A Driving Force Behind Effort to Help Bosnian War Victims

When Santa Monica tow truck driver Stewart Resmer put out a call last month for relief supplies for Bosnian war victims, hundreds of people throughout Los Angeles brought tons of food, clothing and medical supplies to Berth 53 in San Pedro. But the supplies wound up sitting on the wharf with no way to get to their destination.

Three weeks later, the more than five tons of relief supplies are on a ship somewhere between Savannah, Ga., and the Adriatic Sea. They are not bound directly for Bosnia but for a church organization in Croatia.

Resmer figures that’s close enough.

“I’m comfortable with it,” said Resmer, 43, who started the relief drive last month on an impulse. “I think (the supplies) are going to get to people who need them.”

But given the conflicts and suspicions between Bosnian Muslims, largely Roman Catholic Croatians and largely Eastern Orthodox Christian Serbs, not everyone is convinced that relief supplies sent to a Croatian church organization will wind up in any Bosnian Muslim hands.

“(The supply shipment) probably will go mostly to Croatian people,” said Subha Sulejmanagic of Culver City, a Bosnian Muslim who emigrated to the United States nearly three decades ago and is active in Bosnian relief efforts.

But a representative of the Croatian community in Los Angeles said the relief supplies will be distributed to needy people in the war-ravaged areas of Bosnia regardless of ethnic background.

The Croatian church group won’t distinguish between needy people of any ethnicity, said Vladimir Lonza, secretary-treasurer of the Croatian American Club in San Pedro, which arranged transportation for the shipment. “They will give (the supplies) to whoever needs them.”

The drive to send relief supplies began in April, when Resmer asked a Santa Monica public radio station to broadcast an appeal to bring food, clothing and medical supplies to San Pedro. Resmer, a Vietnam War veteran with no international relief experience, hoped to load the supplies aboard the Lane Victory, a restored World War II cargo ship that was scheduled to sail to Europe for D-Day 50th anniversary ceremonies. Resmer had done volunteer restoration work aboard the ship.

But the World War II merchant marine veterans who own the Lane Victory nixed the idea, saying Resmer’s plan to take the relief supplies to Europe and give them to international relief agencies for transfer to Bosnia was impractical. The Lane Victory left Los Angeles Harbor on April 30 but had to return earlier this week because of engine problems.

Meanwhile, carloads of relief supplies ranging from diapers to crutches to canned goods had been brought to the wharf. The supplies sat under tarps with no apparent means of getting to Bosnia.

The Croatian American Club eventually stepped in to help Resmer, paying about $2,600 for a shipping container and freight charges. Some donated clothing was held back and will be shipped later, Resmer said, because clothing was not considered critical.

A spokeswoman for A. Hartrodt (USA), a San Pedro shipping company, confirmed that the relief shipment was sent by rail to Savannah and loaded aboard a ship called the Sarajevo Express, which departed May 8. The relief supplies will be delivered to the Croatian port of Rijeka in about a month and then taken to Split, another Croatian coastal city.

Lonza said the supplies will be delivered to Kruh Svetoga Ante, or “Bread of St. Anthony,” a Catholic church organization in Split that performs relief work in Bosnia.