CroMe interview with Vladimir Onofri

This Croatian man was born in Benkovac in 1950. He describes himself as 'idealistic and humanistic'. In his twenties, he was involved in the Yugoslavian workers' council. Towards the eighties, Poland's Solidarity union became very popular and he tried to initiate something alike among workers in his own union. But due to bureaucracy and complaints about him being too loud, he got into trouble and was interrogated by the police. He felt that the atmosphere in his country was changing, people and groups were set against each other, nationalism was growing rapidly. When Milošević and Tuđman appeared, things got very tense already. Near Benkovac he found out that the Serbs were armed and formed so called defence units. His wife got very nervous under the tension. But the couple did not leave with their children when the war started. With the wisdom of hindsight, he thinks they should have left for their children. They have seen such atrocities and still suffer from this experience. He gives some examples of the considerable tension in daily situations during the war, he reports on the time he was captured by Arkan's men and he reflects on the black and white thinking about the situation by people who have not been there at the time.