Ismet Hadžić

DOBRINJA BLOCKED

From the 2nd of May 1992, Dobrinja was typically besieged and surrounded by chetniks’ transporters and tanks. On the 2nd of May I was in the city with a number of men from Dobrinja, trying to help our people solve that delicate situation, and we didn't know that Dobrinja was surrounded that day. On the 4th of May I was supposed to return to Dobrinja in order to hold a meeting of the regional headquarters and the district headquarters and form a Territorial Defense forces. However, as we were leaving, we found out that there were trucks on the road, and at half past two on the 4th we borrowed two cars and headed for Dobrinja with around 6 cases of ammunition, and 40 liters of petroleum, and 40 liters of gasoline. When we got to the Olympic Village, people from the Territorial Defense forces stopped us and said that we couldn't go any further to Dobrinja, because 17 chetniks had barricaded the road. We gave up and climbed up a building that was already burned, in order to observe the barricades. We observed them for about 2 to 3 hours. And from those windows we really did see trucks and about 17 chetniks. I mean classic chetniks, complete with fur caps and beards, Seselj's troups. After about two and a half or three hours, one of the chetniks invited the whole crew guarding the barricade into a nearby house for lunch, saying that we are not allowed, and that we don't have the kind of people who will go into Dobrinja. So we quickly ran downstairs and out of the building, started up our cars, and like in the movies, drove through the barricade. Somewhere near the traffic light in Dobrinja we could see the chetniks in our rear-view mirrors, running and getting their guns. By then it was too late. Aware of our situation at that moment, of the lack of electrical energy, telephones, and food, we wrote ordinances and adapted them to the state of war, to the state of siege, in which every house and every person had to behave just as ordered. From the saving of food and movement about Dobrinja, to signaling for danger from mortar fire and everything that was needed to insure survival. We ordered all people not fit for defense to form a Civil Defense and to do the work that is normally the responsibility of the Civil Defense. This included making sure that people didn't dump garbage all over Dobrinja, but that garbage ditches were dug near the edge of town, and that they would throw their garbage into those ditches. And that when a ditch got filled up they would have to be cover it with earth and dig out a new one. We made an artificial dam which, through a system of connected containers, caused the water from the Dobrinja River to raise the water level in the sewage pipes, so that we would have industrial water. Then we pulled off an ingenious technological gag that one guy from the town water works thought up. He was familiar with Dobrinja's water supply system and the main reservoir, and his suggestion to me was that we partially cut off one section of the waterworks that connected Nedjarici with the chetniks, not all the way, but only two thirds. In this way we were able to collect enough water in our basements through some sort of free fall through the water pipes. I confirmed the plan, and that gave us some of our water during the night in our basements, which saved our lives. Also, because Dobrinja has underground waters, we ordered the digging of wells.