at:
http://www.wideopen.igc.org/balkans/index3g.html
Also, I was (am) injured. It happened a day before Rabin was
shot. I probably hated the whole Israel because one Israeli
coned me, and then when I became angry, his employee tackled
me. When an eighty pounds heavier object runs into you full-speed
(20 mph, I guess) from your back, and you don't see it, so
you don't expect it, then you usually fall awkwardly and injure
yourself. I badly sprained my ankle, calf and knee (left leg).
So,
I had even more time to write - but no will to do it. I always
become so depressed when I am injured. So, now I feel a little
better, and here it is.
This is a complete story of my ordeal with Compumart America,
located at 32nd street between 6th and 7th avenue:
Chronology of lies, ignorance, indolence and incompetence:
1) I requested graphics card with VRAM and they ("they" here
always means Compumart) gave me graphics card with
DRAM (VRAM is better than DRAM, and I have been
charged for VRAM). I noticed the problem immediately and
told them. They put a new card in (with VRAM).
2) Their manager (Joey) would lock up my credit card every
time I gave him to sweep it through the machine, by
sweeping it through several times (or trying to charge more
than the credit limit). Finally, he charged me $100 more
than the price we agreed upon, when I took the computer. I
noticed the mistake immediately and complained. He
credited this money back to my credit card a month later.
3) Mouse that I initially got was really bad (it barely moved)
so
I requested and got a new one (but why should I go
through the pains of exchanging everything that I
bought?).
4) Video capture board that I initially got could not capture
live video, so I returned it and I agreed to buy a new one
at
a premium. That one was supposed to work.
5) Modem that I initially got came with a manual which said
"data/fax modem" and no listed phone numbers. Modem
did not work with my software. Joey claimed it was a Hayes
modem. When I confronted him with a proof that it was not
a Hayes modem, he said it was a Microcom modem. It was
not. Later he abandoned that claim either and agreed to
exchange the modem.
6) Intermittent problems existed with the system in general:
unless I bypassed ms-dos the dos diagnostic system could
not recognize my Pentium cpu. Instead it said it was 486
dx cpu.
7) I was consistently lied to about the manufacturer of the
motherboard: Joey claimed that the manufacturer was first
AST, then Acer. However, Acer customer service informed
me that they do not use third party bios - while my
computer had Awards bios, which meant it definitely
wasn't Acer motherboard.
8) When I bought additional 4 MB of RAM, two times in the
row I was supplied with a module that did not work in my
system. Finally I consulted myself with a technical support
guy at another computer vendor and he told me that
Pentium computer's RAM has to be upgraded in pairs.
Otherwise the upgrade will be unrecognized by the system.
When I told that to Joey at Compumart, and when I gave
him exact code of the product I need, he got it. But wasn't
the Compumart's technical support supposed to know
such a basic information?
9) New video capture card never worked correctly on my
system, which suggested bad hardware architecture.
Finally my system crashed in an A20 Hardware Error.
Apparently, this destroyed some vital dos instructions, and
Windows could not be started any more. They remained
persistent that this is nothing more than a software
problem that I caused and the only remedy they offered is
reformatting my hard drive and getting rid of disk
compression. I agreed to that and even purchased a new,
larger hard drive. The newly installed system didn't work
either. So, finally they agreed to change the motherboard
and the bios.
10) New bios (Phoenix) works better (at least it recognizes my
processor under DOS). But the motherboard, although
different, is still from the same manufacturer: SIS, and
debilitating conflicts persistently reappear in my system:
* video capture board is not recognized on the system
* midi mapper for sound card is not recognized
* works only with Windows based programs
For a reason that they did not fully explain to me Com 2
port on the new motherboard is not available to peripheral
devices, so I had to put the modem on Com 3 port (see also
#13). The jumper settings on my modem and the overall
configuration of my computer do not allow to have IRQ in
range 1-4 with Com 3 port (so I have it at irq 5), but
communications programs written for DOS require for irq
to be in 1-4 range.
11) Although problems with Windows are software problems - I
can't be responsible for them, since Windows were
pre-installed for me by the same brilliant technician who
screwed up the rest of the computer. Microsoft does not
provide support if DOS and Windows came pre-installed in
the computer. Instead, in that case Microsoft leaves the
customer support to the equipment manufacturer who
pre-installed Windows. Therefore, Microsoft authorized a few
dozens manufacturers to pre-install Windows. The
manufacturers that were authorized to pre-install Windows
and provide customer support got that authorization since
Microsoft tested its Operating System (DOS) and Operating
Environment (Windows) on their hardware products
(motherboards) to assure compatibility. Other
manufacturers are not tested and may be not fully
compatible with Microsoft products - hence, they are not
authorized to pre-install Windows. If they do so, they are
solely responsible to provide support with Windows.
Therefore, Compumart's responsibility is to assist its
customers with both their hardware and software problems
while under warranty. Joey, however would like rather to
avoid that responsibility. Furthermore, I requested that
motherboard be fully compatible with DOS and Windows
(from a Microsoft authorized manufacturer), and I was
scammed.
12) During Windows setup vendor should create directories on
the hard drive that correspond to the Windows installation
disks, so that customer may change configuration, run
setup again and customize his/hers Windows. Compumart
did not create those directories on my system, so I fully
depended on their technical support, which was indolent
and incompetent. I doubt even that Compumart has any
legal right to install Microsoft products on its
merchandise.
If necessary that should be checked with Microsoft. We
may cc: the letter to Microsoft.
13) When I picked up the computer after the "repair", Louis,
Compumart's resident computer engineer, told me that he
changed jumpers on my modem to Com port 3, because
Com port 2 was hogged by my new motherboard and thus
unaccessible to peripheral components. The modem,
however, did not work. Nor did any other peripheral
component, except mouse, work at the time my computer
was officially repaired. When I checked the jumper settings
on modem they were Com3/irq2. Interrupt (irq) settings 2
is usually not permitted on 286 and above systems (like
mine is), because irq 2 is used as a 'cascade interrupt' to
the 8 higher interrupts (irq 8-15). This information was
provided for me by the CompuServe Windows Users Forum
support personnel. They were also quite surprised that
somebody who makes computers would do such a mistake.
Later I switched jumpers settings to com3/irq5 on modem
and from irq5 to irq10 on sound card, so they work now
(BUT, see #10). However this all created unnecessary
expenses for me (CompuServe bill, long distance calls to
California - where most of the computer factories are, and
to Canada - where the ATI is). When somebody spends $
3,500 on a machine, he expects to plug it in the wall at
home and turn it on - NOT to spend another two months
trying to figure it out how to make it work.
14) Since the ATI Video-It video capture card never worked in
my newly installed system (see #10) I spent two months
consulting with ATI on what to do, and finally they
accepted the card for repair. The card was found OK and
returned to me. On its way back it was lost by UPS.
Finally when it reached me, it did not work in my system
again. The card is simply not recognized in my computer,
and the ATI technical support exhausted all suggestions.
So, I decided that it makes no sense to have a $400 worth
hanging in my computer doing nothing. But, when I tried
to return the card to them (Compumart), they didn't want
to take it without original packaging, that was long gone.
Nobody can expect from people who live on Manhattan to
keep packaging in their apartments for five or so months.
That was only their excuse to refuse giving the refund.
Also, Joey again lied that they gave me an Acer
motherboard (with Phoenix bios? - see #7), and he tried to
convince me that I exchanged Studio Magic for Video-It
after the new motherboard was installed - which is
incorrect: I did it a month before the first configuration
crashed (see #4), and Compumart technical staff failed to
test if it worked with new configuration before coercing me
to take my computer back (see #13). To add an insult to
the injury Joey speculated that I might be done doing what
I wanted with the Video-It card and now wanted my money
back. Resulting quarrel lead to Joey's unyielding and
inappropriate questioning of MY credibility based on my
haircut. After I did a few irrational things in the store
(like
wanting to video-tape Joey saying what he has to say,
knocking things of his table, spitting on his right arm and
knocking a TV of the shelf), a heavy-set employee run in
me full-speed from my back. So, now I can add a physical
injury to this sad list of a vendor misconduct: left knee
and
left ankle are strained, and I have difficulty walking (I
can't
walk without crutches), I can't go to my job and I have no
health insurance.
Conclusion:
Since these problems obviously lead deep into basic hardware
(ans now also into my bodily functions), and since the vendor
did not demonstrate any trustworthiness, I see no other option
but to ask for a full refund. Also, this goes on far too long. It
should be considered that I bought this computer with intend to
do business (Web page design) - the intent which was severely
obstructed by those persistent problems, so I suffered other
grave losses related to owning this computer. Therefore I believe
that Compumart has also to pay any accrued interest charges
on credit cards I used to buy their computer. Plus charges that
might be incurred by medical expenses (see #14).
ivo skoric