The first International Workers Aid (IWA) convoy arrived in Tuzla on 8 November. TIM WISE, a member of the Bosnia convoy team which also included Fourth Internationalists Jenny Mees and Mick Woods, sends this report. WE DROVE the last 8 km to Tuzla by ourselves, which was a great thing to do.
We were all extremely happy at seeing the sign "Tuzla' - a long, dangerous journey had finally come to an end. We passed through one more Bosnian army checkpoint before the city. The guards were very thin all they wanted was food. They were not interested in cigarettes.
We drove into the centre of Tuzla and luckily found the UNHCR building. We were even luckier to run into Steve Tannick from the Eruopean. Community Task Force who booked us into the Tuzla hotel. He was amazed that we had made it thinking we had fürned back at Zagreb. IWA had arrived!
After a well deserved sleep we met Steve again and he introduced us to Mr Marinko JakTel: 081-694 9799 for details or if you can help.
Donations and letters to 'IWA' - PO Box 30, London SE15 5EP IWA Celebration in Brum!
Thursday 9 December • Union Club • 723 Pershore Road starring Banner Theaire, Trentham Miners' Wives and more Supported by Christine Crawtey MEP and many MPs. E2/E1. ovac of the Rudarski Institute of Tuzla. Many months before he had sent the first fax from the Tuzla miners asking for help. Marinko was translator and main organiser during our stay in Tuzla.
Miners
Our first appointment was with the Trade Union delegation from the famous Kreka Miners Syndicate. After a formal introduction, we drank plum brandy (after 11 days in Tuzla we all got very used to it). We then discussed a joint plan for the distribution of the aid. Then the mayor of Tuzla came to meet us and gave a welcoming speech.
As we walked around the SEUÃO. WIDE _DAY OI LOND 20 Buckingham Gate London SW1 town on that first day, we suddenly noticed the harsh living conditions of the people of Tuzla.
In the evening we met local miners, electricity plant workers, journalists, TV and local people.
The next day we unloaded the trucks at the main warehouse of the Kreka Miners. While unloading, damage caused by HVO border guards in Vites became apparent.
Many of the personal packages had been thrown around and items stolen. Water damage to parcels had also occurred and the names of people destroyed. This would prove to be a great problem later on and also sad as some people did not receive their parcels.
During the unloading many children helped out. I gave all of them a Timex T-shirt for their help. It was great to see these T-shirts being worn -Timex to Tuzla has officially occurred.
Terry and myself went for a press meeting with the mayor which was filmed by television Tuzla and shown that night. In the evening we all went to Radio Cameleon and were interviewed. This radio station has only been open for about one and a half years. It plays a lot of western music and is a very popular station for the cold and bored youth of Tuzla.
Tim Wise (centre) with Miners' Brigade on the front line On Thursday we visited the Kreka mine below ground. I did an interview with a miner and filmed parts of the mine entrance, and also the meeting with the mine manager.
In the afternoon we visited the huge TE electricity power plant. Before the war it powered the whole of the Tuzla region and even exported electricity to other parts of the former Yugosiavia.
Control room
I filmed the main control room which was a very depressing sight. On the wall was a large Megawatt output gauge. Before the war it registered 800MW and while I was filming it the total output measured 4MW.
During the fighting in Tuzla the Serbs had managed a direct hit from about 20km away into one of the smoke stacks. I filmed the men working shovelling coal onto belts to be put into the furnace. They earn 3.5DM a month (£1 = 2.56DM)!
On Friday we visited an open air mine 'Bamovic' about 20km from Tuzla. We had another meeting with the union and gifts were given to all of us. I filmed and interviewed local peasants digging for coal for the winter.
In the afternoon we visited the 2nd brigade - the Miners Brigade - of the Bosnian irmy. This brigade rums up he whole of Tuzla as :: comprises of Tuzla miners if mixed ethnic backgrounds. Serbs, Croats and Muslims fighting for the same cause - the right to live together in a free peaceful world.
Soldiers in the Miners Brigade walk 35km to the front line, where they have minimum food, no coffee and no cigarettes. Fighters with the Brigade have a mixture of firearms - shot guns, rifles from world war two, AK47's - and just 10 bullets each. Aged between 18 and 55, they wear a mixture of different uniforms of very poor quality with holes in their boots.
When we got back to Hotel Tuzla we found out that Terry's truck had its fuel line cut. We'd lost most of the fuel. This is understandable - diesel in Tuzla on the black market costs between 25 and 40 DM per litre! Sugar costs about 35DM and coffee 80-90DM a kilo.
On Saturday I interviewed the mayor of Tuzla. He is of very strong character and an extremelv modest man. "The people of Tuzla love him and he walks around the town with no armed guards. We visited an meeting the Mayor of Tuzla (centre)
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AIRPORT NOW! 1-3mm Saturday 11th December