CROATIA
Continued from Page 28A
der She and her family stayed in Split for a while, and later on. Mar
tin came and provided an act ommodation for them in Zagreb Mar
tin said all of the international humanitarian organizations in C-aplina
wore expelled by HVO HVO's intention is to allow those interna
tional organizations to come aft»»r ethnic cleansing is done.
Now she and her family are in Zagreb, hoping to immigrate to the
unnea states soon Ml a said mat she couinn t
go back to her hometown even if the war ended
now because tier mind is filled with hatred against
those who committed crimes. espe< ialiv Serbs "I
just can’t forgive those who did horrible crimes to
Muslims." she said. "At least not my generation "
I talked with several Croats in Zagreb One
humanitarian worker from the United States said
Croatian people in general are getting more pro
Croats. "I’m often frustrated when I talk with
/-« > < t . i .. i > . r
uium.1. mmiv lit iiioui out »u imui
cists," he said. One Croatian peace activist said to me, “When I say
I'm working in a peace organization, people often laugh at me " Croa
tian people are not satisfied with the current situation - economy,
politics and social life* My impression was that many people wen?
complaining about others but get blinded about themselves It seems
that the Tudjmen government is using that somoone-to-blame strat
egy. in these days against Muslims. As a matter of course, movements
in Croatia are a reflection of what is going on in Hill Hut only inno
cent people an* victimized Ixtcause of it Croats are complaining about
Muslims. Business people (hotel managers) are complaining about
displaced Croats. Many people are complaining about the govern
ment. Most people in Croatia have stereotyped ideas about Slovenes
and Serbs. Everyone is complaining about western c ountries
One Croat woman talked about Muslim refugees. She believes Mus
lims from Bill are generally rich so that they can afford to buy flats
in Zagreb while ordinary Croats are struggling to get them That's a
typical stereotyped opinion about Bosnian Muslims. The reason why
Muslims can get flats is that they are supported by humanitarian orga
nizations and their relatives in foreign countries Now Croatian author
ity want Muslims out of the country, or at least from resort places,
while promoting tourist attractions. Muslims want to get out of the
country if they can bec ause they no longer feel safe in Croatia Every
Croat I talked with belioves Croats are just victims in these conflicts
of ex-Yugoslavia. It’s true, but also the Croatian government and its
army are contributing to the process of destruction of Bill by helping
HVO although they are officially denying. "People don't like the Tudj
man government.” one Croat humanitarian volunteer said. "But peo
ple, especially young, are becoming indifferent to politics." General
apathy and ignorance are dangerous signs of Croatian society in times
of crisis. At the same time. Croat humanitarians and peace activists
are promoting consciousness of peace, justice and human rights among
the Croatian population.
I left Zagreb by bus for Split at 5:30 p.m. on July 31.1 was sitting in
the back, surrounded by HVO soldiers They turned to be very cheer
ful and friendly. One of them, who is an Australian Croat, talked to
me in English, and we talked about war, humanitarian activities
and each other's plan. He was an independent volunteer and work
ing for humanitarian organizations like Red Cross But he was total
ly fed up with these supposed-to-be-humanitarian organizations,
which are actually doing business in Croatia without consideration
for the refugees' situation. He doesn't like mainstream media and pol
itics. He explained how some members of big, international organi
zations are doing business, exploiting the situation of refugees, like
selling medicines to local pharmacy for profit. He ha* been trans
ferring one refugee center to another to help refugees and displaced
[Xtople as much as he ran. He also wants to find out the truth is behind
the main-stream media with his own eyes. He sometimes risks his
life. Why is he doing this? "1 love my home country." he said. "I want
to defend it in a true sense." He has basically no trust in big human
itarian organizations who are delivering aid to refugees If I go back
to Australia." he said. "I don't give a damn to those organizations ."
He also talked about President Bill Clinton. "What we can t forgive
Clinton is that he betrayed us and all the innocent people, he said.
I also talked with one basketball coach. He mainly talked about dif
ferences between Serbs. Croats and Slovenes. He said Slovenes are
too cool and behave like Germans. Serbs have hot tempers and like
fighting and Croats are between the two. In the region like Krujina.
Serbs have a gun-oriented society, and they are considered "well
trained soldiers" in both spiritual and practical terms It s not like
New York City or Los Angeles in the United States, where people
need" guns for defense, but that's the main part of culture of the
region. He has many Serb friends. After the war started between (joats
and Serbs, one of them left for Serbia. "I don't understand him." he
said. "Why is nationality more important than ourselves as individ
uals?” ,
The bus was going on the road all of the way down to Split The
bus was going to cross the bridge called Maslenica. in a village which
was regained by HV in this January Croatia needs Maslenica bridge
and some Dalmatian hinterland that was occupied by Croatian Serbs
Tum to CROATIA. Page 30A
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