Mainpoint Sarajevo




Impressions from an exploded country.


1. Preface by Martin S. Past
2. Pacman leads to Sarajevo by Mark Räkers
3. words with his photo's
4  Holiday Fin By Paul Beekhuis
5  words with his photo's
6  CoMuSa, and how we got in contact 
    by Martin S. Past




Release and distribution:

The Eindhoven Peaceshop

Grote Berg 41
5611 KH Eindhoven
Netherlands
00 31 40 2444707
vredesb@iaehv.nl
att. Hans Matheeuwsen



September 1997









1. Preface

It's June 1996. The machine guns are silent. the cannons don't rumble anymore
During our visit to the devastated city of Sarajevo there was a euphoric atmosphere. We know this will slowly disappear. Till the elections in September, many politicians will show their faces. We know this also will disappear. The winter started slowly but took very long. Dayton contains more agreements on arms transport and deliveries than on arms reduction, these will not disappear.

One thing became clear to us. The incredible impressions we got were to be used to stimulate the international spirit towards Bosnia Herzegovina.
Almost surreptitiously the media inform us a bit about the Hague trials, about some problems in Mostar, about the illegal smuggling activities of Karadzic and Krasnik, the powerplay of Milosevic and about the - partly unsuccesful - visit of the pope. Again the good news from the Balkans is snowed under by the socalled realistic information of the global media even though an enormous amount of small and successful projects are realized. The Challenge, a Dutch charity  TV program from Holland sent music instruments, Ed van Thijn, the independent chief of monitors at the elections of 1996 wrote a book that is clear enough, many organizations transported materials and worked in refugee camps. Many, many small organizations met each other constructively.

These incredible impressions we had were picked up by the 6th Column, a cultural facility foundation, and they designed a practical plan. With our impressions and video recordings we tried to raise funds to acquire two vehicles for wheelchair transport. Besides supporting the local Bosnian situation we also try to influence the Dutch public opinion.
This takes place by doing readings in libraries, schools and at cultural festivals, and through cooperation with local organizations and the press.
The project is coordinated by the Eindhoven Peace Shop and is worked out in Sarajevo by Community Music Sarajevo.

At this moment it is June 1997 and much could be said and written about this. We will continue to do so. But that there is also enough reason for us to find other ways of presenting this project.
Because several photographers (watching people) got involved in this project it  would be obvious to make a photobook. Photo's give lasting value the time interval of a snapshot.
A chosen form would be a temporary one though we just wanted to work on long term solutions.
This paradox should not  refrain us from thanking all the organizations, institutions, companies, funds, centra and individuals who helped us. We wish them well from a warm heart.
Their input is indispensable for the re-integration of the former Yugoslavias.
Lets go back to humanity.
Good luck in the battle for equal share of materials and luck.

Martin S. Past 



2. Pacman leads to Sarajevo

By Marc Räkers


Only ten years ago I drove around all Yugoslavia with my girlfriend. We didn't knew anything about ethnical differences like a Japanese tourist who doesn't know anything about Frisians and Limburgians. In Doboi, a
small town in Bosnia, we met a few young people who invited us to stick
around for a few days. When the subject ethnical differences was mentioned people laughed at us. "Ethnical problems? in Bosnia?
impossible!". "His mother is croatian, his father serbian, her mother serbian, her father muslim, his mother originally an muslim, his father serbian ....." The way Tigram pointed at his friends. "Bosnia is that much mixed that ethnical conflicts are impossible", according to the general opinion. A few years later the same Tigram phoned us. The war was  close to Doboi now and he didn't want to join. He wanted to leave and  asked if he could stay for a while....

After ight years and a heavy war, I ride my bike up there Again. To  Bosnia. In Sarajevo I'll visit Tigram and his friend, Naida. Tigram  thinks I might be the first biker that gets there ever since. He says I  better be careful for the gaps in the road, but otherwise it's safe.  From Rijeka I take the beautiful croatian mountainroads to Ploce. About  halfway, near and in the city of Zadar, I get a foretaste of what I will  be  seeing in Bosnia. It starts with bouncing off my cycle due to the  holes in the road. When I just go through the third hole I see it has  to be a strike of a shell. Than I see more and more houses with holes in the walls. Striking of  shells and bullets. A totally destroyed house just next to the road. And another one. Soon I lose count of the number.
The devastation is merely because of the ethnic cleansing. I see many houses without any damage and in between ruins that are destroyed expertly. Beyond Zadar the devastation becomes less. I'm still impressed by what I saw and make a stop at a quite piece on the coastline to think it over. Until now I only knew the images of war from TV and photo's. Actually it is much worse and I haven't reached Bosnia yet. Beyond Ploce one of the bigger roads, landwards to Sarajevo, begins. At  the border my papers are checked by a severe custom officer. He walks  around my cycle and checks the license number. When he returns the  papers he smiles encouragingly. He salutes and let me pass into Bosnia. To go to Sarajevo I only have to follow the signs Pacman, posted by the SFOR militaries.
Soon I'm close to Mostar. The devastation is all around. Wherever I look.  It is smashing. I try to imagine how it was during the war. Death and  danger spears(??) everywhere. Life went on in basements and trenches. Good neighbours became dangerous enemies. Incredible. At some places the bridges are temporary bridges constructed there by the UN. Checkpoints are gone, now and then you see boring looking SFOR  soldiers with their armed vehicles. In villages I pass many people looking at me. Especially the children stare with open mouth until I'm out of sight. There are not many motorcycles in post war Bosnia. In many cars that pass me there are people who wave at me or stick up  their thumb. The hospitality distracts me from the devastation and makes me feel less depressed.
To reach Sarajevo I "ll have to take a high mountain pass. There is still  snow and it is cold. When the road goes down the sun returns and I see the flats at the horizon. Sarajevo. Just before I drive through Ilidza,  during the war in serbian hands. Between Ilidza and Sarajevo there  were several frontlines. The roads toward Sarajevo are blocked by the police because today also the pope will arrive. He comes by plane. All the traffic is guided through a devastated little road. Under the road that was cleared for the pope, a load of landmines with an electric cable were found. According to the authorities these mines were not there two weeks  before.
The city is full of police and SFOR soldiers. All police officers have  whistles and they use them. In a neighborhoods with flats, long before  the center, I got stuck in the traffic jam. On every corner there is a  police man and the only thing I can do is driving in circles. A policeman   ask for direction wants to see my driving license and copies some information in his notebook. Including the phrase `the mayor of  Amsterdam'. At a bus stop I ask if someone speaks English. A guy of 20 years old reacts. I show him the address of my friends and he offers me to bring me there. He is on his way to a pizzeria around the corner and has to go there as well.  He mounts the rear seat and through many deviations we get to the flats my friends use temporary. The building is heavily damaged. One third of all apartments is burned out. The  forefront is like swiss cheese.
In the burned out stairs there is no light. The elevator doesn't work.  Several inside walls are cut open to use as door because the main entrance was under sniper fire. The apartment of Tigram and Naida is only useable on the backside. The frontside is destroyed and burnt out. The walls are full of bulletholes. Only a few month ago the thick UNHCR plastic was changed for glass. In the living room there is a self made stove with german donated pulp briquettes. In the kitchen there is a huge jerry-can with water because the water supply, like the electricity supply, is frequently cut off. The kitchen-cupboards contain long lasting tins, coming from foreign aid. Gift from `ECHO' it often says with big blue letters. Tigram and Naida tell me that their street used to be the front between serbs and bosnians. The street is only 30 meters but  crossing the street during the war, surely would have killed you.  it was safer to go through the tunnel at the airport, across the mountain Igman and through croatian territory to Zagreb, Budapest and Serbia, back to serbian territory in Bosnia. And so on finally to Sarajevo on serbian side in a neighborhood that is called Grbavica. The opposite side of the street. Now Grbavica is part of the bosnian city Sarajevo. When they left, the serbians took all valuable things with them. The flats where totally stripped and after that put on fire. Now mainly Bosnians refugees live there, who came from the countryside. Everything is repaired in haste.  Naida came during the war from the relative quite town Tuzla. She wanted to study pharmacy on the university. She first had to travel by bus by night across the Igman mountains that was under fire continuously and then through the tunnel under the airport. To visit her parents she traveled the same route several times. Luckily she could drive a few times with a related bosnian general. Tigram left his place of birth, Doboi an few month after the war started. Doboi is and was occupied by serbians and he can't go back. During the war he stayed in Frankfurt and worked as a nurse in a hospital. A year ago he returned voluntarily to help with the reconstruction of his country. Now he works as a doctor at the ambulance-service in the town. Frequently he is  confronted by people who got hurt by exploding leftovers of the war. Often these are children.
Later on that week Tigram takes me to an other apartment that was on the front-line. He and Naida think about it to move over to one of these  apartments because soon they have to leave the one they use now. The  people who have the official right to this apartment are still in  Germany, but have to leave that country. Housing accommodation is a  big problem in Sarajevo. The apartment Tigram and Naida had in mind is not that much devastated. It has no window-frames but it is not burned out. The kitchen has a hole used by a sniper. Next to it there is a chair and some empty bottles. The floor is full of papers of the previous inhabitants. I find a exercise book with children drawings.  The problem for Tigram and Naida is that any day the owner (often these are companies or local authorities) can be at the door to get them out. Then they loose all their materials and time and energy. The end result might also be good and in fact they do not have a lot of choice. 
During my visit I walk around town a lot. With the tram I go to the suburbs because I want to know how they look like. The city is long and narrow, with a big boulevard that leads into the center of town. In between the lanes the are many packed trams. In the wartime this road was known as `sniper alley'. Serbian snipers fired on the traffic. 120 km/h was the recommended speed. It seems that some drivers do not know the snipers are gone. They drive fast and don't take care with pedestrians who try to reach the tram. Not at all.
Heating was a big problem during the war. Many trees disappeared in the self-made stoves. The central park doesn't exist anymore. Now many new trees are planted next to the roads. Sometimes there was gas, but no-one could say when, for how long and in which parts of the city. People connected their house to the gasnet themselves. They broke up the streets and made improvised tubes. Tubes of destroyed heating installations were being used. But also firehose and tires of a bicycle were being used. Many accidents happened, but if there was gas, they had gas.
It is astonishing to see how close and even how deep into town the frontier lines were. On many places the trenches were in between the flats. Sometimes even through the basements of the flats. Sometimes one building was partly in hands of serbians and partly in bosnian hands. It is amazing to see how people survived this war. That the life in Sarajevo couldn't be stopped completely. Sarajevo is still alive but with utmost difficulties. Unemployment is high and the wages are low. To make the city alive goes slowly because there is little  money. Reconstruction is done in simple ways and rebuilding the houses is dream for the future Support from abroad is inevitable. Many people are afraid the war will start over again if the SFOR troops will go home.

 After one and a half week in Sarajevo I'm leaving. On the way back I drive through a big part of Bosnia and go 40 km through serbian territory. After all these stories I'm a little scared for that. SFOR protects the roads which now is called Blue Bird. After 20 kilometer there's a police car next to the road. He shows his sign and demands me to stop. He wants to see my papers, all that I have. He studies them and than slowly he returns them to me. He smiles and apprehensively points  to the clouds. As if he wants to say: `Not a good day for a biker'. I may
 go. The road leads through Bihac. I know this name from the times the war came to me on TV, in newspapers and on the radio. There was a fierce fight at Bihac. About 80 kilometers before the town the devastation begins. All buildings are destroyed, as far as I can see. The empty hole where used to be windows stare at me. Left of me, and on the right side of me. I drive through a few deserted villages. There is hardly no traffic and it rains. A spooky, alienated sphere. No a place for mechanical problems. I think about the people who lived here. Children who played here. Traumas' that will be here for dozens of years. It lasts 80 kilometers and everything is destroyed. A nightmare. At the border between Bosnia and Croatia, a few kilometers beyond Bihac the rain changes into wet snow. It is cold.


3. Pictures of Marc Räkers

1 The flat where Tigram and Naida are living at this very moment

2. Before the war Sarajevo had approximately 400.000 inhabitants. Many left to safer places during the war. Many others came to town because their village is destroyed. Often they found shelter in devastated houses.

5. Specially the top floors of the flats were unsafe. Or better: the lower parts were relatively safe. Of most of the flats the top floors are burnt out. Slowly these building are conquered on destruction. Floor by floor.

6. The former Bosnian parliaments building. Here the war in Sarajevo started when serbian nationalists fired from the Holiday Inn at a demonstration against the split up of Bosnia and against war.

7. A livingroom in a flat that was on top of the front-line. In the outside wall of the kitchen a hole is cut. From this place snipers shot at the city. On the floor there are all kinds of papers of previous residents. An ID of the university, diploma's, photo's of a wedding, a blocknote with children drawings, a poetry album. What happened to these people? Where are they now?

10. It is hard to find a place to stay which is not too expensive. Many good houses are rent to cooperators of foreign organizations. If the countries with bosnian refugees will start to send them back to Bosnia, accommodation will be one of the first bog problems they will be confronted with.

13 On many places in town you see vehicles and soldiers of SFOR. They act to protect dignitaries. Specially during the visit of the pope it looked as if it was war again.

14. The traffic in Sarajevo by now is as busy as in most west European cities. Also many bosnian are attached to their car. Vehicles in general are a little older and more shabby, although many new Mercedes cars can be seen. Some got rich in the war.

15 Soon after the war started the press spoke about the war between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. The term Muslim is meant to designate bosnians. Before the war about 15% of the Bosnians were practicing Muslims. Now the percentage is not much higher. Turbans and long beards are not predominating the streetview of Sarajevo. On the contrary.

16. Not much industry is left in Bosnia, not to mention tourism. Economically the situation is not good. Unemployment is high. Due to continuos foreign support the situation seems to improve a bit. If this support stops the country is left with hardly  no income

17. On markets you can buy everything. Second hand parts for cars, washing machines and other apparatus, but also screws, bolts and even second hand nails are sold.

18. A travel agency in the center of Sarajevo. For many Bosnians to travel is not possible. BesidesApart from financial reasons bosnians are not welcome without visa. Many countries are afraid they want to stay. The request for a visa meets a long bureaucratic path. It takes three to  four month for a permit to stay in Holland for two weeks, even if someone in Holland is fully (financial) responsible. For Dutch people to go to Bosnia there is no border whatsoever.

19. The average monthly payment in Bosnia is about 2 till 3 hundred DM. The prizes are not much lower than in Holland. A kilo tomatoes costs 2 and a half, a white bread 0.80 and a half liter of beer in the supermarket approximately 1 DM.

20. Specially the elderly without a family have a hard time. The pension is no more than 100 DM a month. Most of the elderly depend on humanitarian Aid organizations. On quite some places you can see a queue in front of kitchens and distribution places.

22. Old busses from the Zuid-West company bring people from Tuzla to Sarajevo to see the pope. In Bosnia there are many busses from many countries.

23. The heat, given by burning a sportshoe was just enough to bake a bread. Everything that burns disappears in the self-made stoves. Furniture, books, windowframes of empty houses, trees. The central park of Sarajevo escaped the town through the chimney. Now there is a cemetery.

24. During my visit is Sarajevo there wasn't gas for several weeks. Bosnia has a contract with Russia for these gas deliveries but the Serbs refuse to pay their share to the bosnian authority. They want their own contract. The bosnian government will and can not pay for the Serbs. Now they're burning wood again in Sarajevo.

25/26 Everywhere in Sarajevo people work on reconstruction, but it is slow. There is  hardly any money, the destruction is huge. Many reconstruction projects are financed from abroad. 

27. During the war there were many victims but also after the war there will be many. On many places there are mines and other arms. For Dozens of years the bosnians will be confronted with new war victims. Specially children are the target for these silently waiting explosives. There are several teams working hard to clear the mine fields but how many are there? Where are they?

28. Participants of' 'the day of the Bosnian Herzegovinan army' on their way to the stadium where a parade will take place. In the days before you could see tough video clips about the army. Tanks in a romantic sunset. Invincible commando's wading through steep mountain rivers, new attack chopper planes who show successful hit and run actions.....

29. During the war every piece of land was used for vegetables. Often these gardens were in sight of the serbian snipers. partition between the gardens are made of plastic and iron, the wood went into the stove. During harvest time it was necessary to protect the garden day and night against hungry people. the vegetables which grow now in these neglected garden is *the* harvested by hungry elderly.

30. The sign says: 13 September 1996. This playground is donated with the prayer that god will bless the children of Sarajevo. Donators: Kids around the world, Rockford, Illinois, USA.

31. At the end of the war many children only knew a life of coldness, hunger and danger. To play outside was often too dangerous. Just after the war children eat their first banana, including skin.

32. A tough kid posing in front of the national library that was destroyed at the onset of the war and burnt out completely. In these flames many books disappeared, At this very moment the building is being completely reconstructed with foreign (Austrian) help.

33. Kids make a little fire in an old trench. It seem innocent but when I'm a few hundreds meters away I hear a loud bang. The children run away scared. Luckily this time it wasn't a mine but probably only a bullet

34. During the war everywhere new cemeteries were raised. The old ones were in sight of snipers. The war victims were buried in parks, between flats and in gardens. After the war often a real funeral took place.

35. A village next to the 100 km long mud path. The only connection apart from one between the Serb territory to the town of Gorazde. The houses of this destroyed village are rebuilt with charity aid. The corridor here is only seven KM wide. Sometimes cars take the wrong path and enter Serb territory. The occupants often return without vehicle, money and materials. Roadblock to bosnian Serb territory have vanished according to the Dayton agreement that says that Bosnia should be one.

36. In the mountains around Sarajevo there were many ski resorts. When the Serbs had to leave these territories according to the Dayton agreements, Serbs carefully plundered the place and destroyed what was left. What you see here is what is left of a ski lift.

37.  A memorial stone for 9 French soldiers who died on this spot in the mountains while serving peace.

38. A father comes specially to this place of Sarajevo to show his sun this burnt-out tank. For him the war is still a living reality while his sun is born afterwards.

39. Somewhere in the mountains around Sarajevo. A grave of someone with a Muslim name next to a grave of someone with a typical serbian name. They fought together in the bosnian army and got their final restingplace next to a monument of partisans who died in W.W.II.

40. This kid sits silently next to me for 15 minutes. I hope he will never face war again.


4. Bosnia Herzegovina
Holiday-Fin
 
Door Paul Beekhuis
 
To me Yugoslavia has always been a strange and mysterious spot on the
map. Not a simple culture and not a clear political structure. Double influences define it's face. This attracted my interest.
In 1990 I toured around with a techno band called Blind as performer and photographer. In Sarajevo many young people already felt the upcoming problems and were afraid to go into the army, fighting for a cause which is not theirs. I do not know if they are still alive. In Zagreb the separation of Croatia from the federal government was already on its way. One hundred meters from the concert there was Tudjmans' house, guarded by militia members. Afterwards at home it was still a surprise when the country exploded with the military action in Slovenia. Four years later (1994) we decided to go and give concerts in Serbia in spite of the international boycott against that country, in order to support the people of Serbia. This was in a combined tour with Blind and HardheadedSoul. The youth and other opponents of the war were glad with this visit. They felt being abandoned by the rest of the world. An international boycott hurt  the innocent people more than those with blood on their hands. An action to bring over a huge group of serbian musicgroups, theatregroups and journalists to Holland couldn't take place due to financial problems and official unwillingness. Two years afterwards (by now it is 1996 and the war is over since a half a year) HHS organizes a tour to Bosnia. In spite of the nice concerts of HHS the destruction we saw was incredibly overwhelming.
The complete vision of human kind is tackled.
The outlook on mankind is competely challenged. Conversations with young people raises more astonishment and disbelief. "To kill someone is like sex, only the first time it is difficult".
I myself too found the powerlessness that many had felt. In Mostar a bunch of fucked up Croatian rednecks threw my bag with passport into a minefield. He thought I took a picture of him. A visit to Pale ended up in the policestation. To intimidate us for a few hours was a nice pastime
to them. Let's get out of there. Although you can see the war isn't over
yet. Only the appearance of SFOR stops the parties in doing what they
actually want to do. The international peaceforce over there realizes
this very well. But the political homefront wants to see something
different. It costs too much money and the agenda is filled with other demands.


5. Pictures Paul Beekhuis


1.Mostar, previous the link between east and west, now the barrier.

2. Reconstruction of the UN. A bridge between Mostar and Sarajevo.

3.Mostar, destroyed Boulevard.

4. Croat shell hit in Mostar. In Sarajevo these spots are called roses and when the grenade hit asphalt and humans the rose was filled up with red glue.

5.Mostar

6.Mostar, reconstruction City theater.

7.Sarajevo.

8.Bosnia superhero. Probably for courage.

9.Gather autographs for registration of the elections in September 1996. The nationalist parties won overwhelmingly.

10/11 Old and young. The elder one has seen three wars. For the younger one this is the first time.

12Sarajevo

13.Serbian position just out of town

14.easy Bulls eye

15.Balcony war

16.Open air concert of HHS in Mostar

17.HHS during a music session in psychiatric clinic in Pazaric

18. patients

23Saying good-bye when we leave.

25. One of many graves.

26.Serbian militaries on the road just outside Beograd, 1994

27.Gypsy musician, playing at a serbian orthodox wedding, 1994

28.Former library, situated near  the old mosque in Sarajevo

29.Warning poster for children


6. CoMuSa
And how we got to know about them.

By Martin S. Past

After years and many kilometers through the sewers of the immense underground circuit we came up in Kusturican way. In the middle of Sarajevo. Stock brandy with cola hangover. Hardheaded Soul goes for intense and raw fun in Europe's most exiting city.

The past 8 years we've been dozens of times in the, by now, torn apart country of Yugoslavia. But now we're in the middle of the throbbing heart. We were many times in Slovenia where the punk rock, the youth, had a little influence on the national consciousness. We were frequently in Croatia where the national consciousness is beyond all reasons but also where young people are panting for air. Three years ago we were in Serbia, together with an electric dance duo called Blind. Dragons' place as people used to say though they had never been there. And we haven't seen any. Once a concert in Sarajevo was canceled because it turned out to be the day of the elections and no mass meetings were allowed to be held. The elections that divided Bosnia in three racial entities. We did all this through the managers work of the 6th Column foundation 
The 6th column is a cultural facilitator organization and is lodged in the autonomous cultural garage of 2B in Eindhoven, Holland. Throughout the years the 6th Column has organized several cultural exchange festival in cooperation with local organizations in Ljubljana, Berlin, Minsk, Vienna, Potsdam, Budapest, Barcelona. These exchanges were mostly based on a wide variety of subjects: several cultural disciplines, environment information, geographical political information and media situations 

But now we are in Bosnia Herzegovina. The images that we all have seen on TV or in the newspaper are inscribed much deeper into memory. No-one walks around over here without being caught by it. At first we look for some explanation and we use the music scene to get to know the town a little better. In this time (we speak about May - June 1996) it is very hard to organize concerts in Sarajevo. No materials, no money, expansive rent for space, soundsystem and guards.  There are no acts. Many serious people have so much work that you can nor relay on them. Many electric failures, only two hours water a day (but this only in the center of town). We have a good time and that is quite a paradox and so we look for more useful things to do.
Our concert is Organized by The Serious Road Trip. It happens at KuK Club, of the medicine faculty of The University of Sarajevo. In spite of our knowledge of former Yugoslavia we are frequently shut up ??. But our hosts realize we are not dumb, and not speechless. After our concert we are asked if we have time to go to Pazaric next monday. This is where The Serious Road Trip does 'it's other side of the job'. And so we enter the psychiatric clinic in Pazaric, 25 south west of Sarajevo. Pazaric is one of the few clinics where Community Music Sarajevo (as Serious Road Trip activity) started their regular visits. It is a place where autistic, orphans, trauma victims, MS patients, young and old, everything are living together. We give a concert for 100 of the 363 patients and we see the situation is 1000 times better now internationally and Bosnian people work there, take care of them, feed them and bring them joy, get some money from the worldbank, etcetera. Also because of this the concert was phenomenal.

Community Music Sarajevo, started upfounded by the Serious road Trip is based in Sarajevo since September 1995. The development phase, including bringing in the materials and doing research, lasted from October 95 till February 96. The program really started 7th of March. This contains:
- Work, materials and supplies for musicians to do a community job. Special focused on music for children, youth and the mentally and physically disabled.
- work, materials and supplies for musicians to do a community job. specially focused  on the music industry. Concert promotion, rehearsal space, repair of instruments, and studio facilities.
- Continued education program in cooperation with the University of Sarajevo and international partners organizations
- Music for people with special needs, including acoustic and electronic instruments. Individual work and use of digital technique to make music available for deaf, blind and disabled people.
- Digital music technique
- Soundproduction and management of event- Organization management

In November 1995 a basic workstation is flown over to Sarajevo together with analogue facilities for the music academy. About 200 musicians are being helped out with strings, wires, sticks etcetera. A pilot training program was held in November 1995. Since March 1996 4 students work on the outdoors projects in three special institutes; Pazaric psychiatric institute, Vladimir Nazor school and the center for hear and speech rehabilitation. In the following academic year 12 new students will get the opportunity to start up similar projects in similar institutes that showed interest. In September the entrance of the Medicine Faculty is made accessible for wheelchairs. This assists the studio to be accessible for special guests including:

- Members of the Bosnian Cerebral Palsy group
- War victims
- MS patients
- others wheelchairdependents

In the second half of 1997 and the first half of 1997 CoMuSa extended its working territory with the following activities:

- Weekly education sessions in Drin Institute in Fojnica
- Weekly music sessions in Gorazde
- Workshops with local and foreign musicians in neighborhoods, on schools and in institutes
- Rock school education and Masterclass
- Organization of the first Sarajevo International Jazz Festival in august 1997.

In Bosnia we, Hardheaded Soul, got convinced that small, effectual ideas can stimulate the situation enormously. In Sarajevo there are many organizations that started up projects intended to and aimed at preparing local people to continue the work.
This is how we got to the most practical idea. In Sarajevo around 2500 people are dependent on  a wheelchair. But there is no car that can transport wheelchairs.
We decided to bring wheelchair accessible vehicles within a period of 8 months. Transport of wheelchairs in the city could be guaranteed. Bigger projects and projects outside Sarajevo could happen while normal transport continues. We used the video of Pazaric to raise funds. In February the first Van was delivered. In August the second car, a smaller one particularly for the studio project, was brought up over there. 
Besides that arrangements were made for registration, import, maintenance an salary for a driver. This means we have been able to manage to bring materials and solutions without any unidentified hooks ( We leave it up to the journalists to inform you more about that subject).
We direct ourselves to new ideas and situations so CoMuSa can maintain the work in quietness, in peace, and above all in Sarajevo. Building up this exploded part of Europe. The photobook may be called 'Main Point Sarajevo', the projects are to bring in sight a better world. A better one than reality shows us.
We took care that this project is picked up by local organizations in Bosnia and Holland. So all the work has it's impact on the Bosnian and Dutch consciousness. The Peace Shop Eindhoven served this for you. You do not owe them anything.



CoMuSa members:

Bennett Hogg: Director, plus chief of education
Igor Camo: Special education team leader, studio project manager, studio producer
Darko Saracevic:Production team leader, sound engineer
Peter Vilk:Percussionist in residence (Dec '96 - Jul '97) 
Zlatko Avdic:Community musician - studio project/percussion, worker/stage crew
Saran Adnan: Community musician - special education/sound engineer

Part time staff : 
Nihad Vranic: Community musician - special education
Bekim Medunjanin: Community musician - special education
Ida Cico: Interpreter

The video 'Shocking Blues & Raggae' with live music and impressions of the CoMuSa work, made by Hardheaded Soul can be ordered at the Peace shop Eindhoven for 40 DM including delivery.

Projectcoördinator: Hans Matheeuwsen. 
Projectmember: Martin S. Past
printassistent: Rop van Kruisselbergen
Design: Ruparo Print: Primavera

Credits lijst

This presentation is suported by the municipal funs for global conciusness. The wheelchairtransportproject got substantial support of The National Commision of Durable Development (NCDO) and the Wilde Geeze.
Besides that the project was donated and financialy supported by Balans Foundation; Congregationes in the country; Veta Tax; Emmaus Eindhoven; PAN foundation, Heemstede; Anton Jurgens Fonds, Middelbeers; Ford Holland, Obam van der Meulen; Effenaar, Eindhoven and Electude VOF.
We got helped by: Nuenen, Instituut for afortable lunacy, http://www.sociamedia. nl/home. html, Tools voor Ex-YU, Mensen in Nood, Verdima NV, Scholen Zonder Racisme, De Balie, Amsterdam, Press Now, Stichting Saraint, 2B, Stichting 6de Kolonne en Stichting Vredesburo Eindhoven.