A Day of Happenings

Today was a full day. I started by meeting M—at the WiB office to go to the Special Court for War Crimes in Belgrade. M—told me to show up at the office at 8:30 so we could catch a bus to the court. This meant I needed to leave my apartment no later than 7:35. Unfortunately, I had not washed my hair for several days so bathing was a necessity. All of this lead to an incredibly early morning after an incredibly late night aka not enough sleep. The trials were to start at 9 o’clock. We arrived at the court in plenty of time. We went through the security (very similar to airport security – metal detectors, bags and personal effects scanned). However, not all the security measures were standard (or at least not in my opinion)—we had to turn in our cell phones (after turning them off), my mp3 player, and my passport. I received a laminated plastic card with a number on it for each of the things I turned in. I’m not sure why the extra security measures are in place – perhaps they are trying to prevent cell phone interruptions? Anyway, we then went up the stairs to wait in the hall/lobby until we were directed by the numerous security guards to the court room (meaning it would be time for the trial to begin). Unfortunately, this did not happen at 9 o’clock as anticipated. We were finally given the go ahead at 10:30. You may be asking, what exactly I did to amuse myself in this unexpected chunk of time. Well, don’t ask because it really isn’t that interesting. In a nutshell, I did a lot of observing, counting, and made several mental lists (things to do, ways I can keep myself awake during this trial, guesses as to the number of times P—will tell everyone around that I am Amerikanka, etc.). I will say that WiB activist P—(who was also attending the trials to monitor and report on the trials to the WiB network) told at least 5 people I was American. One included a Croatian journalist/cameraman who then turned to me after she said I was American and started speaking to me in Serbian (or Croatian). He asked me if I really was American. When I responded in the affirmative, he then briefly switched to English to say, “You’re not what an American looks like” (exact phrasing there – rather than “You don’t look American”). I’m not exactly sure if that was a compliment, an insult, or a neutral statement. I just know I found it rather funny.

I didn’t understand most of what was said during the trial. This only added to the difficulty of staying awake since I had only gotten a few hours of sleep. M—would give me some brief updates from time to time. There were fourteen men that were being tried for war crimes in Croatia (in an ongoing process). Today was one man’s turn to ‘testify’ or share his account. He spent the entire time claiming innocence and passing blame onto others. There were three ‘judges’ – two women and one man. One woman seemed to be in charge of asking all of the questions while the man was sharing his story. After he finished sharing his account and the ‘judges’ had finished questioning him, each lawyer got an opportunity to question him. There was a lawyer for each of the fourteen accused. There were also two or three lawyers for the victims’ families. We didn’t finish today’s session until 3:00 pm. We took a fifteen minute break around 1:30.

It was an interesting experience for me (even though I didn’t understand what was being said most of the time). I was most interested in watching the accused and their families interact with the victims’ families, especially while we were waiting for the trial to begin (and during the short break). In particular, there was one woman who was the wife of the one of the accused men. She seemed to be one of the only family members of the accused persons to attend. Several times she tried to engage in conversation with the women from the families of the victims. She would join in their conversations on the weather, the traffic, the tea, and the long wait for the trial to begin. It was odd to me that she made such a concentrated effort to interact with them. I think she saw herself as a victim as well; she seemed to have spent some time earlier crying (if the red, puffy eyes and nose were any indication). The families of the victims seemed very uncomfortable in talking to her. Their body language seemed to spell out their discomfort. Their backs were turned to her and they seemed to be trying to keep her out of the conversation (or edge her out once she had entered) by keeping their backs turned, avoiding eye contact, and only giving short, monotone replies.

The whole afternoon brought up all types of questions to mind about reconciliation, grace, and forgiveness. The accused and their families continue to live in a state of denial and relativization. They continue to try to twist the truth to deny what happened and to be able to portray themselves as the victims. I kept wondering why this woman would be so cruel to try to wrench some type of forgiveness out of these women while at the same time continuing to deny their pain and the truth that lies behind it. It made me wonder what these abstract concepts should look like in this situation. It seems clear to me that there has to be some sort of repentance. I believe that grace and forgiveness are very powerful, but I also think that without some sort of change they are robbed of their power (or at least a great portion of it). Many things in Serbia remain the same as they were ten years ago with people still claiming war criminals as heroes. Other people are determined to sweep the past all under the rug without confronting it and working towards real changes. There hasn’t been a change in values of society, or any true changes in government policies.

As I mentioned earlier, today was a fully day. Another exciting event of the day was my time with my friend J. We went to see the performance of the visiting Heliosphere. It was in front of the Assembly building and was quite lovely. Basically it was a woman doing acrobatics attached to a huge helium balloon. They had music playing and the helium balloon had lighting that changed colors. I will put in a link in case you want to see photos and to be able to understand what I am trying (unsuccessfully) to describe. Here’s the link: http://www.thedreamengine.co.uk/dreamhtml/heliosphere.html

Luckily, J and I went to the last showing so it was dark out and the lights in the balloon were very visible. The performance only lasted about 20 minutes. They hadn’t really advertised it a lot so there weren’t a lot of people there, but many people walking by stopped and walked over to see what was going on. It finished just as it was starting to get chilly. J and I enjoyed watching the performer’s overly expressive face and the equally expressive faces of the crowd (and interestingly enough the most expressive faces were not the children’s).

Other interesting events of the week included the 3 men I saw get on the bus yesterday wearing matching tracksuits and tennis shoes. They tracksuits and tennis shoes looked brand new and looked expensive. The most interesting part of the ensemble was the back of their jackets which had Army of Serbia printed on it. It was all a bit confusing since it was written in English and thus far all of the army personnel I have seen in Serbia have been wearing standard army garb (camouflaged uniforms). As soon as I stepped of this same bus, I saw what I later described to a friend as a giant. In reality, he was not a mythical beast (or man), but he did qualify as the tallest person I have ever seen (I think – definitely in the top 3, though – it is hard to tell without seeing those other exceptionally tall persons side by side). His giant effect was only added to by the fact that he was stomping his feet as he walked and his face was very red. Although I think the red face was from sunburn or something.

In upcoming events – An apartment swap. Actually, there won’t really be any swapping, but I wanted an excuse to use the word swap. I don’t get to use a lot of fun words here since most people don’t know what they mean. I will just be moving from my current apartment to an apartment in the center of town. I will be moving in with two friends, J and J. One is Serbian and one is from Indiana (Let’s hear it for Midwestern charm!). This move will occur in the middle of May. It will result in less bus rides, a washer, and less of me talking to inanimate objects.

A trip to Niš. Tomorrow I go to Niš for a WiB seminar on globalization and solidarity. We will take a bus and it is supposed to take us 3 hours to get there. This is the second seminar on globalization and solidarity I have participated in. We also had one two weeks ago in which we went to Leskovac. It was very nice. The women were all very friendly.

Thus, I must get ready for bed since I must get up at a reasonably early hour (for a Saturday) for the workshop. Sadly that brings this blog entry to an end.

Spring is in the air/Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh my!

Spring weather is here. Last week was a mixture of rainy days and warm, sunny days. It is the perfect weather for walking (The warm, sunny days -- not the rainy ones). Today I went for a walk with my friend J. We walked through the park and towards the Assembly building to see the tulips. The landscaping in front of the government buildings is very beautiful with a colorful array of flowers. It was nice to see flowers amidst the somewhat bleak, gray city buildings.

Last week brought an onslaught of people sitting outside drinking coffee and ice cream vendors. Cafes have pulled out their tables and chairs to be put outside the cafes. The streets are filled with freezers full of ice cream sandwiches, bars, and popsicles. People are walking down the streets with ice cream cones. I made sure to join in the fun and got myself a pistachio ice cream cone.

Read on for a blog entry that finally made it from the mind of Katie to the blog of Katie.

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MY TRIP TO THE ZOO....several weeks ago

A WiB activist, J--, was coming from Krusevac to Belgrade with her 3 year old daughter, A--. I have really enjoyed J's company whenever she has come to Belgrade for WiB events so we agreed it would be nice to get together. I had never met her daughter, but was looking forward to it. I haven't spent any time with any children since my arrival in Belgrade. I have spent some time with some activists that are in high school, but no one under the age of 14.

We decided we should go to the Belgrade Zoo so that A-- would keep busy. Unfortunately, just as we were supposed to meet it started to rain. So, we went to a cafe for to get some drinks for J-- and I and some ice cream for A--. A-- was okay as long as she had ice cream in front of her. When she ran out of ice cream, she started to get a bit antsy. So after two rounds of ice cream, we noticed the rain had stopped. We decided to give the zoo a try.

The zoo is located in Kalemegdan, an old fortress along the riverbanks. It was very small and the animals' cages even smaller. I'm told that the zoo has only started charging admission within the last few years. It was a small zoo, but it had all the important animals -- the ones that enabled us to say "Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!" Actually, it also had elephants, hippos, wolves, lots of tropical birds, wildcats, chimpanzees, and alligators. Not all the animals made an appearance due to the rainy weather, but we got to see most of them. It was sad to see two huge bears in a cage smaller than my apartment. There weren't a lot of security measures separating the animals from the people. There were signs saying warning of the danger and not to touch, but if someone was determined (and foolish) it would have been easy to slip under the wooden rail and reach through the cage bars. It was odd to be so close to the animals and separated only by a few iron bars.

Towards the end of our visit it started to rain. We decided it was best to head back. A-- was getting tired and had given up all pretense of being happy with me. She did not like that her mother and I were speaking in English (which she didn't understand) and kept telling us that we weren't allowed to talk. She said her ears were hurting. She obviously tired and had gotten to the point where she would cry if we started talking. It was sort of funny. I don't recall ever making a kid cry quite so much just by opening my mouth.

J kept apologizing for her daughter's behavior which made me feel a little bad -- I understood why her daughter was upset (I can understand the desire to cry because you don't understand what people are saying -- I have felt that way numerous times since my arrival in Belgrade.). Overall, I still enjoyed myself. We didn't have a lot of time to have great, in depth conversation, but I got to see the Belgrade zoo and meet her daughter.

Several days later, J-- sent me a message letting me know that she had caught A-- playing with her dolls and A-- told her mother, "I'm speaking English, like your friend Katie." I'm looking forward to the next time I see A-- and hoping my Serbian will have improved enough to not bring tears to her eyes.