ZAGreb INFormation potLATCH

Dear friends, this is another issue of zaginflatch. It is an english version of necemo i nedamo newsletter, another product of a group of individuals called zap. In order tospread the information on what is going on around here, we started doing this 2 years ago, and are quite happy with the way people respond. We would like to thank to our numerous friends who have supported us during the years of the group's existence. Especially groups like Maloka, Kochize, Germinal, Neither East Nor West, IVS - NI, Barricade bookstore ... and more... Also we thank everybody who has sent us materialfor our info shop/library

We are not going to spend any more words in order to explain what are we about. Those of you who know us probably have an idea, those of you who don't should get the picturethrough Zaginflatch.... zap

note that zaginflatch isn't a word for word translation of necemo i nedamo. Articles are modified, and are explaing the whole situation a little bit more than in necemo i nedamo. That's logical, isn't it?

On the grounds of the new law on the protection of Character and Work (see zaginflatch # 8) by which the president and four other high states functionaries are protected from slander, some journalists were accused. This new law (articles 71 and 77 of croatiancriminal law) is practically a reinforcement of a verbal fellony. Anyway, Viktor Ivancic and Marinko Culic, two journalists from a satirical weekly newspaper Feral Tribunewere accused but it was obviously a political decision. After financial attacks through inforced tax on pornography (to a satirical newspaper which never published any pornographic material?!), verbal attacks from all state's officials, physical attacks finally came this attempt of a final strike. It is important to note that Feral Tribune is a very popular newspaper which deals with all kinds of different political issues and that they are one of the few independent magazines which do not follow the official line of covering the events. This obviously bothered the officials so finally the two journalists ended up in front of the court on 14.6.1996. when the first summons was held. Just before the first summons a demonstration was held, on Cvjetni Trg in Zagreb. Around 60+ participated and witnessed a mini play performed on the spot. A couple of hundreds of free Feral Tribunes were given away. The whole thing went pretty quietly. However,the supporter's presence was obvious the next day in court....

Next court dates were on 25. and 26.9.1996. 20.9.1996. a group called Neither East Nor West organized a demo in front of the Croatian consulate in New York in order to show their support to Feral. Also, a little bit more space was given to the case in other newspapers. After the second and third day, a decision was declared by a very brave judge who has found the 2 not guilty. That was a great relief for the majority of their colleagues and for the informed part of public. Not that there were any actual grounds for the case, but one can expect everything.

Sometime at the end of October, another unpleasant event happened. Radio 101 which has a reputation of being the only truly independent electronic media in Croatia was denied a concession on their frequency. This radio station started tobroadcast in 1983 and was a very strong opposition to then socialist Yugoslavia. Their provocative program has always covered various political questions and the radio became famous for its sharp criticism of authorities (especially local, but also on higher scale). They played an important part in overthrow of the socialist regime, and were the first radio station to offer some space to today's Croatian dictator.9not that they should be proud of that, but note that was a dangerous act at the time). They were obviously inspired with a potential rise of civil rights, and therefore supported the transition. As things have changed the radio stayed on the same positions and naturally got in a conflict with authorities. Especially when they managed to replace a HDZ (croatia's strongest political party, in power since the first ellections, and pretty much responsible for the whole situation) Today, they still have pretty nationalist and pro-capitalist wievs, but thegood side of them is their open stand to all sides... Anyway, after the commission's decision on the ban of radio 101 (which has enormous popularity in Zagreb), an explosion of emotions happened. People started to call in and send faxes of support. There was crying on air, threats, calls for rebellion, swearing. Thousands of people were irritated by that decision. Spontaneously, someone called the radio and asked to be let on air. There he said:"o.k. people. All of you who are listening to this, lets meet at Cvjetni Trg in 3 hours time." In just a three hours note, approximately 10 thousands showed! The whole demo was totally spontaneous. Ordinary people have made their own posters and flyers also banners. Slogans were chanted, the whole city was spay painted with graffiti. The whole city was on their feet! Practically everybody who meant something in the domain of public life came personally to the 101 premises to show support. Calls and faxes of support continued to come in the whole night. Something big was in the air.

The next day came in expectations of what will the next evening show. Croatian Helsinki Board announced a big demo to be held that evening, and a huge show up was expected. Since the public reacted like a petrol bomb, and also all foreign factors, the government was forced to withdraw the decision in question.Which they did the following morning.It was a victory, and the battle was jet prepared. That evening, around 130 thousands came to the demo. To us, the first day was a great experience. Our ordinary passive neighbors got active and what is more important they took the control over into their own hands. The whole revolt and action was very spontaneous and selforganized. The second day was a bit more official though. What is to be said about that? This event was not a revolutionary act, but it was nice to see at least something going on in Zagreb, and not being set up by a regular circle of activists. At the same time, when radio 101 has lost its frequency, another station had the same experience. Radio Sjeverozapad (very opositional, but also close to opositional political parties) was banned, but they did not have enough support to battle back.

In the city of Smederevo, a new anarchist group was formed. They call themselves Anarhisticki pokret Smedereva (Anarchist movement of Smederevo), although they are not sure about the name yet. They plan to press anarchist materials and distribute them. There is still no address, hopefully next time...

A new issue of "Kako si?" newsletter is out, so anybody who might be interested in receiving it can ask for a free copy at: VPP, Bolnicka 47, 34550 Pakrac, Croatia. Kako si is a bilingual newsletter made by international volunteers which do their work in the pakrac region since 1993, trying to normalize life over there. It is a good effort, and worth supporting although the whole project is in a bit of a crisis right now. At present they try to involve the locals a little bit more and also to organize some long term volunteers who will be able to develop their present post projects, such as: e-mail project, puppet theater, house calls, photo project, kako si?. We wrote about VPP in a couple of last issues of zaginflatch so check them out if you want some more info on the whole story.

On 10.12. is the international day of human rights, and zap believes that this day has to be celebrated in a way. Therefore this year we will once again participate in organizing of the events which will cover the day. There is so much to be done considering the basic human rights over here (and note that only afterwards we can spread the domain to more complex structures. In the local version of this newsletter we asked people to participate and help organizing the whole thing but that seems stupid for the international version so take this just as plain news.

On 30.11. is another date to be celebrated - No Shopping Day. Simply a day when you should not buy anything (assuming that you otherwise do). That is a way to bring attention to the consumer spirit of this society, and I guess we will all participate in our own special ways.

Amnesty International Hrvatska - Zagreb group was supposed to hold a demonstration in Zagreb, on 27.9., regarding the breaking of human rights in China. As the place where the demo was supposed to happen was "booked" (i.e. previously announced H.Carreras concert was transmitted over there), the whole event was rescheduled for one week later. In the meanwhile A.I. did some campaigning for protection of human rights of children as well. Furthermore, they published some written material. To contact A.I., write to: Amnesty International Hrvatska, Vojnoviceva 26, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia or e-mail at: AIH_ZG@ZAMIR-ZG.ZTN.APC.ORG

TORPEDO (for those of you who still do not know, it is an anarchist group from Smederevo, Jugoslavia) continues with its activities. Until today, they published a couple of translations of some pamphlets. They are: Everything you ever wanted to ask about anarchism but were afraid to ask, IWW - goals & principles, Osteuropaarchiv:Yugoslavia: class war, crisis, war, AKF - Our wievs, Edi Konlon: Spanish civil war,anarchism in action, Katarina: Mexico is not only Chiapas nor Chiapas uprising is just a Mexican affair, Nestor Mahno: My visit to Kremlin. Torpedo can be reached at: Milan Djuric, M. Velikog 12/10, 11300 Smederevo, Yugoslavia. They also publish a periodical newsletter in english called Torpedo newsflash.

In a couple of past issues of zaginflatch we wrote about the situation in the refugee camp Kupljensko. Being totally cut of the world, west bosnian refugees were victims of both political and physical terror. Without any alternative solutions they simply egzisted on a dead end road which served as an improvised camp providing only existential minimum, and sometimes not even that. After two years of tragedy, and the change in the geopolitical situations the refugees were forced to leave the camp. a great number of them returned to Bosnia (Kladusa, Bihac) although they did not want to. However,some people were allowed to leave the region and go to third countries. it is still unclear what will happen when they will have to return back to Bosnia (such is the case with the Bosnian refugees in Germany at the moment), when they are clearly not wanted there. They either do not fit into the political or ethnical picture of the country, and once when they will come back they will have to face a great deal of danger (just like those who have already returned do right now). All in all Bosnia is a mess and normalization of life is still very far.

In cooperation between Anti War Campaign and ZAP, Volunteers Center was formed few months ago. Main idea of this Center is to promote this kind of work, and to send volunteers from Croatia to the work camps in the other countries. Some of this people maybe come back with new contacts or ideas and start up some other projects or continue to work as activists in some already existing projects. Anyway, first steps were done, first volunteers went to their work camps, and now we'll see first results. Volunteers Center tries to provide traveling money for all volunteers that they send somewhere, but it's hard to get enough money for that, so at this point the group is in debts There are free places for volunteers in following countries, and we hope that we will be able to send people there - France, Northern Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. You can contact Volunteers Center at: ARK / Volunteers Center, Gajeva 55, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

Some of you might remember that there was a riot in Samobor,on 31.10.1995., when the cops arrested 200 punx. (For more info see past issues). Well, today more than a year later, not much has changed in their approach to counterculture. Maybe, this year's "Samobor anniversary" concert managed to implant some sense into their minds, since the concert was rather successful and nice. In a small pub in Samobor, around 150+ gathered and enjoyed themselves. The cops showed up offcourse, but this time they could not do a thing against the gathering. Furthermore, ZAP in collaboration with ARK organized an open forum which went quite well too. In the premises of Novinarski dom in Zagreb some 70+ persons came to hear has anything changed since last year.

- Kontrapunkt is a new d.i.y. distribution which wants to revive the punk scene. So far they did a list with a couple of releases and also pressed some t-shirts (political) and patches... Bulajic Branko, Djure Djakovica 49, 36000 Kraljevo, Yugoslavia. - a new distribution started to exist in Slovenia. Write to: Rusjan Junior, Pot na breg 8, 5250 Solkan, Slovenia. - Preko zidova nacionalizama i rata (Over the walls of nationalism and war) compilation 7" is a new release which has to be mentioned. It brings 7 punk/hc bands from ex Yu which all with one song raise their voice against armed conflict in the area while targeting the cause. T shirts were also pressed, and all that can be found at: Vedran Meniga, V. Ruzdjaka 8, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. That is the address of a label called Humanita Nova, and they have also published an international benefit comp. tape, for this newsletter... Its 5$ ppd worldwide. - During the summer there were a few festivals, but we can't really say that they were political in any way - there was lots of good music and alcohol. And beans on the Monte Paradiso festival were great! Besides that, punx stayed more or less passive.