THE SAD DUBROVNIK SUMMERS

AIM, SPLIT, April 29, 1995

An earthquake between three and four degrees on the Mercalli scale registered in the early morning on Wednesday April 12, announced a hard week for Dubrovnik in which the tremor of the ground and memories of 1979 were the least painful thing of all. On that same day in Bosanka above Dubrovnik the twelve-years-old Dolores Paskojevic was killed by a forgotten mine reminding that seeds of evil had been sown. A day later, on Thursday, the people were reminded of 1991 when Bozidar Vucurevic sent a message that he was still in Trebinje, and that Trebinje is near Dubrovnik. Of the 30 shells fired at Konavle and the Dubrovnik coastal area one killed Andra Domiskovic, the father of five, from Orasac. On that same evening a telex arrived from the Greek passenger ship "La Palma" to the shipping agency "Atlant- agent" cancelling, on account of the Trebinje shells, the visit of 390 tourists to Dubrovnik, which was planned within an Easter cruise of the Mediterranean. "This ship was supposed to break the touristic isolation of sorts in which we live", cried out Cpt. Vlaho Putica from "ATlant-agent" after La Palma's cancellation. The ship was to have been a first touristic swallow heralding better Dubrovnik summers.

Some of that future was also to have happened on Wednesday, April 19, with the opening of a part of the airport building destroyed during the Serbian - Montenegrin occupation in 1991/92. Precisely at the moment the Croatian Prime Minister, Nikica Valentic, was delivering a speech at the ceremony organized on that occasion, Vucurevic interrupted him firing a shell which fell next to the runway at the momenet when approximately a thousand people had gathered there. Amd that is how the black Dubrovnik week ended and another gloomy "tourist season" started.

After that the German Minister for Economy and Development, Carl Dieter Spranger, "for reasons of safety" also cancelled his visit to Dubrovnik, which was planned for the week after Easter. It is uncertain what will happen with the arrival of another announced five to six passenger ships which the Dubrovnik citizens looked forward to with more joy than with which they used to greet pre-war tourist convoys which numbered as many as 200 large passenger ships.

Uncertain is even the arrival of the Japanese "Peace Boat" with 600 young Japanese who with their traditional yearly tour of the world were planning, by their coming to Dubrovnik and visit to Mostar, to symbolically express support to these cities - victims of war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Easter holidays were always a precise barometer of the tourist season. Judging by the announcements from the Dubrovnik hinterland, Trebinje, Dubrovnik should expect nothing else but a cheerless summer.

Comments like: "This is worse than when the city was under the blockade", can be heard in Dubrovnik these days. While under the blockade and shells, without water and electricity, with no food, exposed to snipers, the denizens of Dubrovnik had the strength to resist and hope. Just like today in Sarajevo, self-respecting men wore ties and women make-up in their mission of "esthetic resistance". Today, almost three years later, they are running out of strength for hope. Peace reigns in the city itself, but an absolute peace. Tourism accounted for sixty percent of Dubrovnik's economy. It was the source of wealth of the old and grand city which is now - gone.

In 1989 Dubrovnik realized a tourist profit of US$ 340 million. Last year there were 250,000 tourist overnights, while in the last year of peace - 1990- they numbered over 5 million. Its post-war tourist income was reduced to less than one tenth of that before the war, while today every fifth citizen lives off humanitarian aid. A chance traveller can best see the local economic situation in the fishmarkets of Dalmatian towns: if fish is cheap you have come to a poor place. Today Dubrovnik has the cheapest fish on the Adriatic: blue fish can be found for 2 kunas a kilo. Seemingly absurdly the citizens of Dubrovnik remember with nostalgia the days when Dubrovnik was the most expensive city on the Adriatic.

Instead of making money, the City is spending it on reconstruction. It is proceeding slowly, but proceeding nevertheless. The wounded city crown has healed. The Dubrovnik roofs were reconstructed with UNESCO's assistance. And the rest, when? "No one knows exactly, but I think that the reconstruction will last till the end of the century", says Vjekoslav Viorda who is at the head of the Institute for the Reconstruction of the City. The direct war damage to the whole area of Dubrovnik amounts to US$ 2,5 billion. Many houses seem untouched, but their insides are totally destroyed. "People are just like houses", says Melita Bego from Mline who is endeavouring, together with her countrymen, to restore the old glory of the Dubrovnik Parish. Her neighbour Zivo has returned to his house from the hotel after he managed to make one room livable. "If I had spent the fourth consecutive Christmas at the hotel I would have died", says he.

He is one of approximately 280 thousand people who are no longer exiles. Many have returned to their homes, especially to the rebuilt villages such as Osojnik or Brgat, but about 5,500 of them still lives in hotels. Many of them in their own places, such as the temporary occupants of the hotel "Osmine" near Slano. Waiters there dine in the hotel restaurant, while chamber-maids sleep in the hotel rooms. From that long "holiday" they go to repair their own houses and cultivate their land. "Once nudists used to come here, and now we are ragged and barefoot", says Frano eating alone in the hotel restaurant. The young ones are rebuilding.

The reconstruction of Dubrovnik's surroundings is proceeding at the greatest speed in Croatia, but even by the most optimistic forecasts it will take two years for all the refugees to return. However, if there is no tourism in Dubrovnik during that time, the question remains who will return to his home. The number of employed in Dubrovnik dropped by 30 percent as compared to 1990, and is further declining. The wages of those who work are 30 percent below the Croatian average. People are going away, and there are rumours that one third of the inhabitants has left the City.

Those who stay, if losing hope are not losing the will. Restaurants on Prijeko Street are open for business. "At times a whole day goes by without anyone dropping by", says Mrs.Rudenjak, owner of the elegant "Ragusa 2". According to her, this is too a part of the resistance. The other part is hanging from "clotheslines" in that same street. Instead of waiters uniforms, fatigues are hung out to dry. "These are the 'Libertas' flags", says a young man who introduced himself as Laci.

Fifty years after "that" war Dubrovnik has undergone an evolution - then the City with its stony white was a visual clue for allied planes in their descent on the Balkans, while today it is a target to the neighbours from eastern Herzegovina. The elderly denizens of Dubrovnik mention with nostalgia the only armed incident from the last war, when a traumatized allied soldier opened barrage fire on Stradun. Under the influence of war erosion they have enough detonations even without Vucurevic - the last in a series was an explosion in the office of the attorney-at-law Branka Skansi - Ratkovic. Why? That will be discovered by the on going investigation. Branka Skansi-Ratkovic is defending people who claim that their human rights are threatened. She was spared by mere chance since she happened not to be in the office at the time of the explosion.

Dubrovnik is, to the best of its ability, resisting the threats looming from its hostile background. The City is a hostage of the insane war and frenzied warriors. Until the arrival of Napoleon, the people of Dubrovnik bought their peace squeezed in a sandwich between the Turks and Venice. Today, there is no one they can buy peace from, its keepers are "unbending", and even if there was - what would they pay for it with ?

GORAN VEZIC