European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 11, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Report from Zaire humanitarian cargo la flown from Zagreb to besieged Sarajevo. In the Balkans. Quot George Bush. George Bush a a the Man repeats again and again As though voicing a filthy word. Quot if i had Poison i would take it because i know in be lost ending the Balkan morass is simple says Vladimir Stancic a souvenir Hawker in the picturesque marketplace not far from the Zagreb Cathedral now adorned in a shroud of scaffolding. Quot one f-16 air plane and the War is stopped Quot Stancic says voicing the Hope that America will Send fighters not just doctors. Quot Only soldiers finish this War. Not politicians. Not Bush not Europe. Only soldiers finish this but americans Are hesitant to go much beyond their present efforts which include the 60-bed Hospital whose patients Are mainly . Forces and daily flights from Germany a occasionally under fire a to dash Relief packages into Sarajevo Quot people Are getting stupid shooting at people who Are trying to help them Quot says air Force sgt. Beau Marshall 25, As he manhandled tents bound for the Sarajevo Winter at the fogged in Zagreb Airport. A a it a getting old Quot says Marshall who spends three weeks Here followed by three weeks at Home in Germany. Quot they need to end this so we can go Home and not come Back. But i guess they need it the humanitarian Aid Quot Quot they need to Stop killing each other Quot adds air Force sgt. Robert e. Rogers who also belongs to the 4th Mobile Aerial port so out of Rhein main a near Frankfurt. The business of peace is an exasperating one for those trying to practice it in the Region that old maps Call Yugoslavia. Quot As you can see with your own eyes the need is great Quot says Raed Aldafari a jordanian who just graduated from a Zagreb engineering school. Choosing to stay and see the War through he works for the islamic Relief Agency downtown. Quot our group is nine people Quot he says gesturing toward the crowd of refugees outside his door. Quot we can to to reach Al Jafaris a tiny office on 28 Slavska st., you have to make your Way past hundreds of refugees mostly women who be lined up on the Steep unlighted stairway hoping to become one of the 50 a Day who receive a few dollars and Access to a warehouse with food and used clothing. A Relief worker shouts Down the stairwell that too Many Are in line that most will have to turn Back and try again tomorrow. Inside pictures of Gore and atrocities line the Walls. Downstairs in the basement of the office building below the electronics shop with the latest Sony television sets is a sign for the night bar restaurant stari Zagreb. And out on the Street a sidewalk boo dealer Sells novels and cookbooks King Lear and the Koran. The London based islamic Relief Agency offers its help to anyone who shows up at the door but Aldafari says most attention is paid to orphans. He Hopes the Agency can give 50 German Marks a month to 2,000 of them. Islam like the other world religions Speaks of mercy Aldafari says. Quot but we must let the enemy go away from our lands. How can you forgive someone when you see him killing your child you can forgive him when he goes away from your country. We will forgive the serbs when they go away from another Relief worker explains that both the croats and the serbs have weapons but not the 2 million muslims who make up nearly half the prewar population of Bosnia. International sanctions Are aimed directly at the muslims the Relief worker says echoing a similar complaint by croats that the sanctions Hurt Croatia i Quot if the . Does t want to Stop the War in Bosnia at least make it a fair one Quot the Relief worker says. Quot do not make a sacrifice of the a third Man in Al Jafaris a office Hasan magic 37, explains that he was the Imam or prayer Leader in the town of Priboj which was attacked Quot without any on june 13, magic went to the police station for some routine paperwork discovered that All imams were being arrested and found himself in a detention Camp near banja Luka. He says he was beaten and shot at but not seriously injured. Eventually in september the serbs released All their captive imams. Magic now lives in Zenia 50 Miles North of Sarajevo and says he came to the islamic Relief office in search of funding for a religious newspaper. Aldafari however says the Agency probably won t be Able to help. A fourth Man in Al Jafaris a office 30 and Well dressed asks that his name not be used but says he was an Imam from Sanski most. He too was put in a Camp beaten and eventually released. His wife was also taken to a separate Camp and later released but to a town called velika Kladusan which he says is surrounded by serbs. So the couple is separated by the front lines. Their daughter 2, lives in Sarajevo with relatives. Quot the interesting thing Quot he says Quot is the children know everything about the though a toddler his daughter Quot knows How to feel Happy and How to feel he believes he is not the Only Man whose family is divided into different Corners of the War and he is visiting islamic Relief to see if he can find others like Hirn. Quot if there Are 1,000 people perhaps we can organize something for them Quot he says through a translator. He can to do this by himself he says and the . Won t help. Quot the red Cross in Switzerland can do nothing without permission from the serbs Quot he says. Quot the . Will do nothing without the agreement of the As these Complex wars continue to devolve into religious ones a bosnian town with the pleasant sounding Namo of banja Luka often creeps to the surface. Quot catholics at the present time Are exposed to the utmost danger of our very existence Quot Bishop Franjo Kom Arica of the banja Luka diocese writes in a mid november Appeal to the serbs. The other religious factions other than the muslims Are the roman Catholic croatians and the serbs who have their own Branch of the Eastern orthodox Church. Kom Arica s three Page letter continued on Page 6 a bosnian family living on a mattress in a Zagreb shelter Waits for the fighting to end. Friday december 11, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 3
