TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

[phonetic] and saw the tourist of boats arriving and leaving . . . we travelled fora day up to Fuscagora [phonetic] to visit a monastery there . . . the monasterythere is being restored and units are being built for visitors to live in and theirreligious life is reviving now that the conditions for religious freedom are there,I went to the holy liturgy at St Michaels Cathedral . . . on the Sunday morning. . . we visited Novi Sad to talk to the Mayor there . . . and we also visited thevillage of Petensi [phonetic] because my next door neighbour, Milan Pantelicwas back in Serbia at that time with his wife . . . and we got a good feel for thevillage life, we walked around the streets, we played volleyball over the frontfence, we went to the local church and met the man who looks after it . . . andof course we heard the bell tolling for when people in the village had died . . .while we were having coffee in the main street there we saw a funeralprocession in the old style on foot proceeding to the church . . . (Presenter. . .obviously you, apart from seeing some popular places, you saw ordinary life. . .) . . . we did, that's why we wanted to travel on the trams . . . (Presenter . . .didthey notice who you are? I mean not who you are, but that you are fromforeign country? . . .) No, I just like to blend in (Presenter . . . no oneapproached you to ask where you're coming from? . . .) No . . . I think I blendedin . . . the Australian Embassy was tremendously helpful in getting isappointments with the Mayor of Novi Sad and with the Justice Ministrybecause I was interested to see how the law operated in Serbia and with theJustice Ministry in Podgorica in Montenegro (Presenter . . .who else have youmet? . . .) We met the Mayor of Belgrade . . . who was at that time steppingdown and there was going to be an election for Mayor of Belgrade . . . we meta deputy of the Justice Minister . . . the Justice Minister was unable to meet us. . . we also met of course Patriarch Pavlo (Presenter Have you? That's good)That was a tremendous audience and he's a very holy man . . . I'm only sorryhe's not coming to Adelaide (Presenter . . .he's actually leaving tonight . . .maybe this time he's leaving Australia, but that's very nice that you had timeto see . .) Obviously Serbia is in transition and we're going through a phase inthe Serbian economy where there is not much joy where people are struggling. . . people told me there would be economic rewards in the longer term forSerbia, there would be better times than these times of transition . . . Serbiaand Republica Srpska is having to accommodate a lot of refugees from theBosnian Federation . . . in addition to the camps of the gypsies in Belgrade thatwe lived quite close to in Novi Belgrade and saw how they operated, therewere camps of people who were still refugees, including from Kosovo . . . therewere people who were doing charitable work including a lady from theAustralian Embassy trying to help (Presenter. Over there refugees?) Yeah(Presenter . . .talking about refugees, as a matter of interest, just to switchfrom your visit to say that we're organising here, dinner in Hindmarsh on 27thof this month and . . . all money that will be collected will go over there forrefugees . .) . . . and I know that Serbian political leadership feels very sadabout this and they really must address it (Presenter . . .with your visit toSerbia and over there, obviously you had some official lunches) We did, wehad some delightful food and none better than a restaurant on the heights inSarajevo where the Deputy Mayor of Sarajevo . . . treated us to some very finefood . . . there was lovely food in Belgrade also . . . look there's . . . so manypretty villages, we went down to Oplenac [phonetic] to see the shrine of theRoyal family . . . and then on to Aronjelevac [phonetic] which is where the DukeTravel Report, Hon. Michael Atkinson, MP. and Ms. Vini Ciccarello MP ., August, 2004 124