From notes@igc.org Wed Sep 18 04:24:21 1996
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Attention:  Capt. Christopher J. Watson, IFOR Radio Station in Sarajevo



			Calhoun Middle School Team EXCEL, Denton, Texas, sends greetings to
Capt. Watson.  We enjoyed your letter and the posters.  We're looking
forward to receiving your video tapes.  We certainly hope you are safe and
will be able to come to Texas for a visit upon your return.  We are
currently writing letters to you and will be sending those with a present.
We hope to hear from you soon.  Go! Fight! Win!  Mrs. Storrie and Team
EXCEL    Blue Skies!


From notes@igc.org Wed Sep 18 04:25:32 1996
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Date: 16 Sep 1996 12:19:03
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: PeaceNet Balkans Desk 
Subject: From a traveler to Bosnia
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From: "Ed Agro" 

From a traveler to Bosnia / Putnika Bosnu 

Ova poruka je o putovanju na Bosni iz radnu grupu FORa
(Fellowship of Reconciliation). Poslat cu prijevod ssto prije
mozzem - ed  
--------------------------------------------------------------
Orig. From: "Doug Hostetter" 
Orig. Date:          Tue, 3 Sep 1996 14:35:36 +0000
Orig. Subject:       Doug's Family Report #4

Dear family and friends,

This is just a quick note from me to let you know that I am
safely back in the US from my two and a half weeks in Bosnia.  We
had a great group of 22 people ranging in age from 16 to 77.  Our
group included 18 Americans and 4 Bosnian college students
studying in the US who assisted as translators.  

We were a very diverse group from all across the US, from
California to Vermont, from Tennessee to Oregon with people from
Kansas and Missouri thrown in to keep us balanced.  We included
combat veterans from WWII and Vietnam and lifelong peace
activists.  We were Christians, Muslims and Jews with a strong
flavor of Mennonites and Quakers, all of who were seeking to
learn about the tragedy of Bosnia and in some small ways to
assist in healing and reconciliation in Bosnia. 

Our goal was to spend a third of our time learning about the
forces of hatred  and bigotry which have decimated the former
Yugoslavia, a third of our time  using our skills as doctors,
musicians, psychologists, teachers, business professionals or
manual workers, while the other third of our time was to be used
for social and cultural purposes.  

Since 22 people was too large to travel as one group, we divided
into two with one group going to the north-western provincial
town of Bihac and the other group going to the capital city of
Sarajevo.  All of us were hosted by Bosnian families,  mostly
families who had children studying in the US under the FOR's 
Bosnian Student Project.

Both groups were well received and everyone felt he/she learned a
tremendous amount in a very short time. Each contributed in
modest ways to the healing of  destroyed communities and
devastated people.  Some of  us helped in tangible ways through
working in hospitals and clinics, teaching in schools or
universities, or assisting in rehabilitation centers for veterans
or women who were suffering the destructive effects of the war.
Others of us helped to heal in less tangible ways through
listening to  the survivors of this war tell of their lost
parents, children or spouses, and of  the destruction of their
homes and communities.  

Some of us had the sacred privilege of  telling stories and
showing pictures of  Bosnian students living in our homes in the
U.S. to parents who had not seen their children for 4 years. The
tears of gratitude for the safety and education of their children
mingled with the tears of longing to have their child by their
side.

There is too much to tell. . .  I was in the group that traveled
to Sarajevo and a half dozen other cities in the Bosnian
Federation and the Serbian Republic parts of Bosnia.  In almost
every city I was welcomed by a parent of one of our students,
except in the Serbian Republic parts of Bosnia.  Yes, we have
many students from those cities, but all of their families have
been driven out because they were Muslim or mixed ethnic families
in a part of Bosnia which has become "ethnically clean" of almost
everyone except Serbian Orthodox Christians. 

Our students from those cities requested that I take pictures of
the cities to which they  and their families are prohibited from
returning. I also took pictures of the charred ruins of the homes
of some of our  students which were torched by their Serbian
Christian occupiers so  that the original inhabitants would never
return.

How was it possible that I as an American could be welcomed in
the restaurants and hotels in cities in which I had never before
visited, while students in our program whose families had lived
for generations in those same cities could never return?  

I photographed the empty city lots which before the war had been
the location of beautiful 16th and 17th century mosques.  These
mosques were destroyed by the  Serbian Christian occupiers to
ensure that there will be no remaining record that Muslims had
once lived in these ancient cities.  At moments I felt like I was
standing at the brink of hell itself.

There were also wonderful signs of hope.  Bosnian doctors
reported that there is a post-war baby boom taking place in
cities and towns all over Bosnia.  In Sarajevo and other
destroyed Bosnian cities there is an enormous amount of
rebuilding taking place.  Refugees who had fled the shelling of
the cities or the ethnic cleansing of the countryside are now
returning from Europe, Asia and the US.  Neighbors and families
who were divided by the war are returning, and at times finding
that they can still live together.

I was struck by the differences I found in the two sides of
Bosnia.  Many of the people I met in the Bosnian Federation part
of Bosnia were willing to judge their neighbors individually by
how they had acted during the war.  Bosnia is a very small
country, and there are few secrets among close neighbors.  

I was also struck by my encounters in the Serb Republic part of
Bosnia as to how they have achieved their ethnically pure
republic. They have killed or expelled the Muslims, Catholics,
Gypsies and Jews from the territory which they control to achieve
their ethnically pure Orthodox Christian nation. 

They have destroyed the houses of worship, schools, libraries or
other cultural symbols of the peoples which they have expelled.
They have installed an efficient  and well armed police to make
sure that non-Serbian former residents of their cities can never
return.  They have built a strong government "information
service"  and restricted the access of the people in their area
to any information from the outside world.  But it appeared to me
that the walls which they have erected to keep out all others
have become prison walls for a frightened and isolated people.    


This has already gotten far too long for the interest of  most of
you.  I am home safe, and am thankful that I am able watch my
children grow up in an ethnically diverse community which
includes God's children of all races and religions.               


Sincerely, Doug Hostetter 
Leader, FOR Work Camp in Bosnia, June 27 to July 16, 1996

P.S.  You should know that everything which was said about Serbs
in the above letter could be repeated for Croats in the Mostar
region of B & H, and likely also in the Croatian Krajina.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ed Agro, PeaceNet Balkans Conferences, Boston & San Francisco
         People Finder Service (PFS), Tallahassee
         /APC/ZAMIR/PFS, na ZaMirNetu, Balkanu
         e.agro@bionic.zerberus.de  - pnbalkans@igc.org