Monitor the Monitors

So, the decision is made, les jeux sont faits, alea iacta est, etc.etc.: I am going to Brcko for the weekend. To monitor the monitors, because of course I was too late with getting accreditation as an elections observer, or monitor. I have to admit that that pisses me off a bit, but hey, one can not have it all. So instead of having nothing, I am going to breath a friend down his neck, a friend who actually is a monitor in Brcko. I will be following him around, check every step and move he makes, ensure that he does do his democratic duty, and see what he is doing to enable the voting process in this young democarcy....... And ofcourse we will be informed on how the voting is done (although the procedure is not that alien to the one in Holland- one just fills out a box on a ballot...), and that it was done in the most honest and fair manner, and so on, and so on....

Brcko is an interesting place in BiH. It is neither part of the Federation, nor of the RS. It is an entity in itself, in which all ethnic groups live together. One can say it is sort of a mini- Bosnia. It is situated in the triangle BiH-Croatia-Serbia, so it will be interesting which (nationalistic) party is going to win there.

The other day a political rally of the SDA, the Bosniak/Muslim party was held in town. Afterwards there was a caravan of cars circling through Sarajevo. A lot of honking, a lot of flag waving and and a lot of screaming as if they had already won accompanied the caravan. One way or another it only seemed intimidating to me, while the idea behind a political rally is, in my view, the build trust. Tsja.....

Yesterday some unemployed youngsters from Kakanj, a city 50 km outside of Sarajevo, threw paint at the Presidency building. There where 4 of them, and they were protesting against the fact that they are unemployed, and that the government is not doing anything about it. Apparently it was one Serb, one Muslim, one Croat and one Jew. That would be too good to be true a story, and sounds like the beginning of a joke. However, there was no joking around when they were arrested- they were apparently beaten up quite severely. There was a video about it on youtube.com, but the maker of the video took it off the same day as he posted it, which I find very odd. It can not be found on the web anymore...

Nenad the neighbour, born in 1948 but also unemployed, told me that the world should know about this protest, and that it should do something about the situation here- when he told me this I decided not to get into a discussion with him about foreign aid to biH, because I can understand his frustration. He told me he will leave BiH next year (he only wants to leave once his 93-year old mother is dead, and he seesm quite convinced that taht will be next year), sell his house and move to Croatia. He says that the politicians there are equally bad, but it will be easier for him to go to Europe, at least. According to him BiH needs a revolution, in which the youth takes over. He claims that the same thugs who were in power during the war, pull the strings here now....

Anyway, Brcko it is. they have the biggest mall in BiH, so I have been told. But duty first: monitor the monitors!

Weekend

Time and distance are not dimensions- they are concepts. As in 'conceptual thinking'.
In Amsterdam I was living with an American and British guy for about 5 months, and I was surprised by their travel fever. Almost every weekend they went somewhere, usually by plane, but 9 hours in a bus just to go to Berlin to go to a party of a friend was not exceptional either.
It impressed me, but it never really encouraged me to do the same. Which was stupid, I come to realise now that I live here. So therefore I have made an unwritten rule: every second week I have to go somewhere. Thank god I do not live according to my own rules, because it would put quite a burden on every second weekend and be extremely tyring, but I am planning on going away this weekend and next weekend. Quite rock 'n' roll. This weekend I might go to the coast, or to Kosovo (respectively 4,5 hours and about 8 hours drive) unless I can work as an elections monitor, and the weekend after that I am going to Belgrade for sure...

Anyway, the cricket was really fun. There was no dount about it that we were the best team. We did not make it to the finals though, but as anyone who follows the international news knows, in cricket that has nothing to do with the qualities of a team. The umpire is the one who decides, and I am quite sure that this was a case of ball tempering the ref missed out on......

Nenad the neighbour told me that he wants to take me to the places he fought around town. He was a soldier here, and thinks that it is interesting for me to see the city through his eyes. So if I do not go to the coast or to Kosovo, than that will be my activity comming Saturday. That tour will stop making time a concept; it will be a dimension again, I guess. But I guess more for him than for me- his wartime dimension.....

Distress

Never write anything when you are upset. Never write anything when you are angry. Never write anything when you are in distress. Never write anything when you are in. Never write anything when you are. Never write anything when you. Never write anything when. Never write anything. Never write. Never. .

My mom always told me to count to 10 when I am upset. Although I hardly ever manage, I do try to live by that rule. See above. But today I got wet when going to work, when leaving work, when going for dinner, when leaving for dinner. And I know that I should worry about things that matter, and I know that I should pick the fights I can win, but by Jove, the weather here drives me mad!!!!!!! Rain. Rain. RAIN. Gddmn. I am wet, and I am upset. I have not been this wet since I went for my diving lisence... Double dmn. The weather in this country is not what I was told when I got here, and it pis.... Ah, well, never mind. When I complain people tell me that before the war the weather was really different. Ok, I am gullible, and I do believe that a lot of things were different before the war, but the weather.....?

Anyway, more delightfull: a cricket tournament is coming up. This weekend. After one pratice I have a bruise in a very inconvenient place allready, so good things to come. I am worried about the future...

More importantly- elections. The prime minister of the RS, once considered the reasonably guy by the West, is admitedly making the political decisions of his party based on guidelines from Serbia. Intresting times ahead....

NEWS!!

Today there were two thing to be read in the Dutch news about BiH:

1) The head of SIPA, the Bosnian equivalent of the FBI, states that Bosnia is becoming a harbor and training facility for terrorists; and
2) The former head of the police of Bosanski Samac, a place in the northe east of BiH, mr. Stefan Todorovic, has committed suicide. His nickname during the war was Monstrum. I do not think this needs translation.

Ad 1). This is something I have heard before. Currently there is a trial going on in our Court against a few guys from Bosnian descent but with Scandinavian passports, who are accused of preparing terrorist attacks, apparently against embassies. It is still not clear whether those attacks should have taken place in BiH or somewhere else in Europe. However, the head of SIPA does not think the terror will take place in BiH- BiH is practice ground, and apparently, according to this expert, terrorists don't shit were they eat. Ok, fair enough. Whether that is a comforting though? I dunno....
The SIPA head claims that the presence of terror cells in BiH is a result of the fact that during the war a great number of jihadists came to BiH to fight. Since there was a weapons embargo against this country during the war, BiH was happy with any support they could get- beggars can't be choosers. Although no-one was really fond of the fundamentalist, they did come with much needed fighting experience. According to the Dayton agreements of 1995 they were supposed to leave the country after the signing of the peace. However, by marrying local women, quite a number of the men mananaged to stay here. They are still very recognisable, and their wives even more- let's say they dres distinctive. Although their role in the country is quite marginal, their effect on the public opinion in the Republika Srpska is not. And neither is their role in harboring terrorism, according to the head of SIPA. I can not claim it is true what he says, but his words are interesting for sure. Especially since their claimed training ground is where I went parasailing last year. And I did not see a thing. Which might speak for their abilities to work in disguise....

Ad 2). Yesterday I was going through the public files of the crimes committed in Bosanski Samac in 1992, and I was reading about the actions of Mr. Todorovic (www.un.org/icty).
It is fair to say that BiH in the early '90-ies was not a place to go, and Bosanski Samac was not a place to be (actually, nowhere in BiH around then was a place to be or to go. A lot of Bosnians agreed. One in two people became a refugee, albeit in their own country, albeit as a refugee in -predominantly- Europe). It is strange though, that the eye of the world was mainly on Sarajevo and not on all the other places, too. People who were not in Sarajevo during the siege, but who were in other places, tell me often with unease that they were envious of the attention for Sarajevo. Some of them think that the it drew away the attention for them, and that therefore their towns could turn out into 'killing fields'. Bosnaski Samac was such a place, where the world did not pay attention to. While it should have. Reading the files, I get naucheous, like so may times. Mr. Todorovic sum suis reigned with terror. Hisdeath comes as a surprise to me, like to so many other people (he did commit suicide), but if I would not have read the files yesterday, I probbably wouldn't have even noticed his death. And suddenly I understand the envy of the people from anonymous towns in BiH. Only people with a specific interest in BiH look at their case, still now, while their cases usually consists of crimes against humanity, too. And aren't crimes against humanity crimes against all of us, also concerning the people who are not paying attention to them? So why didn't we care....? Again, like so many times here, food for thoughts.....

.....but not for now! Now I am in the airport of Budapest, on my way to Greece, where I am going sailing with 15 friends. I am flying from Sarajevo to Budapest, from Budapest to Athens, and from Athens to Kos. My lay-over time is much longer than my actual flying time, which is quite a pain. All together I am travelling for 16 hours- I could have flown to Hong Kong in the same time....
Anyway, I managed to talk myself 'in an upgrade', so I am sitting in the business lounge now, and am trying to feel sorry for myself for having to wait for my delayed plane. I am not really succeeding at it- the holiday feeling, the drinks, the fingerfood and internet facilities make up for all in the inconveniences....