Syndicate: Let the sunflowers blossom again !! (from Wam Kat)

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: wam kat <wam@mir.org>
Subject: Let the sunflowers blossom again !!

wam (still in belzig)

Dear Friends,

A short introduction for those who don't know me, but first a short sorry
for those who get this message 2 or more times, the speed in which every
thing was going in the last days, the messages that the cleansing and the
bombing (not only from direct by the cleansing in Kosovo involved objects)
is going on, that I hadn't the time to really check every address
carefully.

I am 43 years old at the time, Dutch, but living in the former DDR, since
the Dayton agrement in 1995. From late 1991 till the Dayton agreement I
was in basically Croatia and Bosnia, were I was working, let say as
volunteer peace activist (I have been keeping a daily online dairy in that
time, you can find it still on the web (go a search machine and ask for
"zagreb and diary", if it interest you). Among a lot of other things I
have been one of the co-founders of the Electronic Yugoslavian wide
network ZaMir (for peace), the organisation for grassroot voluntary
humanitarian aid in refugees camp, Suncokret (means sunflower in in local
languages) and co-founder of the Pakrac Voluntary Project, a project to
rebuild a small town in Western Slavonia, which was devided by the war in
Croatia in 1991.

I am especially writing you because I like to re-establish activities like
SunCokret in this time again. Over 200.000 refugees have been coming out
of Kosovo up to now, as far as we expect many more will follow. Daily you
see how difficult the big and small humanitarian organisations from all
over the world have it at this time. Nearly impossible to support all
those refugees with the first neccessary aid. Ofcourse this is a problem
which basically only the big organisation can solve, although small
private initiative also can help there.

But like in the Croatian and Bosnian war taking care of refugees means
basically giving them a roof, food and medical supplies and let them wait
in there centers until the whole fighting is over. Everybody who followed
the war in the former Yugoslavia in the last 8 years knows that the
refugees who are now in Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia (and even
further) wouldn't be able to go back soon, it will take at least some
months, or even years (lot´s of the refugees from the Bosnian war are
still not return to there home town, and it will take even some more years
before the are able to).

The misery and traumic experiences from the voilence is followed by the
sitting and waiting in refugee camps. For 7 years I wrote, if this
children who come now from Bosnia haven't got a trauma yet fromw ar, they
will get a trauma from being in a camp. Therefor we started in May 1992 as
Anti War Campaign Croatia to mobilise volunteers (we paid their travel and
stay) from all over the world (a few thousand came) we spend at least 3
weeks in a refugee camp (after a short training), in order to bring some
normality into those camp, to show solidarity. Simply playing with
children, talking with women, organising medical supplies for a certain
camp by reporting the situation back home. Or even start workshop (to make
neccessary thing like tables, beds, clothes, etc.) and in even starting up
schools.

It normally takes a long time before the big aid organisations can start
to organise those activities, therefor again I like to go an appeal over
the world, if there are people who like to do this, people who like to
help to realise it (with money and other aid) or people who know peopel
who can help, pleaseeact and send this message around to your friends.

Maybe we are able to let the sunflower blossom again !!!

Mir Sada !!!

wam

wam@mir.org

mir od mene,

                    wam:-)

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WHY NOT NELSON MANDELA AS PEACE MEDIATOR IN KOSOVO