European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Sarajevo s Anne Frank Hopes diary will Aid those left behind by aun Riding the new York times or two years through the steady destruction of Sarajevo the endless food shortages the deaths of friends and the constant atmosphere of fear Zlata Filipovic now 13, kept a diary that recorded the life and feelings of a Young girl trapped in a War she could not understand. At times she imagined the War would never end. If things go on like this i la 20 in a few years time she wrote. If it turns out to another Lebanon As they keep saying ill 30. Gone will my childhood. Gone my youth. Gone my life. And i la die and this War still won t yet last month thanks to her diary Filipovic and her parents were evacuated by French authorities from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And now still surprised to find herself in the safety of Paris the teen Ager is suddenly confronted with the fact that she has become a literary sensation. The diary of Zlata ship Otic published in Paris six weeks ago went immediately to the top of France s nonfiction Best Sellers list. There Are 50,000 copies already in print in France and rights to the Book have been sold in nine other countries and Are under negotiation in the United states the diary s instant Success suggests that even in a world numbed by television images of daily atrocities in Sarajevo in a world racked by guilt Over its failure to halt the 21-month-old conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina the voice of an innocent child carries special weight. French publisher editions Robert Laffont Fixott which owns the foreign rights to the Book has predictably proclaimed Filipovic to the bosnian War s version of Anne Frank the jewish girl who for 25 months kept a diary while in hiding from German troops in Amsterdam during world War ii. And As it happens the bosnian girl had read Anne Frank s diary before Sarajevo was engulfed by War and like Anne Frank she addressed her thoughts and fears to an imaginary Friend Mimmy. More than once she hoped she would not suffer the same Fate As Anne Frank who died in a nazi concentration Camp at the age of 15. In a Way were in the same position Filipovic said in a recent interview. In a War writing a diary lonely can t go outside losing our childhood. The difference is she was in an attic and i was in a cellar. It s crazy what happened to her. It s crazy to Zlata Filipovic has not forsaken the friends she left in War torn Sarajevo. Think it could happen sitting on a sofa at her publisher s offices speaking in accented but fluent English she seemed older More mature than her years would suggest. Above All she appeared intent on using her new Fame to draw attention to the plight of the 70,000 or so children under the age of 15 who Are still in Sarajevo. When people read my Book when they see on television they May help the children of Sarajevo because must not forget the children she when people ready Book when they see on television they May help the children of Sarajevo because must not forget the children Zlata Filipovic Sarajevo diarist explained. I want to say to people Stop you live Normal lives. Please help the children of Sarajevo. If you forget it will the end " what Filipovic has no time for is politics. In her diary and again in person she poured scorn on All politicians. It s a War Between idiots not Between serbs and croats and muslims she said. They crazy. Even when they signing a cease fire could hear the Boom of shells those kids Are playing around with us she wrote on May 4,1993, using the nickname she gave Bosnia s politicians. Ordinary people Don t want this division because it won t make anyone Happy not the serbs not the croats not the muslims. But who asks Ordinary people politics Only asks its own significantly even though she was writing about an ethnic War fought against a religious background the diary makes no reference to religion. Filipovic is of mainly croat descent but she insisted her family was mixed and not at All devout. When the family began to mix Many years ago she added they stopped believing in much of her diary is Given Over to the incidents of daily life from almost nightly trips to bomb shelters Days without Light water or Gas and the scramble to find food to the Small pleasures of Reading or resuming her piano lessons or braving snipers to visit her grandparents. Only occasionally does she sound desperate. Of Mimmy i can t take it any More she wrote on june 1,1993. There s a growing possibility of my killing myself if All these morons up there and Down Here Don t kill first. I m losing it. I want to scream. Bang my fists kill. I m human too you know. I can Only take so much of ooh i m so sick of it All looking Back she said she never really contemplated suicide. I think i was crazy that Day she said with a slightly embarrassed smile. In fact she went on most people grew accustomed to the bombing and suffering. When you got used to things it was easier she recalled. But some people did commit Short subject the grubs go at it in australian parliament by Peter James Spielmann the associated press insults Fly thick and fast in the Bear pit where honorable legislators berate one another As grubs brain damaged and dog this is the impassioned and High Decibel world of democratic debate australian style As conducted on the floor of parliament. But the invective has gone so far that the politicians or follies Are beginning to worry about their Public image. Australian parliamentary debate May not violent like the occasional fistfights or chair throwing scuffles in Italy and Taiwan but it is predictable. You can tune in for daily to coverage of question time when Cabinet ministers Are available for queries. Question time is broadcast live by australian broadcasting corp., providing the liveliest hour of daytime afternoon drama. Then the most outrageous scenes Are often repeated on the evening news shows. Insulting someone during question time has become a Fine Art monitored by a referee the president of the Senate or speaker of the House of representatives who can try to control things with Calls of order by this time the legislators following British House of commons tradition Are hooting guff awing and retaliating with insults. Obscenity profanity or questioning a legislator s Honor or honesty is considered unparliamentary and must withdrawn. It is the equivalent of penalty in a sporting match. Within these constraints there is always a search for new insults that have not been previously ruled prime minister Paul Keating who clawed his Way up the ranks of the labor party is acknowledged As the master of parliamentary Tongue lashing. has assailed the opposition Liberal party members As perfumed gigolos and brain damaged loony Crims Short for criminals. But the classic Keating contribution to the australian political lexicon is scumbag which imported from America. Only used it once. got it from the Martin Scorsese film mean streets said Jim Middleton the Abc to reporter who closes each broadcast of question time. But As a term of abuse it was an instant hit in Australia appearing now in letters to the editor in newspapers almost daily. Little old ladies Call radio talk shows to denounce follies they disagree with As historically the level of invective has always been higher in the australian and British parliaments than in the . Congress said Middleton. But the extent of it has intensified in recent the vicious insults seem even More bizarre because they Are framed by an almost courtly formality of address representatives May not addressed by name but Are called the honorable understandably this sort of debate generates More heat than Light on the issues facing Australia. And a House of representatives committee is questioning whether it s time to change the floor procedures. This feeling comes from members own experiences but is reinforced by Adverse Public comment particularly since the Advent of televising of question time the committee recently reported. It recommended that the speaker have the Power to banish obstreperous legislators to hockey style sin bin to Cool off until question time ends. 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