THE MAYOR OF SARAJEVO AND THE TROUBLES OF THE SARAJEVANS

THEY THEMSELVES ARE TO BLAME

AIM SARAJEVO December 3, 1994

Mrs. L.N. tried, with the little water she had managed to collect, to wash the clothes of her son who had had come for a short visit to his parents' house from the first front lines. She finishes her washing and is unable to wipe away strange bluish crystals from her hands. She goes to the window and in the daylight sees - blood has frozen in innumerable tiny shards of ice on the surface of her hands. It seems that the sharp edges of these crystals will cut her red skin. She feels no pain, her hand is cold as if under anesthesia...

The temperature in the city has fallen below zero. The surrounding hills are white with snow. There is no electricity here. There is no water. There is no gas. There is no food either, but there are shells. The situation in Sarajevo is, thus, as usual for the third war winter in a row. But, the frozen to the bones Sarajevans were "warmed up" by their Mayor by his last statement to the effect - why did they not make their own preparations for the winter, they can blame no one, but themselves! Thus, according to Sarajevo's Mayor Tarik Kupusovic the Sarajevans are no less than irresponsible people expecting (shame on them!) the city authorities to ensure their survival during the winter instead of seeing to that by themselves, which should, according to the Mayor be quite "simple" in such a closed, blocked, devastated, poor and troubled city such as Sarajevo!

• This summer the "blue roads" were open four hours a day and they were used all the time - explains Kupusovic.
• In only a few days so much goods were brought into the city that the prices plummeted making Sarajevo the cheapest town in Europe. At that time certain quantities of coal, fuel wood and heating gas were brought in. The objective was for the citizens to buy them and to establish a constant supply. To sell the wood and buy new quantities with the money. Regrettably we lent money to "Ogrijevtrans", but no one bought the fuel wood, coal or gas! We even advertised on "Hayat" TV, but to no avail! When the "blue roads" were closed, we distributed these supplies to priority consumers and then the hell broke loose: where are the fuels, why didn't you procure any, etc.etc...In any case, the citizens themselves could have organized the purchase of fuels, but no one did that - reproaches the Mayor.

It turns out that the Sarajevans should have gone crazy with happiness because, this summer, food was by some 10 percent cheaper than, for instance in Zagreb (a kilo of cheese was sold from DM 8 to 10, of peppers and tomatoes from DM 3 to 5, oil went at the same price, bread from DM 0.5 to 1, depending on whether it was fresh or yesterday's...), while the average salaries of the fortunate employed ranged from 70 phennigs to several Marks! Not to mention the pensioners who didn't receive their pensions for months, and in better cases it was paid in the form of about 10 kilos of flour (naturally for two months), and the large number of those who have no earnings whatsoever.

Thus, according to Mayor Kupusovic, the "irresponsible Sarajevans" should have, in that "welfare" period come up with, fabricated or somehow found several hundreds of Marks and stocked for the coming winter, rather than giving their municipal authorities a headache today. The same authorities who lucidly came up with the idea to pay the private (meaning party) "Hayat" TV station a commercial for selling fuel to the citizens who could not turn on their TV sets for days, because the city had no electricity! But, that is not important. The most important thing is that the commercial was properly paid for and broadcast, because "never and nowhere does a Government purchase fuels, that is a commercial matter, done by commercial firms", - says Sarajevo's Mayor so as to strengthen his condemnation of his naughty and lazy subjects. The fact that "commercial transactions" have from the first day of war in Sarajevo been a synonym related exclusively to smuggling and war profiteers, is a matter of no interest to Kupusovic, just as it didn't interest his predecesor of last year - Kresevljakovic. In any case, when one comes to power by being loyal to a party, rather than on the basis of proven abilities for a given post, for instance, that of Mayor, nothing better can be expected. On the contrary!

These unfounded "commercial transactions" dreamt of by the incapable Mayor of a dying city have recently closed the last hope for survival of the Sarajevans - the municipal bakery. Namely, the authorities have cut off "Velepekara's" power supply because of "unpaid electricity bills from March to November this year". The explanation for such an act, after which there are no conditions for the production of bread in the bakery, was found by the authorities, it is claimed, in the decision of the Government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to which every kilowatt of supplied power must be paid for.

Since "Velepekara" distributes most of the bread it makes to local communities (so that up to recently Sarajevans got bread at least free of charge, as some form of humanitarian assistance), i.e. delivers it for feeding the soldiers of the B&H Army - this firm was in no position to accumulate enough funds regularly to pay its obligations to "Elektroprivreda" (Power Supply Authority). To be able to do that it must sell bread on a commercial basis. Its prices would have to be covered by those miserable two Marks of a Sarajevo salary, naturally of those who manage to get it. The municipal authorities are evidently not thinking about ensuring economic conditions as would enable Sarajevans to earn as much as they need to survive and as loyal citizens meet their obligations to the state. Why bother with that when, as everyone knows, war is still raging in Sarajevo!

And in that war the citizens have already grown accustomed, in days without electricity, to look at an occasional illuminated window on the building across the street. That is called "priority" in Sarajevo. There are all sorts of them - from party leaders, war profiteers and private businessmen to the families, godfathers or friends of those in power, although the ordinary mortals of Sarajevo use much ruder names which could, in more decent words, be termed - the unacceptably privileged! The opposition ( the Union of B&H Social Democrats) will once again publicly protest because of the segregation and division of the citizens into the "important and unimportant" and demand a more rational approach in the use of the available quantities of electricity, but it is hardly likely that any major changes will take place. Given the neocommercialization of Sarajevo, it will be seen that only today's "priorities", namely the authorities and its favourites, will be able to pay for the delivered electricity. Thus the demand of the opposition to revoke all priorities of physical persons regrettably seems futile.

Winter has just begun. Planes carrying humanitarian relief have not landed at Sarajevo airport for days. No one even mentiones the opening of the "blue roads". Neither do they mention gas, water, electricity. The latest humanitarian assistance to last the next fifteen days amounted precisely to 100 grams of sugar, 250 grams of rice and 150 grams of fats. The latest information from UNPROFOR is: "The agressor has completely closed all water and gas valves on the territory under their control and the Bosnian side has done the same in the part it controls". Mutual strangling has started.

Mrs. L.N. from the beginning of the text still feels no pain in her frozen hands. Namely, she did not manage to warm them up anywhere.

MIRSADA BOSNO