THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR OF SALVATION

Interview with Edhem Asceric, President of the Organizing Committee of the "Road of Salt and Wheat - a Humanitarian Convoy of Love for Tuzla and Posavina". The convoy is organized by non-governmental organizations, primarily International Workers' Aid, and the European Parliament is also a sponsor.

AIM, ZAGREB, January 24, 1994

While dramatic appeals are coming from the starved population of Tuzla, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian oasis of joint life, in Zupanja, a Croat town on the entrance of the Sava river into Bosnia and Herzegovina, hundreds of lorries carrying humanitarian aid are standing and waiting to pass through to Tuzla. News that lorries with aid for the citizens of B&H are waiting at someone's military checkpoint is certainly no news, but the attempt to transport aid for Tuzla through the northern corridor, or more precisely, from Zagreb via Zupanja, Orasje and Srebrenik to Tuzla would change both the humanitarian and the political situation in the regions of Tuzla and Posavina. The action for opening the northern corridor called the "Road of Salt and Wheat - a Humanitarian Convoy of Love for Tuzla and Posavina" is organized by non - governmental organizations, primarily International Workers' Aid and the Logistics Center in Tuzla, while the general sponsor, in addition to the support of numerous individuals and of the Croatian political alternative (Mika Tripalo, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, Silvije Degen, Milorad Pupovac ) is the European Parliament. We are talking about this action, the situation in Tuzla and the future of B & H with Mr.Edhem Asceric, President of the Organizing Committee for opening the northern corridor.

AIM: How did the idea of trying to open the northern corridor come into being?

ASCERIC: International Workers' Aid from London and the Logistics Center in Tuzla have, for the past five months been trying to do a most natural thing - to open the northern corridor to Tuzla. Trade Unions from Sweden, Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia are also taking part in this action and recently, at their meeting in Stuttgart they drew up a mini - programme of their activity for opening the northern corridor. This northern corridor was mentioned for the first time when English workers brought their aid for Tuzla to Split and remained there, being unable to go on, on account of Croat - Moslem conflicts. We explained to them that Tuzla had never been linked with other towns and states through the southern corridor and that, on the north side, there was a highway, the most natural and fastest way linking the region of Tuzla and Posavina with Croatia and further with European countries. It took less than five hours to reach Zagreb from Tuzla, through that corridor, i.e. the regular road.

AIM: You, nevertheless, used the southern corridor via Herzegovina for central Bosnia and further on for Tuzla, until conflicts broke out between the Croats and the Moslems.

ASCERIC: We were forced to use of the southern corridor for supply purposes during the first year of the war because of the blockade of Tuzla from all other sides. Before the war, those roads were never used except for forestry works, because this link from Tuzla to Zagreb is about 1,150 km long so it would take three to four days, even without any conflicts and war operations. Today, when even that southern corridor is not functioning and when it is in the center of conflicts, it is not logical to try to transfer humanitarian aid to Tuzla that way, and it is not at all certain whether it would reach its destination. Not so long ago, in May last year, a large convoy for Tuzla was attacked, many of our people were killed, of 476 vehicles only about 200 half-empty ones reached Tuzla, while the rest were destroyed. Our total losses, in addition to the irreplaceable human casualties, were some 35 million DM.

AIM: The municipal authorities of Tuzla recently sent a letter claiming that the supply of citizens and numerous refugees with food is exceptionally difficult, and that the UNHCR has not been able to bring in any relief during the past month.

ASCERIC: The supply of humanitarian aid is indeed at a low level in Tuzla. The town currently has 226 thousand inhabitants, of which 130,000 citizens of Tuzla, while the rest are refugees from northern and eastern Bosnia. UNHCR's Programme envisages aid only to refugees and not to citizens, and that supply, according to the estimates of our statistical services, meets only 17% of the needs. Regrettably, storehouses in the Republic of Croatia and in other European countries are full of goods intended for Tuzla which cannot be transported, while we are paying storage charges every day, because every square meter of storage space also costs. The goods are thus losing in value, the donors are nervous because we can give them no information on the arrival of the goods to Tuzla, while on the other hand, the hungry citizens of Tuzla cannot believe that no one wishes to help them. But, despite so much talk, going on for months now, the Airport in Tuzla is still closed, with only grenades landing on it.

AIM: In almost all blocked cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the black market there are goods which should be distributed on a humanitarian basis. Is it the same in Tuzla?

ASCERIC: Of course, those who are blocking Tuzla are bringing goods into the city which they will not allow legal entry. In that way they are taking from the citizens their last dinar or foreign currency, sent to them in this or that way from abroad by their relatives. Smuggling in war is very profitable, so that some are not anxious for the city to be deblocked. An average salary in Tuzla is about DM 4, while prices in the black market are soaring. A kilo of sugar costs DM 40, of oil DM 30, and of flour even up to DM 40, depending on how much goods are smuggled into the city. Such smuggling knows no national borders, it is only important to make a good profit. The civil minded authorities of Tuzla are, precisely for that reason, exceptionally anxious to see the northern corridor opened, because it would suppress this smuggling in foodstuffs and prices of the basic articles could be guaranteed at a reasonable and acceptable level.

AIM: If the average salary is DM 4, that means that some institutions or firms in the town are working, in spite of the blockade?

ASCERIC: Schools, faculties and some services are working, naturally. All production segments that are working are operating at drastically decreased capacity. All our workers are endangered since they are in a chain linked with the thermal power system. The circle closes there and problems arise. The capacity of the thermal power plant in Tuzla is 869 mgW, and the region needs just a half of this quantity. We used to export the rest to Sarajevo or even to Dalmatia, when it was threatened by darkness. But today, due to the blockade, we are unable to bring in raw materials for the mines - caps, detonators, explosives and oil - so that the Power Plant is operating at lower capacity. We have contacted everyone offering all sorts of cooperation, so that we could bring in those raw materials. We even offered to the Republic of Croatia that their people come and distribute the raw materials, and convince themselves that they would not be used for military purposes, but to no avail. Since we cannot exploit the coal we cannot produce electricity, and without it, we had to decrease all production capacities and resources in the polyurethane chemical industry, or the "DITA" factory of detergents.

Since the products of the factories from Tuzla are highly competitive goods, if we had routes to bring in raw materials, we could ourselves, without any humanitarian or other aid, feed the whole region. The opening of this northern corridor, which is the most convenient road communication for Tuzla, and continuous traffic along that road, would for us, literally mean the end of the war. The citizens of not only Tuzla, but also other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina would have clear proof of how it is possible to live together without war and nationalistic hatred. Tuzla was and will remain proof of that.

AIM: It seems that Tuzla is actually blocked by all three sides, i.e. that all three national parties in B & H harbour a certain degree of intolerance towards Tuzla. The Serbian media, for instance, carry that the Mayor of Tuzla and President of the Reform Party, Selim Beslagic, was either killed or arrested, while the Sarajevo media constantly accuse you of secessionism and tendencies towards autonomy.

ASCERIC: You know, everyone wants autonomy for us more than we ourselves want it. Despite all the three national options which are against us, we are of the opinion that in the Tuzla region, there are only two sides - those who are for Bosnia and Herzegovina and those who are against it. National programmes never brought any luck to B & H, they just show who is who in this state and what he is like. The misfortune is that they all are called, or wish to be called, differently than their state is called. If they were called citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnians and Herzegovinians there would be far less problems than there are today. I believe that the civil option in Tuzla will survive and even expand throughout B & H. Mr.Selim Beslagic is a politically wise man and I think that we should listen to him. The people in Tuzla are together and that is their greatest power. It is much less important whether someone is Orthodox, Catholic or of the Islamic confession. In any case, the slogan of the party headed by Mr.Beslagic is "Bosnia is best defended in the Tuzla way".

DRAZENA PERANIC