INTERNATIONAL Workers' Aid (IWA) convoys will converge on Split, Croatia, 8 April.
The IWA is "back on the road" following the success of the fist convoy to Tuzla, Bosnia
Build direct links last year, and the determination of the recent IWA conference in Amsterdam to
But financial aid is still needed and we urge every reader to send what they can to the
Following arrival in Split meetings will be organised with local trade unions, which have often been at the forefront of the anti-war opposition. Direct links between rank-and-file continue building and spreading the campaign.
workers in the former Yugoslavia and Western Europe have, throughout the war, been
IWA account in Denmark (see opposite).
This is why plans are being hatched to bring trade unionists from former Yugoslavia to
Western Europe to meet and talk with the workers who have helped build the IW
A delegation from the Sarajevo-based union federation, Savez Sinokata B-H one of the small rays of hope for the future.
already visited Brussels, primarily for a meeting with the European Trade Union ( deration (ETUC). Their request for membership was refused and, instead, the
Jenny Mees, a driver on the first convoy to Tuzla and member of the Belgiar the Fourth International, also met with the Bosnian delegation and asked would be prepared to attend a conference and speaking tour of trade ur convoys.
would also include Croatians and Serbs. While at first they said "no" to offered a probationary relationship.
Serbs, "because they are the aggressors", after discussion they agre who will be in Sarajevo for 1 May, clearly has its own agenda for the the trade union movement in the event of a "peace settlement"
Another reason, if any more were needed, for demonstrating that t vision of international workers' solidarity. Gerard Macklin O
AS
THE second of Saturday 19 March
International
International Workers'
Workers' Aid (IWA)
Aid has been working from convoy is on the road its new office in Split. We are currently overwhelmed with organising and the newly for the arrival of the international established IWA office in Split, convoy. At present our main priorities are registering as an NGO with
Croatia, sent us the following report.
the Croatian authorities, hiring a warehouse, sorting out customs and opening a bank account so that the next convoy is not bedevilled by bureaucratic and logistical problems.
We are expecting the first loads of aid from Spain and Germany to arrive on 28 March and we will by then have a warehouse and efficient customs clearance procedures. We are co-operating in the receipt of the
Spanish load with SOS Balkanes from Euzadi. We hope this is the first
6
International Viewpoint #255 April 1994 id convoy of many occasions where we are able to co-operate. The main convoy from northern Europe arrives on 12 April and we are planning a weekend event in Split before unloading and preparing our off-road trucks for the run to Tuzla. Many of the routes to central Bosnia are open and there are less HVO checkpoints. There is now a ferry to cross the Neretva river at Bjiela and there is talk of re-building the bridge. In Gornj Vakuf children are playing in the streets and nas people are tending their garontey were dens. Their is still some tension around Visoko where the "Bosnian Serbian Army" section of has yet to withdraw all hem if they their guns, and shells are ionists which still falling on Kladanj ne inclusion of and Olavo. ed. The ETUC, e-organisation of
As well as an along ethnic lines. increase in traffic ere is an alternative from humanitarian
Said organisations there are now a number of Bosnian-led initiatives. One of these, the Convoy of Salt and Cereal, has been jointly organised by the Logistics
Centres of Tuzla, Srebrenica, Gradacac and Brcko, and is sending ten trucks through at a time. In addition a lot of independents, businesspeople and "black-marketeers" are starting to organise runs. All food getting through will have the effect of depressing prices of basic commodities. The price of flour had risen to
30 deutchmarks a kilo last winter but is now starting to fall as supplies get in.
The cease-fire is holding; at least between the HVO and the beleaguered Bosnia-Herzegovina government. However, the real beneficiaries of this deal will be the Croatian government and their German backers, whose economic power will very likely absorb the shattered Bosnian economy. Whether the Serbs can be persuaded to join this "confederation" remains to be seen (it
would leave them most if not all of the ground they hold and in effect divides the country into the ethnic cantons they have supported at
Geneva). Meanwhile Bosnia remains isolated and desperately short of the basic commodities for everyday life.
The real losers of this war are the working people and farmers evicted from their towns and villages, the people who are now an army of 2
International Workers' Aid
Donations to million refugees. Maybe three or four should be rushed to:
percent of these people have escaped from war, starvation and refugee camps to Western Europe. How
Den Danske Bank
2-12 Holmens Kanal many of those left can return to their
DK-1092 Copenhagen K homes? This "peace" solves none of the problems of the Balkans. The effects of this war will last for a gene-
Denmark
Telex 27000 - SWIFT DABADKKK
Account no. 4180862161
We must broaden and deepen our campaign. The need for international working class solidarity and direct labour movement links represented by our aid convoys assumes an even greater importance. *
Tuzla, Bosnia:
A man cries next to his dead brother and nephew, killed by Serb shells 9 March
— one day after UN troops took control of the airport
7
International Viewpoint #255 April 1994
MEXICO -I