CNA - 3-month Report (April

26nd April IPPNW - Germany General Assembly in Hamburg
Following an invitation by IPPNW, the CNA representative has given a short speech about the work and answered a few questions concerning the project and its further development.

16th May Training in Tuzla
CNA conducted a one day communication training for young representatives of political parties from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Basic techniques of nonviolent communication and exercises on the theme of team work were worked on with a group of 15 participants. Although very short, the training was quite successful and highly interesting. The training was one of the three
parallel trainings for the whole group which gathered 45 participants for a three day meeting. The other two groups were in trainings conducted by Centar za mir, nenasilje i ljudska prava - Osijek and Centar za kulturu mira i nenasilja - Tuzla. The sponsors of the meeting were USAID, OSCE and NDI (National Democratic Institute). A short report in English is available on request.

22-24 th May Follow-up meeting/training in Laktasi
This was a follow-up meeting of the group of participants who attended the training in Szeged at the beginning of the year. Although not all the people could come, it was a very positive meeting. The group had noticeably reserved a feeling of trust, which allowed a quick start into the work. A gender workshop was on the schedule, aswell as updates on each others work and arranging time for future cooperation. A report on this meeting is available in English and German.

29-31st May Osnabrück Peace Congress
CNA was invited for a working group entitled "civilian dealing with conflicts", to give a talk which included a discussion with participants. This congress was an opportunity to present the work of CNA, and was also good for networking purposes. CNA was able to establish new contacts with colleagues from the region, in the hope that these contacts would grow.

1-11th June, Budapest: Training in the basics of nonviolence
This training was the major event since the Szeged training, gathering this time not only Bosnian participants, but also people from Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. As expected it was a very difficult training with much conflict potential within the group that trainers and participants needed to cope with. Extremely bad news from Kosovo influenced the mood to a great extent and in the end two of the Prishtina participants went home earlier, because of the danger of being unable to go back a few days later. The training was successful, but very very difficult and exhausting. The training team consisted of: Cvijeta Novakovic (CKMN -Tuzla), Jasmin Redzepovic and Nenad Vukosavljevic (CNA). The training was organised in cooperation with Schueler Helfen Leben - Sarajevo and funded by OSCE. For more information see chapter entitled ´Challenges´. A detailed report is available in serbo-croat-bosnian language.

26-28th June "European Futures Congress" in Budapest
CNA was invited by IPPNW - Germany to talk on the topic of "conflict prevention instead of military intervention". The congress was an occasion for networking and updating of knowledge on European discussions about European security models and ideas. A draft of the speech is available in English on request.

4 Trainings in Gorazde
DUE to a lack of funding this group of four 2-3 days trainings could not be implemented,even though CNA agreed to take over all the costs for the trainers, including transport and accommodation. CNA together with Pax Christi Banja Luka and The Center for Support and Information of NGOs, also prepared the programme for these trainings. The plan failed because local
partner ALDI could not secure minimal funds (like lunch and drinks for participants). It is disappointing in view of the fact that two local volunteers from ALDI, participants of the Szeged training, put a lot of effort into making this happen. Unfortunately their bosses stated that that they were unable to get the funding.

A 10 day training for Youth leaders from the Banja Luka - Bihac - Jajce area (planned for the second half of August) The organisers could secure funds for only one part of the project which is a 10 day training for teachers from the same area ( 20-31.07.98).

CNA received a request on cooperation from Macedonia, from one participant of the Budapest training, a representative of the Embassy for Peace from Skopje. The ideas are still being discussed, but we have agreed on the first two steps in this cooperation, which are to organise two trainings to take place in Macedonia:

1. A training for participants (NGO activists) from Macedonia, BiH, Serbia, Kosovo and Croatia (possibly also Slovenia and Montenegro) in nonviolence. The training will be held in Serbo-Croat-Bosnian language. The Embassy for Peace will take over the organisational part (including funding) and CNA the training implementation. The details of the programme will be worked on together. Further cooperation partners in this project will be Antiwar Campaign from Belgrade (interest confirmed) and hopefully also Postpessimists from Prishtina-Kosovo.

2. Training for NGO activists from South East Europe (Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and BiH). The core of the training team will be international, most likely Bosnian-Serbian-Turkish. CNA would like to have KURVE's Turkish partners from Izmir, Ilke SKD in the trainer team. Contact has been established already and a visit to CNA will hopefully be paid to CNA this year, by Hülya Ücpinar from Izmir, where further details can be worked on.

Members of the Postpessimists group from Prishtina expressed interest in inviting CNA to run a training event that would be organised by them. However the situation in Kosovo does not allow any planning for this at the moment, and it is even questionable whether the event could be implemented atall. CNA therefore suggests that Postpessimists join the project in Macedonia mentioned above. CNA is very happy about this contact and wants to develop this cooperation as much as possible in order to include it into other cooperation with groups from Serbia and Macedonia. No matter what the near future brings to the region, these contacts need to grow for the sake of the long term. It must also be added that technical communication difficulties between BiH and Kosovo are nevertheless very annoying.

Two members of The Antiwar Campaign expressed an interest in cooperating with CNA despite the fact that the present CNA staff can not enter FR Yugoslavia due to ongoing conciencious objection of the Yugoslav miitary. The above described Macedonia project would be an excellent occasion for The Antiwar Campaign to join. CNA very much looks forward to future cooperation.

CNA was approached by two participants of the Budapest training who concluded that "something like CNA must exist also in Banja Luka". It is apparently impossible for CNA to get deeply involved in the eventual development of such center in Banja Luka, but we may help with advice, contacts and support. A meeting where these issues will be discussed is arranged already.

CNA has learned that Care International is willing to organise a conference gathering trainers in nonviolent conflict resolution from the territory of former Yugoslavia. CNA has decided to wait with our Networking meeting and eventually organise one after the training for trainers programme next year. The idea of organising a meeting for Peace and HR groups from ex-Yugoslavia is at the moment low priority (beyond our capacities).

Challenges of the trainings with participants who have experience of war, and those from areas presently involved in armed conflict (based on Budapest training experience):

Keeping the focus of our work on the wider region of former Yugoslavia, and not only on BiH has proved to be good, but also bears new strong challenges for CNA. The training team in Budapest faced many difficult circumstances that influenced the work. There was high tension between the participants because of their varying national background, and therefore having completely different point of views due to the one sided information they receive in their different home places. However we also noticed that tensions about the minority/majority rights of Albanians in Macedonia and Kosovo had the effect
of homogenising the Bosnian participants. Independent of their background, their common experience and opinion was that war can not be won and that people always only lose a war. All Bosnian participants argued very emotionally against war, where as those who do not have their experience, saw war as "the last means to solve the conflict". At one point a man who fought for four years in the Bosnian war told those who saw war as a possible means, that if they go for it, they should at least restrain from shooting civilians. Dealing with heated emotions was very exhausting for all, and it reached the stage that standpoints were requestioned and doubts appeared about one's own opinions. Another difficult aspect was the presence of a highly traumatised man who lost close members of his family and friends and who fought in the war himself. His need to talk about these experiences was great, sometimes beyond the group's ability to listen to him. Last but not least, since all the trainers are from the region, our own history bears also emotional weight connected with war, which had to be kept under control for the sake of successful concentration on the group process. The pressure of this effort forced the training team to take an extra day off, giving all of us a chance to gather strength for the rest of the training.

The choice of participants for this training had reprogrammed difficulties, but it was our conscious decision to face these difficulties and practice dealing with them. Although a shocking experience for the participants, it was a deep and valuable experience for them. The fact that three participants from Prishtina found/chose their trust person in a trainer of Serbian ethnic origin (from Belgrade) was a powerful emotional experience.

When we started preparing this project, almost two years ago, Kosovo was defined as an area of interest to include in our work. In the meantime the situation has worsened and it is highly questionable whether war can be halted. We understand our work as work for the future, trying to make a contribution towards peaceful conflict transformation of the conflict in Kosovo.

The appearance of the UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) has escalated the conflict that threatens to overlap into neighbouring countries. Although the Serbian regime has provoked the appearance of armed resistance, the UCK defines its goals in the same manner that Serbian president Milosevic did in the late eighties "All Albanians (Serbians) in one state". The tensions in Western Macedonia are very high and simiilar to those in Kosovo where there is a complete segregation and absence of communication between the ethnic communities. All sides completely disregard the needs and interests of the other nationalities in their region/countries. The solution is seen only in the complete and absolute division of the different ethnic populations. The recipe of "peaceful resettlement of population" into areas where their ethnicity is in the majority is promoted again, despite the Bosnian experience. No matter what happens in the meantime, the work of CNA is an investment in future.

Nenad Vukosavljevic
For Centar za nenasilnu akciju
the Project office of KURVE Wustrow

Special thanks to:
Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden - AGDF
Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft Vereinigte Kriegsgegner - DFG VK Bielefeld
Internationale Ärzte zur Verhütung des Atomkrieges - IPPNW Deutschland
Menschenrechtsreferat des Diakonischen Werkes
Peace Brigades International - PBI Deutscher Zweig
Quaker Peace and Service
Stiftung Leben und Umwelt
CNA Support group Hamburg
Towae Stiftung

CNA will very much welcome feedback, suggestions, questions and criticism
concerning this report and our general work.
Your thinking along, helps us!
Thank you.