INTERNATIONAL campaign in defence of a multi-ethnic Bosnia is going from strength to strength - both in terms of material aid to the trade union movement, direct links, and in political support for the struggle of the Bosnian people. This report, which is still partial, is taken from campaign reports sent from the IWA Split office to the national sections of the campaign. Direct reports from those involved will be available soon. THE FIFTH IWA convoy (the fourth of the bread programme) left Makarska near Split for Tuzla last Wednesday and a convoy is being dispatched every 12 days from the base which has been established in Makarska.
At the same time a delegation from IWA attended the May day celebration in Sarajevo as guests of the trade union movement and spoke at a rally of 10,000 people.
The bread programme is organised directly withhe Kreka miners union who distribute the aid to individual families in the form of packs of flour, oil and Selim Beslagic, Mayor of Tuzla, on successful International Workers' Aid tour of Sweden sugar for making bread.
There have been problems. The first convoy to Tuzla this spring had to rebuild confidence with the city authorities, who had been shaken by the antics of the WRP campaign (their "December convoy') which asked them to organise a reception on the basis of 80 lorries arriving and then turned up with four!.
A delegation from IWA stayed in Tuzla after the first spring convoy - including Jenny and Wimm from Belgium and Yannick from the Netherlands - and had extensive further discussions with trade unions - explaining the stance of IWA in defence of a multi- ethnic Bosnia and the labour movement basis of our campaign.
They met a big delegation from the teachers' union which urged IWA to develop the kind of links with them that has been developed with the miners union. They stayed with individual families and were able to get a deeper insight into the impact of the war.
They also had discussions with political parties in Tuzla and representatives of the Serb and Croat communities. Yannick established a project with students at Tuzla university which involves a video made in conjunction with Tuzla radio. and produced in the Netherlands. Talks were held and links established with the National Theatre in Tuzla, Radio Tuzla, and the Women's Association of Tuzla which has appealed to IW A to campaign for mammography apparatus for cancer screening which does not exist anywhere in Bosnia.
There were also discussions with the Civic Forum in Tuzla which is trying to get a newspaper and TV station off the ground.
Although IWA is now keeping an ongoing presence in Tuzla this needs to be strengthened and there are plans for a permanent office in the building of the miners union. This would enable closer working and the opportunity to establish stronger links with trade unions throughout the rest of ex-Yugoslavia.
Given the continuation of the war and the political situation in central Bosnia, IWA intends to continue its campaign through the summer and into the autumn, since it increasingly looks as if another winter of war will have to be faced in the region. • The fifth international meeting of IWA (open to supporters of all the national campaigns), which will lay plans for the coming months, is to be held in Brescia in Northern Italy on June 25-6.