Sailors

No one, but us, knows what we've lost. Because we can remember the warm welcome we used to receive everywhere sailing under the flag and with the passport of a resectable country. Now we have come to realize what it is like when literally everybody closes their door to you, isolating you in a port or an anchorage, and a ship turns into a quarantine or a prison, where they also charge you a lot of money just for being there...''

This is how the captain of ``Jugooceanija's'' ships began his confession. He did not refuse to talk to VREME, but did refuse to have ``his name dragged all over the press'' since ``his career is nearing its end'' and he wants to ``retire quietly.'' ``I am aware that my influence is so small that I can't possibly change anything apart from being labelled a traitor in my old age. I resent the policy of the world's strongmen, but I also resent the policy of my country.''

Sailors from the Montenegrin ships that are now held captive because of UN Security Council Resolution 820 will tell you the same story. The ban on sailing turned them into captives wherever they happened to be at the time, with or without cargo, and was followed by additional bans on their accounts in foreign banks and on collecting payments for services they had already provided apart form the obligation to pay mandatory insurance and port duties... The ships, and sailors, began ``eating'' themselves. The value of the Montenegrin fleet accounts for about 15 per cent of the republic's total capital, while it is almost impossible to assess the value of about three thousand educated personnel held in high esteem abroad, which is the the size of the workforce that these two companies employed before the sanctions were imposed. The best sailors, more precisely those who were faced with the gloomy prospects of their ships, decided to leave their companies, and foreign employers were more than glad to take them on. The crews on the anchored ships were reduced to between eight and ten.

Optimists hope that they will put to sea soon, while creditors hope that all conditions for a decision on auctioning the ships will be met, which happens when debts reach a third of the ship's value. A Director of ``Jugooceanija'' stressed that they are not allowed to give any statements without the approval of their director Nikola Samardzic. Samardzic now runs the company from Malta. The ``Jugooceanija'' Director told us that two ships, ``Boka'' and ``Kupres'' now docked in Malta, were auctioned. Two other ships, ``February 1'' and ``Admiral Zmajevic,'' were sold in Chinese ports. No one was sorry about these two ships because they were much to old, and keeping them anchored to save them would have been unprofitable. On the other hand, the sailors could not get over the ship called ``Crna Gora'' that was, the Director said, practically seized in Rotterdam last year and sold cheaply at the creditors' request. That's how the company's favourite ended; the creditors got their share, and the rest of the money was frozen until the lifting of the sanctions. Another ship, ``Kapetan Martinovic,'' anchored in south Georgia, got a new owner early this month, but fortunately the new owner, who is a Greek businessman, decided to employ 23 ``Jugooceanija'' sailors. Other ships of this company are anchored in the Mississipi (close to New Orleans), Baltimore, New York, England, Italy, Africa, Karachi, while six of them are in Chinese waters!

The situation with the ships of the ``Prekookeanske plovidbe'' Company is similar. The ferryboat ``Sveti Stefan'' together with ``Roro Alba'' are in their original port waiting for the BarBari line to be reopened as was announced a long time ago. Other ships are in ports from America to Asia. Jusuf Kalomperovic, the assistant director of the company and until recently the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Traffic in the Government of Montenegro, said that this company was forced to sell ``Rumija'' for 700,000 Dollars last year in the port of Dunkerque at the request of French creditrors. ``We also sold ``Bor'' for 1.550 million Dollars in the American port of Norfolk, which is O.K., but it's not O.K. that the rest of the money is frozen, so that it can't be used for the sailors' salaries or tickets to come home. What's worse is that each ship loses value while at anchor and the fact that the debts grow faster which inevitably leads to the change of the owner. Can you imagine if you parked your car somewhere out in the open and left it there without turning it on how much you would have to invest in order to be able to use it again. The same is with the ships that get older two and a half times faster when they remain stationary. Iraq lost a powerful fleet in the span of only forty days of a similar blockade. We have been holding on for two and a half years although we have lost a half of the fleet. We could survive until the end of the year if the federal government decision on allotting 30 million dollars as aid to companies, and for payment of debts and sailors' salaries was finally enforced. But even that won't mean much unless the sanctions are lifted soon. Neither the ships not the sailors can cope much longer. The life of the men on board those ships is sheer hell, and it isn't much different for those on the mainland as their savings have melted away.''

Two years ago Nikola Samardzic left the post of Montenegrin Foreign Minister and is now saving ships. He was already late for the job of reregistering ships since professional patriots accused him of being a separatist ashamed of the Yugoslav flag which he would happily exchange for the Maltesian or Liberian one to circumvent the sanctions. He has come under attack from part of the company's management in Kotor and increasingly dissatisfied sailors who get meagre salaries apart from not having seen a penny of what is owed to them. ``I am being attacked from all sides. The only thing I can tell you is that I keep touring the ships and doing what can be done. We have been able to give some money to the sailors but even that will be increasingly difficult if the situation remains the same. The ships are in danger, as well as the sailors whose living conditions do not significantly differ from those in concentration camps,'' Nikola Samardzic told VREME over the phone from Malta.

There is increasingly less money for basic supplies for the crews on the ships. Those in Chinese waters did not have enough drinking water on several occasions, or bread for a few days at a time, not to mention that they are completely cut off and unable to communicate unless they go to the mainlaind. In order to do that they would have to pay the boat and the taxes, and they are rarely remembered by humanitarian organizations . The crew of the ``Kolasin'' that is now in Manfredonia is using up its last supplies of food, while reports arriving from the ``Niksic'' anchored in Piraeus contradict all standing beliefs about the traditional Greek Serb friendship. A month and a half ago all the crew had was 200 Dollars, and no one from the ``neighbourhood'' was willing to take them to shore without asking a lot of money. Those on the ``Ulcinj'' anchored in Novosibirsko have nothing good to say either. There is a rumor in Bar that no friends, a la Vladimir Zhirinovsky and other benefectors who are generous in offering help to the orthodox brethren, have tried to reach them, although no one stands in their way... Such reports have not come directly from the sailors as they avoid talking to journalists. They fear that talking about their experience may hurt them while looking for a new job or applying for a transit visa. ``Those who intend to work abroad keep their mouths shut,'' a sailor who is resting after two months spent in captivity in Piraeus said.

Vojo Sevaljevic, a sailor from the ``July 13,'' has just returned from Karachi. Friends could hardly recognize him in the streets of Kotor. They say he was not in the mood for talking but said, ``You wouldn't wish his worst enemy to go through that.''

Nikola Popovic, the helmsman on the ``Durmitor'' anchored in Baltimore, says that the situation on their ship is much better than on other ships, primarily thanks to the activities of Helen DelichBentley (a US congresswoman of Serb origin) and an American Orthodox Church priest (a Lebanese by birth) as well as a number of Americans who Delich and the priest alerted and the Yugoslav emigrants.

``We used to be able to communicate with our families from the ship at any time, regardless of where we were. This was more difficult after the country broke up and the lines between Rijeka, Croatia and Montenegro were cut off. It became impossible when we were forced to drop anchor in Baltimore. We could make a phone call only from dry land. We were fortunate to have been able to use our own boat with a small outboard motor, for which we were not charged as our colleagues in other ports were. Only a few of us remained on board, our savings soon melted away, and reduced salaries rarely arrived. We had to buy many things and were in trouble in several weeks' time. We had to give up our rides to the shore that was several hundred meters away, had to save cigarettes, etc.''

``The ships that were passing by would greet us courteously, but some also sent food and drink. After that the Americans and our expatriates started visiting us regularly. We had parties on the ship, they organized drives to collect donations for us, provided us places from where we could call our families at home, and when our outboard motor broke down, the Lebanese priest collected donations and bought a new one. He also brought some American officers to the ship and told them what we were like as people. Some of these officers were hunters and on two occasions they brouht deer to the ship. From time to time we got 100 Dollars pocket money for cigarettes. We were not alone but still it was not easy for us. We realized that the freedom we had enjoyed everywhere was irretrievably lost. We were constantly oppressed with questions, such as what tomorrow will bring, whether the ship will be saved, whether our captivity will turn out to have been futile.''

Three weddings are the outcome of the social events on the ship. The American brides are supposed to arrive in Boka, but considering the overall situation it is more likely that the sailors will become Americans. For most of them this will mean the end of their careers as sailors, since, they say, that is their only solution.

``It's very difficult, both here and there,'' Nikola Popovic said and added, ``I have been here for two months now. But, I am already thinking about work. It is difficult to be on the ship and I don't know when I will see my family again and how. On the other hand, the part of the salary that is paid to me in Dinars hardly lasts ten days. If the company paid me what it owes me I could stay here for three or four months. It's a big dilemma, since there is no work here, especially not the kind of work that I am good at. It is very difficult for me to make a decision, but I am aware that my family would get a higher salary while I am on the ship, and I would manage somehow the same as I already did for a one and a half years.''

At the beginning of this year the media reported that the Federal Government approved 30 million Dollars of aid to the Montenegrin merchant fleet. The decision was never enforced, nor is it known when it will be. The National Bank of Yugoslavia provided the guarantees and it was approved that Bank of China in London defreezes this amount of money. However, it was learnt, that there is an obstacle in Podgorica (the capital of Montenegro). Montenegro Bank refuses to accept the mortgage on the ships allegedly because it is not a good quality mortgage since the ships are under embargo. The Montenegrin Government offered its guarantees, but Montenegro Bank demands the guarantees of the Montenegrin Parliament, which Milo Djukanovic, the Montenegrin Prime Minister, finds unacceptable.