Foreword
Friends of CNA,
We present you CNA’s annual report, September 2009 – September 2010, for perusal, reading and as an incentive for feedback. This is our thirteenth annual report. That’s about as long as we have been present in the region of former Yugoslavia (and sometimes elsewhere), where “we deal with difficult matters”, as our colleague Adnan said.
In the past year, those matters (and not just difficult ones) included: basic training events, work with war veterans (amount and intensity of which has increased significantly); conference on reconciliation, participation in international and local seminars and conferences; promotion of our latest documentary “Intermittent Line”; work on release of the book “Images of Those Times” of life stories of veterans and their family members…
We worked hard and we worked a lot. Hopefully, not too much or too hard, because energy should be preserved for the years ahead of us and the challenges that await us in our societies, but within CNA, too. In the past year, a great deal of our energy was invested again into consolidation of the organization and intentions to structure and organize ourselves better and more just. As a result, two new bodies within CNA were formed – the resource and programmatic groups, whose task is to improve the mode of operation and key decision making processes thus making all our lives easier. Apart from that, we used a great deal of our capacities on various things that you will find in this report because it is somehow regarded as something one does not write about, but actually does it. Anyway – we made and wrote reports, tried to provide funding, moved office and renovated both of them, tried to get the car we had paid for, there was some time and imagination left for thinking about some new things we’d like to do; we planned some new activities; we were meeting continuously with veterans’ associations, maintained and strengthened partnerships; kept having internal meetings and so on and so forth. Turbulent year, turbulent times…
Despite our best efforts and intentions, we did not stay together. Our colleague Nenad Porobić left the organization and took a new job. We use this opportunity to thank him sincerely for all his efforts in organizing the aforementioned activities. Sarajevo team was joined by Jessica Žic, our colleague who is hired as a civil peace worker, on the project supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ). Her impressions of the first few months of life and work in Sarajevo are included in this report.
We hope that in the future we will also be able to keep up with the societies in which we are active, and that we will think about the end of our work primarily when there’s no longer any need for peace building in our region. We’re working on it.
Till next year
CNA Sarajevo / Belgrade Team
peace education programmes
basic trainings in peacebuilding
In the past year, CNA organized two ten-day, basic trainings in peacebuilding. Thus we managed to maintain the pace of two basic training events per year, which coincides with our strategic decision that we had made some years ago to gradually reduce the number of training events, and invest more capacities into designing and implementing other (also new) activities. However, we can say that basic training events will remain a cornerstone of our work and one of our most recognizable activities (along with the work with veterans and documentaries).
Relevance of CNA’s Basic Training for the Region of Former Yugoslavia
A huge number of applications we receive for each basic training (last time we got nearly 180 applications) tells us that the need for this type of peace education in our region is still very large. That is confirmed by the situation in all the countries of our region in which we are active, more of which you can find in the last chapter of this report. In none of the countries of the region peace education is institutionalized, nor is it the part of the curriculum. To tell the truth, some elements are adopted and incorporated into subjects such as for example “civic education”, but systematic and clearly conceptually designed peace education that addresses some of the most serious socio-political problems of our societies is still responsibility of peace groups and organizations.
The thing that CNA basic trainings in peacebuilding offer and what makes them probably unique in our region is – consistency (they have been organized for almost 12 years) and a clear focus and emphasis on cross-border cooperation and regional networking. Our experience proves that a large part of the motivation people have to apply for this training lies in the opportunity to meet and work for 10 days with people from different parts of former Yugoslavia. That is another way our basic training events contribute to a current, ongoing discussion on political and social scene and that is the question: What is the region for us today? Our value orientation and the (political) position on this issue are clear and confirmed by our insistence to work in the entire region (except in Slovenia). For us, this region is an assemblage of highly interconnected and interdependent contexts, which, despite all the existing differ
ences amongst the countries, form a common geographical, cultural, economic and political sphere. However, it is interesting to analyze what the region means to the people who have attended our training events recently. For those slightly older (roughly over 35), this region is also a site of remembrance, a meeting point and a basis for the construction of some (old) identities. For younger generations it is obviously a set of more or less exotic places about which little is known except for daily political or celebrity/sport related news. Therefore it is a major challenge to thematize the necessity of linkage, dialogue and building of good neighbourly relations, but also of dealing with the violent past in this region, in a way that would be appropriate and comprehensible to people who differ greatly in a generational, professional and value sense.
When we think about socio-political problems of our societies we can say that at our latest training events we also sought to relate to the needs and adjust the training concept to the current situation. We can proudly say that we’ve done it quite successfully, and that some political impulses that we have been receiving from the highest authorities of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Croatia *In terms of more open and constructive attitude towards the responsibility of one’s own side for the crimes and misdeeds of the past wars.* show that our focus on dealing with the past and peacebuilding certainly was not amiss. By insisting on these issues and their clear theoretical and methodological framing we send a message regarding where we see priority in peace work in our region, while notably distancing ourselves from the bunch of other programmes in the region that are focused almost exclusively on gaining various skills and self-improvement.
Who applies, who participates at the basic training events?
The core of our approach to peace education is that peacebuilding begins with oneself, from a personal level; but that its purposefulness is achieved only when personal changes and knowledge are transferred onto a social level as well, by way of activism. It is not irrelevant to emphasize given the evident growing importance of inflating one’s CV, that our basic training gives priority to activist over academic experience, while it values readiness for self re-examination and reflection far more than learned phrases about democracy, tolerance, civil society, Euro-Atlantic integrations, and so on. Therefore, it is far more designed for those willing to shake up their positions and values and do some actual work in their communities, then for those who need a certificate of participation to decorate their resume and help them find a job in an international agency.
More war veterans apply to basic training events, and it’s also noticeable that there’s a huge interest amongst people working in educational institutions and media. We are really glad about it, especially considering our impression that for quite some time NGOs have not been the first address from which arrive enthusiasm, creativity and the willingness to undertake a social change. Therefore, one should focus on other resources, no matter how unexpected they may seem (as is the case with a group of veterans).
Geographically speaking, there are several interesting trends. We receive in increasing number of good, original applications from Croatia, even though 3-4 years ago it seemed that the interest for our training there completely abated. The interest is increasing amongst people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although still very few Croatians from Bosnia and Herzegovina apply. A lot of applications come from Macedonia too and we are thrilled that they do not fall into the standard NGO cliché ‘work a little – travel a little’. When it comes to Serbia, there’s a lot of interest, but the applications are as like as two peas and almost fully reflect the dominant daily political NGO language. We still have a problem with a small number of applications from Kosovo and Montenegro, although we try to organize training events in the regions / states to which people with passports of Kosovo can travel freely, and that is one of the reasons why these two training events were organized in Montenegro. It is interesting to note that the number of applications from Montenegro dropped dramatically since the country had declared its independence. Certainly all of these tendencies have to do with shifts in the political arena and it would be very interesting to analyze this connection more closely in some other article.
At the end of this introductory piece on basic training events, we whish to emphasize that judging by the experience and knowledge that we have gained up to date, basic training events played an important role for many people in terms of their empowerment, incentives and support in recognition of their own capacities and powers to take part in many local initiatives of work on peacebuilding and dealing with the past in the entire region.
This gives us a sense of importance regarding what we do and motivation to continue.
T.Š.
basic training in peacebuilding, ulcinj
Ulcinj, Montenegro, 23 October – 2 November 2009
This was the 31st Basic training in peacebuilding (nonviolent conflict transformation) organised by CNA. The training team included Helena Rill, Nedžad Horozović, Sanja Deanković from CNA and Nenad Porobić.
Basic training events have evolved with respect to both their topic and content. We combined various themes as well as changed the methodological approach to them, but the essence and the main goal have remained the same: the multiplication of knowledge, experience and skills regarding work on peace-building, the promotion of the values of nonviolence, rising the awareness, sensitization and responsibility for both oneself and one’s society, and the empowerment of individuals to take an active role in it.
One of the learning points was to re-focus regarding the people with whom we work in this programme. It is important to have people who are able to multipersonal reflection, and their participation reduces the space for other participants who are not experienced in in-depth re-examination, which is one of the basic preconditions in the context of learning in training.
We perceived the training as intense, and that was the feedback we received from the participants – important topics were discussed even without our direct incentive, the work was deep and copious, the people re-examined themselves and moved further. There’s hardly a person that we didn’t notice undergoing a change, when we compared the first and the last day of the training, which definitely gives hope that society can change if the right way is found. Participants demonstrated motivation to do something in their communities, particularly in their workplaces, which is mostly the case with people pertaining to groups abovementioned (that is especially so for those who work in education).
Finally, here is one of the statements from the written evaluation of the training: I’ve got a lot of energy to reflect on my own in a great way – upon both my own actions and those of others (community) and to continue working on the transformation of my micro-environment. I will be persistent and loud, but at the same time more reasoned – before any action I will further re-examine and check with myself whether what I do is really “it”.
H.R.
basic training in peacebuilding, tivat
Tivat, Montenegro, March 19 – 29, 2010
The thirty-second basic training in peacebuilding, organized by the Centre for Nonviolent Action was held in Tivat, Montenegro from 19 to 29 March, 2010. The training was facilitated by Helena and Nenad P. of our Belgrade office and Tamara and Sanja of CNA’s Sarajevo office.
Regarding the concept of the training our main impression is that we followed the group’s needs quite well and that the topics complemented one another from the very beginning with well rounded thematic units. That was also the result of some innovations and supplements we have been introducing at the last few training events.
While setting the concept we were careful to offer more defined conceptual and theoretical framework for the work on peacebuilding and dealing with the past (through a number of theoretical inputs and by clearly underlining the connection between personal and social level of activity in the work on peacebuilding, and theoretical framework for understanding the different levels of work on dealing with the past in order to clearly perceive the importance of the role and responsibilities of an individual in these processes).
We also strived to leave enough space for work on peacebuilding, nonviolence and nonviolent action so that the people would get a chance to reflect on their own about the possibilities to act and thus become empowered and encouraged to get involved concretely in their communities.
There was plenty of openness and willingness for personal work and re-examination of one’s own attitudes within the group. Some people were ready for deep emotional exploration of themselves and their own position within petrified social injustices that are becoming “normal” and are less and less re-examined in the society we live in.
We noticed there wasn’t enough work on the theme of structural and cultural violence in our societies. That’s the task we should resolve for the following training events: to find a way to tackle the subject in a wider and deeper sense.
Although the group had many political activists, especially from Serbia, we missed their prominent presence in the work process from the standpoint of their political affiliation. We must come up with a way to encourage people to take responsibility for the discussion at that level and for re-examination and criticism of their own political agenda for the situation in society / societies.
An important focus of the training, besides peace-building and dealing with the past, was nonviolence and the values of nonviolence, as well as exploring how to design nonviolent activities. For many people that was an incentive and encouragement to reflect on the possibilities of action once they return to their communities. Regardless of the fact that these topics were covered in the last two blocks, there was still enough energy and willingness for serious work.
This was an inspiring training with a lot of people who have potential to get really involved in their societies. We do hope to stay in touch with many of them and have a chance to work together on our advanced peace education programmes.
S.D.
Dealing with the past activities
conference „neighbours, not enemies“
Sarajevo, April 22 – 26, 2010
For the first time in thirteen years of our existence, the CNA team organized a regional conference on reconciliation. What we have re-examined, defined, debated through many of our other programmes for years, is now framed in the form of a four-day event that was held in Sarajevo’s Saraj Hotel, in April. The activity was organized as a part of the project named “Peace Building in the Western Balkans -From Normalization, To Reconciliation” which CNA has been implementing in partnership with Miramida Centre, Grožnjan, Croatia. In a way, the conference was somewhat formal follow-up to the last years’ “Miramidays
– Days of Peacebuilding” on the similar theme.
The programme of the conference offered a thematic and methodological diversity, without losing sight of the need for a clear focus and framework of the discussion. Therefore, the following introductory presentations were offered as a part of the plenary sessions’ programme:Victimization as an obstacle to reconciliation; Role of veterans in the reconciliation process, Media and reconciliation. The workshop part was intended as an open space for asking questions that are often overlooked, or considered self-explanatory – What is our region for us now? How much does it cost what we do? What is the gender of war and reconciliation? How is REKOM initiative perceived by the war veterans? Special segment of the conference’s programme was dedicated to a round table on the theme:
Do we need reconciliation in the region?
The conference brought together over sixty participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. Hence, it was probably the first time ex-combatants, activists, theorists and researchers, journalists and politicians found themselves alongside each other at a public event on this topic. Therefore, during four days people of different professional, living as well as value orientation had a chance to discuss together and exchange their views on the reconciliation process and dealing with the past in the region of former Yugoslavia. Without pressure to reach forced conclusions and agreements, and without imposed expectation to produce a so-called “joint concrete actions”, respectable group of experienced people simply talked and learnt during the plenary sessions, workshops and breaks.
The main thematic focus of the conference was a process of reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia which we wanted to examine, (re)define, and perceive from different angles. The very notion of reconciliation typically causes controversy. It is both abstract, and often too “flexible”. In need of concretism and systematization, we wanted to encourage critical examination of the existing concepts and models, as well as the approaches their exponents have. The idea was to try to critically re-examine current practices, even if it involves criticism of one’s own approach (and especially then!), without additional banality and reaching for the recipes like “everything for some, something for all”.
Another focus somehow imposed itself during the conference. It was the role and possible contribution of war veterans to the reconciliation processes, dealing with the past and peacebuilding. Even though only one session was devoted to this issue directly, the very presence of numerous veterans from various armies and organizations resulted in the fact that the role of this group was constantly on the conference’s agenda. Therefore we were somewhat unexpectedly given the opportunity to conduct a parallel process that was not part of the conference’s main agenda. Namely, it was the process of sensitization (of both veterans and activists) of ones to the others. We do not delude ourselves that the obvious existing gap was therefore radically reduced, but we can not but chuckle to the fact that we have considerably contributed to the fact that the representatives of veteran population become regular participants, not only of these type of events, but also of the wider process of reconciliation.
Finally, we are particularly pleased with the large turnout of our colleagues from different areas to our invitation to participate at the conference, and a very good response from media representatives who covered the conference and reported from it. Although this was a step away from the usual procedure for CNA and a journey into the unknown in a certain way, we realized that we were up to such a task because the need for this type of networking and sharing definitely exists. It’s only that most of us are either too tired of “endless talking” or too busy with their own activities and projects. The feedback we received after the conference encourages us to continue in this direction, and it’s up to all of us to fill the space between this one and some next similar conference with dedicated and responsible work in this field.
For more information on the programme, content of discussions and presentations, and participants’ review of some key questions, conference’s booklet is available on the following link (available only in BHS languages):
http://nenasilje.org/publikacije/pdf/CNA_Susjedi.a.ne.neprijatelji.pdf
T.Š.
ex-combatants training
Brčko, June 11 – 15, 2010 & Jahorina, July 09 – 13, 2010
Training for ex-combatants is one of the activities of CNA’s work with war veterans. It is special because people who were not so long ago shooting at each, now sit together and talk, and the “other one, the evil” perhaps for the first time becomes personified in some human character and shape. Emotionally challenging and difficult issues are discussed openly thus encouraging re-examination of one’s own role and the role of one’s side for the past wars and re-examination and identification of one’s own responsibility for today and tomorrow. Believing that the combatants are people who have and can have major impact on our societies, through training we try to encourage participants to be more active in building a more just and better society.
The eighth training for combatants from the region was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It consisted of two phases. The first one was held in a northern Bosnia and Herzegovina’s town of Brčko, on the border with Croatia, from June 11 to 15, 2010. One of the reasons for choosing Brčko is its geographical accessibility to people from the region. The place is also interesting for the fact that all three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina share the power in the district, under the patronage of the international community. Our ties with Brčko have also to do with some recent activities-visits to the sites of casualties, where all three veterans’ associations (of Republika Srpska, the Croatian Defence Council and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina) were together our hosts, which was in fact the implementation of the idea of the trainees who had attended the last year’s training for combatant of wars in the region of former Yugoslavia.
The group comprised of 13 trainees. This training was attended by veterans from Nuštar (Republic of Croatia), Odžak, Zapadni Mostar and Gornji Vakuf/ Uskoplje who responded to our invitation and with whom we hadn’t had prior cooperation.
The training team, which included Ad-nan Hasanbegović, Nedžad Horozović, Nenad Vukosavljević and Nermin Karačić, set out the following basic objectives of the training:
- Establishment of dialogue between former combatants from different warring sides.
- Sensitization for different views and opinions about events from the wartime past.
- Development of empathy
- Trust building
- Building of a “platform” for future joint activities.
The concept of the phase one of the training was largely leaning on the previous training events, because we realized that they provided trust building and a safe space for the participants, as well as enabled us to meet the objectives which the training team acknowledged in the end.
After the phase one the training team had the impression that the trust was established, primarily in CNA, as well as trust amongst the trainees, therefore a good space was created for the phase two to ensue.
The phase two was held in the Bistrica Hotel, in Jahorina, nearby Sarajevo, from July 9 to 13, 2010 where we have been holding our training events for veterans and other activities of CNA, for years already.
Two participants from Serbia and one from Republika Srpska who had attended the phase one of training, were unable to come. We invited five new veterans, some of which had already participated in some other CNA’s peacebuilding activities. Their motivated contribution to the discussions resulted in a better quality of workshops and the training itself.
The concept of the phase two was for most part based on reflecting ideas for joint actions. We went through the elaboration of these ideas, simulating the situations in which people could found themselves during their actual implementation, primarily opening up the issues of meaning, message and significance that those joint activities of veterans from different sides might have for our societies and communities.
Speaking about the possible difficulties and fears, our roles and participation, and the role and participation of our associations, we got a clearer picture of the real chances for something like that to be done.
The goals that we had set for this training were fulfilled. The impression is that everything went somehow more easily and quickly than in previous years and this one has been one of the best training events so far. Perhaps there is a sense that in the end people left somehow burdened, aware how difficult and arduous it was to confront oneself and one’s past, but surely, perhaps for the first time, with some hope for a better future. Here is the quote of a trainee: “It was easier to take arms and fight, then to work on reconciliation and peacebuilding, but there is no other way.” It is easy to recognize, even watching from the side, that amongst the people who passed through
CNA peace programmes, in most cases true reconciliation was achieved and some new ties, trust and friendships were established. We share a common challenge to extend those impulses from a personal level to the levels of our societies.
N.K.
war veterans visited sites of atrocities
Zavidovići, Brčko, Modriča, Šamac – April/May 2010
This year we have organised the third cycle of joint visits by war veterans from B&H, Serbia and Croatia to sites of atrocities and memorials related to the 1992 – 1995 war. The group was comprised of participants of the war veteran training, which we organised in 2009, as well as of additional guests from former activities and people from local war veteran associations.
This year we have visited four towns:
Zavidovići2, 10 – 11/04/2010
Brčko3, 12 – 14/04/2010
Modriča4, 28 – 29/05/2010
Šamac5, 30 – 31/05/2010
2 In Zavidovići we visited: Memorial to civil and military casualties of Zavidovići Municipality located in downtown, Riđali – memorial for killed soldiers of B&H Army, Dolina Gostovića – memorial for killed soldiers of B&H Army, 13th Kilometer – unmarked former military camp of „El Mujaheed“ unit, where Serb prisoners were killed and tortured in 1995.
3 In Brčko we visited: Luka – war-time camp for non-Serbs, Laništa – memorial for Croatian civil casualties killed in 1992, Bukvik Village – unmarked site of Serb civil casualties (memorial under construction).
4 In Modriča we visited: memorial room of RS (Republika Srpska) Army – Modriča, memorial for killed RS soldiers located in Modriča downtown, Silos – unmarked camp for Serb civilians.
5 In Šamac we visited: Crkvina warehouse – unmarked camp for non-Serb civilians, memorial for soldiers of RS Army in Crkvina,memorial room of RS Army in Šamac, memorials in Šamac downtown for civil and military casualties, Bridge over Bosnia River – war-time front-line.
In each of these towns, our hosts were local war veteran organisations, which we were preparing and designing such visits with in the previous period. In Zavidovići our host was the Organisation of Disabled War Veterans of Zavidovići Municipality, in Modriča War Veteran Organisation of RS (Republika Srpska) and Association of Camp Prisoners of RS, Modriča, while in Šamac our hosts were War Veteran Organisation and Committee of Disabled War Veterans of Šamac.
The visit to Brčko was a special one, as there our hosts were three War Veteran Organisations together, since Brčko District is the only town in B&H where War Veteran Organisations of the three former parties at war are equally present and active -Organisation of Disabled War Veterans of B&H Army, Brčko District, Disabled Veterans of the Croatian War of Independence Ravne, Brčko and War Veteran Organisation of RS, Brčko. In each visit, there were 20 of us approximately, while apart from hosts, there were people from Veteran Organisations of Tuzla, Sarajevo, Prnjavor, Zagreb, Županja, Šibenik, Vranje, Vlasotince and Novi Sad.
Organising this activity was initiated by the CNA Team, but willingness and motivation of people from local war veteran organisations to take over the activity organising and to take care together with us of about many things, which had to be done while preparing and implementing this type of activities, was very helpful.
The main impression from these visits was that despite of the demanding visit program and emotionally challenging process, the group „bore“ this activity very well. We spent a lot of time in discussions relating to war consequences in the communities and places we visited. Courage of local people was obvious, when they took us also to unmarked sites, which were considered as taboo in their environment and which were spoken about insufficiently. Meetings and discussions, which followed the visits, were very emotional and empowering, because great empathy was felt for war victims regardless of which side they were from. People were affected deeply just by looking at photos of killed soldiers and their medals displayed in the memorial rooms we visited. During discussions after visits, serious anti-war messages were articulated, as well as shock because of human casualties. „What kind of humans are we to allow such large-scale crime?“, one of the participants asked himself, which reflected general mood prevailing in the group. Visiting memorials together and looking at the lists of killed civilians and soldiers in various places and paying tribute impressed deeply all people present and seemed to have sent powerful message of peace and human bearing of the burden of the recent war.
We were also glad because we received direct declarative support from local authorities in all these places. In every town, representatives of local municipality government joined us and spent a few hours in conversation with us. We even noticed a kind of wondering and surprise by the courage of having former warriors from once opposed armies involved in peace-building efforts. Inspired by such meetings, municipality mayors spoke about much needed reconciliation between nationalities in their communities. An initiative was launched by the group to have all unmarked sites of casualties adequately marked, which was accepted by representatives of local authorities with understanding. A dilemma remained as to whether this initiative would be realised, but it was important for us to have mentioned it as a necessity and to have put pressure to authorities for such initiatives to be implemented.
A few striking details may be singled out from the overall activity:
The visit to the 13th kilometer in Gostivića valley off Zavidovići, where „El Mujaheed“ unit of B&H Army was keeping, torturing and killing Serb prisoners. By visiting this site, which has not been marked, despite of the fact that some officers of B&H Army were prosecuted by ICTY for these crimes, a great progress has been felt in recognising and facing crimes made by „one’s own“ side, without any calculations. This has sent a powerful message to people from the other side that there is an honest wish for reconciliation and sincere regret.
The similar situation has been created by the visit to Crkvina warehouse off Šamac, where non-Serbs were imprisoned during the war and many of them were killed. Messages of regret and feelings of responsibility with honest recounting of the events, which we have heard from our hosts in Šamac, have provide hope that eventually there will be a catharsis with accepting and condemning crimes committed in „our“ name and in our communities in front of many „common“ people, both war veterans themselves and those others who have mainly been silent about it so far. It is important to mention that in Šamac, during preparations for the visit, we had a meeting with the Municipality Deputy Mayor, who had been imprisoned for 7 years for war crimes. We had quite constructive discussions with him, during which he expressed his willingness to support us in visiting Šamac, as well as Crkvina warehouse. He had been sentenced to prison for indirect participation in that crime by the Hague Tribunal.
It is interesting that this year in Brčko we have had an opportunity to be hosted by three war veteran organisations together, which were fighting against each other during the war. The general context of Brčko District is also interesting, as this is a rare community in B&H where there are indications of co-existence without clear majority of one nationality and where all share a common space and social reality from equal positions of power. Therefore, from a symbolic point of view, the visit to Brčko is especially significant since we have managed to visit together the sites of casualties of all three peoples as well as to speak about it openly and to pay tribute to victims. It has been helpful to know that for quite some time now there is good cooperation between local war veteran organisations and that they often act together toward authorities in the fight for their rights and needs. In our opinion, this initiative has further empowered them to deal with and face their war past in a constructive way in future. Humanisation of the image of the „enemy“ through understanding of their loss and suffering, as well as piety for victims of the „other side“ create atmosphere in which fear and hostility are significantly reduced. This kind of activity is an opportunity for necessary social dialogue. Through such meetings, we send a clear message to all levels of society about the need for a different kind of political articulation of the relationship to the past. These are symbolically powerful actions, which encourage decreasing of hostilities and ethnic distance. They also encourage thinking about political alternatives and make it easier for political leaders to take personally a step forward in this direction (for example laying flowers by Presidents Josipović and Tadić in Vukovar, visit to B&H by Croatian President Josipović, etc.)
We are only partially satisfied by media coverage. Although we have sent invitations to various media in B&H, only few local and regional TV and radio stations and journalists have responded. Among public broadcasters, RTRS and BHT have responded. It has been our wish to have much greater media coverage, but it is obviously necessary to lobby more directly among journalists when such activities are in question. Unfortunately, it seems that many media still consider it more interesting to show bad news and violent incidents, rather than deep and significant messages of reconciliation and sincere tribute paying to victims.
During these visits, we have recorded a lot of video and audio material and we hope to be able soon to make an authentic document for the purpose of broadcasting by various media in the region, if we manage to get through to them at all.
At the closing meeting, held in Šamac, great satisfaction has been expressed by all participants of this important peacebuilding story in the region, as well as a clear wish to continue with such initiatives.
To conclude, we bring the statement of a participant, as one of the best descriptions of the atmosphere from the meetings and topics we have discussed.
I would like to thank all from CNA for bringing us together, as well as to our hosts for their welcome. I am grateful to M. for insisting on marking the 13th Kilometer, because my countrymen suffered there. This has been difficult for me today. In the memorial room, I have seen the emblem of the brigade from my village, the emblem which got there by force, which was taken off from a dead man. I would like to thank A. for talking about it. No one deserves to be tortured brutally, including prisoners of war. I have heard about the 13th Kilometer site from an honourable medical doctor of Prnjavor. Those who tortured were not Muslims, but unhumans. They were not doing what was inherent in the religion and tradition of Muslim people. My brother was on another hill. I have seen that there also were people from various places who were killed. This war has brought nothing good to anyone. I would like once again to thank everyone, including people whom I see for the first time now.
A.H.
roundtable “the role and contribution of war veterans to reconciliation process”
Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 18, 2010
The Association of Veterans (of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina) of Gornji Vakuf / Uskoplje, “Goranovi”, organized a visit to this town, as a collaborative initiative with CNA in honour of the International Day of Peace, September 21. Part of the event was a roundtable on “The Role and Contribution of Veterans to Reconciliation Process”. In addition to that, there was a discussion with young activists and facilitators of the Youth Centre Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje. Part of the group comprised of war veterans from Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska), Serbia and Croatia who had attended CNA’s training for ex-combatants and members of veterans’ associations (Croatian Defence Council and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina) from Gornji Vakuf / Uskoplje.
Gornji Vakuf / Uskoplje is a small town in central Bosnia, where the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatian Defence Council fought during the war (1992 -1995). The town was divided into two parts and suffered huge destruction. After the war, the dividing lines were “buried”, buildings and infrastructure restored, but the division into Bosniak and Croatian part has remained and is actually visible to this day. That’s the reason this meeting of former combatants was aimed at encouraging dialogue between the former conflicting parties, as an incentive to other citizens and new generations to re-establish dialogue, trust, tolerance and restoration of human relations in this town.
This informal mixed group of veterans is willing and motivated to participate in and encourage various peace actions, demonstrating that as direct participants in the war, who were on different sides and have different national, religious or any other identity are willing to be the ones who will encourage peace, reconciliation and establishment of dialogue. The most discussed topic at the round table which was held at the Town’s Municipal Assembly was the need to include veterans from the local community into collaboration with the veterans from the region as a part of the process of reconciliation and dialogue.
Local members of the Croatian Defence Council’s Associations who attended the meeting had a certain amount of reserve and caution towards such ideas, but the dialogue and friendly atmosphere resulted in the proposal that it was necessary to continue with these meetings and a joint message concerning the International Day of Peace was agreed emphasizing a desire to act toward building a lasting peace in the region. It is important to underline that several members of the Croatian Defence Council Associations cancelled their participation in this activity due to, as we were told, the parliamentary elections and an untimely political moment. It tells us first of all that is necessary to put even more effort into gaining the trust of local veterans’ associations and individuals for a concrete involvement in such activities. This meeting can be viewed as a major step in that direction.
After a joint lunch and a walk around the town, there was a discussion with youngsters at the Youth Centre GVU. This discussion with the youth and their view of their daily life experience was very moving and emotional. The veterans of the group had an immediate chance to hear the experiences of young people who are growing up in a divided community, after having experienced war as children. Now they deal with various types of discrimination, pressures and anxieties. Through this conversation, one could feel the tragedy of war and its trans-generational impact and consequences it has on the lives of young people.
We hope to visit Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje again with a similar line-up and continue with initiatives like these. Local people have shown us that organization of such meetings is extremely significant and important to them and that in this way they gain support for their efforts in organizing life in their community.
The event was covered and broadcast by Croatian Radio Television which we find extremely important. Unfortunately, except for the local web portal, it was the only media outlet that responded to our invitation to cover the event.
A.H.
documentaries and publications
the film screening of “intermittent line” in macedonia
Skoplje, Prilep, Kumanovo: November 2009 – January 2010
In November 2009 and January 2010, we organized three film screenings of the documentary “Intermittent Line” in Macedonia (shot in 2008), which was directed by Nenad Vukosavljević and produced by Centre for Nonviolent Action.
“Intermittent Line” (Испрекината црта / Linja e ndërprerë) is the fourth film in the simulated dialogues series dealing with relations between Albanians and Macedonians in Macedonia. This film contains interviews with persons, whose voices do not make their way into the public space, thus establishing communication between them and encouraging a more open inter-ethnic understanding of the painful experience of conflict that occurred in 2001, and its causes and consequences.
We had planned to organize three screenings (in Skopje, Prilep and Kumanovo), but ended up having two as a part of the November cycle -in Skopje (on November 12) and Prilep (on November 14). The one in Kumanovo was originally cancelled due to some organizational problems. Since it is important to us to organize the screenings together with people who are active in local communities, the screening in Kumanovo was held on the initiative of our new local partner and film’s protagonist and former combatant, Predrag Bingo Petruševski, in January 2010.
The organization of all three screenings was supervised and coordinated by Luan Imeri and Gordana Pirkovska Zmijanac.
The screening in Skopje which was organized with Međaši – the First Children’s Embassy in the world (www.childrensembassy.org.mk/) and Luan Imeri (film’s protagonist) was attended by about fifty people, eight of which were reporters.
The screening was followed by an hour-long discussion that Kadri Haxhihamza, Ana Bitoljanu (both protagonists of the film) and Nenad Vukosavljević had with the audience (in Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian, with simultaneous interpretation) which was moderated by Gordana Pirkovska Zmijanac. After the motives for taking part in the film were disclosed, the discussion followed. It revolved around experiences related to the conflict, the importance of accepting the “other” and walking in their shoes, tolerance and diversity. Several people expressed their need for similar films to be made more often, and for this one to make its way into media and educational institutions. Since there was a significant number of people active in the NGO sector in the audience, the discussion revolved around the role of the civic sector in the reconciliation process which didn’t make too much of a progress and the need for much more effort to be invested into work with people outside these circles. Establishing preconditions for the return of a considerable number of refugees and displaced people all over Macedonia, was also discussed.
Senior police adviser (who announced that he would use the film in an academic training of the multiethnic Macedonian police units) commented that examples of “positive” communication should be given a priority over the “negative” ones which should be banned from the public space. In response to it, the author of the film concluded that reconciliation and forgiveness should not be forced upon, and that reality should not be faked and furthermore that we need to face the most painful things and make space for honest communication in a constructive way.
The screening in Prilep was organized together with our local partners from the “Peace Action” (www. mirovnaakcija.org/). Aleksandar Markov (another protagonist of the film), Ana Bitoljanu, Luan Imeri and Nenad Vukosavljević took part in an hour-long conversation with the audience which was moderated by Goran Taleski. The attendance was the same as in Skopje, but it was noticeable that people who do not belong to the NGO sector came too and they were willing to talk about topics they found personally painful and challenging. The presence of several veterans of the Macedonian security forces who had participated in the conflict resulted in the direct discussion. A desire to talk about the events of 2001 in a different way than politicians tend to do was expressed along with the need for the crimes to be disclosed and a feeling of tension and insecurity fed by various and contradictory interpretations of the conflict. The interethnic relations and divisions, current political problems, conflicts over the language, ethnic and state symbols and their use were also addressed as well as different views of the Ohrid Agreement that had suspended the armed conflict. The veterans expressed their views of the war and their motivation to participate in it, dissatisfaction with the government’s attitude towards them and conceded that the film was a positive example of dealing with issues that were essential for improving inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia and prevention of violence. It was also obvious that those in attendance at the screening wanted to seek Luan’s opinion on various topics, which indicated to a lack of daily interethnic communication in Prilep.
Macedonian veteran Predrag Bingo Petruševski, who reacted very emotionally and enthusiastically to the film expressed his desire to organize a promotion at the Culture House in Kumanovo, on January 15, 2010.
The audience demonstrated huge interest for this screening (attended by about 150 people, significant number of which were young people and veterans of the Macedonian security forces, with several veterans of the Albanian National Liberation Army) which was followed by a 50-minute long discussion in Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian between Goran Bingo Petruševski, Luan Imeri, Nenad Vukosavljević and the audience, with moderating and consecutive translation provided by Safet Ballazhi.
The discussion included a direct victim of the conflict who expressed her everyday pain and sorrow for the killing of her husband, and who was seeking answers that would make sense of that loss; a veteran who asked all the victims of the conflict for forgiveness; peace activist who stressed the importance of personal and collective responsibility for a joint tribute to all the victims of the war, a politician (“unfortunately was not able to contribute to resolving the 2001 crisis”), who sought answers to the questions that the film addressed and asked some on his own (offering his interpretation of the statements that his fellow politicians from the other ethnic group gave in the film) as well as people from the community who expressed their frustration with the ethno-political divisions and conflicts, and mutual exclusiveness of different political options that cause everyday divisions in the city and society.
The fact that the media space of Macedonia lacks incentives for peacebuilding through communication on inter-ethnic violence from the past (is the recognition of that shortage a sign of urgency?) was proved by the airing of the film on TV stations. It was broadcast on bilingual ALSAT-M channel and the state-owned MTV1 (in Macedonian) and MTV2 (in Albanian). The film was broadcast on ALSAT-M as a part of the show that gathered Macedonian and Albanian combatants in the first public dialogue of this kind since the end of the conflict. Luan Imeri also appeared in a popular political show on channel TV5 about tolerance, during which excerpts from the film were aired.
The film made quite a splash amongst veterans. The day after the screening in Prilep Macedonian veterans’ association “Dostoinstvo” had its session during which the discussion about the film was one of the two items on the agenda.
The Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia asked to make a hundred copies of the film and use it as a resource in their forums about the future of Macedonia.
Our partners in Macedonia and we feel highly empowered by the production and screenings of the “Intermittent Line”. We are encouraged for further work, as well as for some form of further cooperation.
Quotes from the screening:
“I certainly would not want it to happen again to anybody, trust me. This should happen to no one. No one. The thing I want the most is for this country to be stable. Mostly because I have two children who should live here. That’s what I want the most. And I don’t want what has happened to happen again to anyone, anyone. I also have to say, I am sure that my husband did not kill anyone, my husband was a driver, a mechanic. He did not shoot at the frontline”.
“Obviously, this whole effort has achieved one of its goals simply because we are gathered here to talk about these things. To talk about this topic openly. Another objective that has been fulfilled is that I, as a direct participant in military operations, am now speaking in favour of peace. In favour of coexistence, of respect, respect for differences. That idea is one of the ideas of this film. So that we, all the people, start talking to each other, knowing the differences…”
N.P.
about the oral histories book “images of those times”
The collection of oral histories of combatants and their family members “Images of Those Times” should be released in the autumn of 2010. In this article you can find more about the idea and the content of the book.
From the Foreword
… … What we wanted with this book of oral histories was to collect in one place and publish the stories of combatants, war veterans, but also civilians, male and particularly female members of their families. We chose this concept, guided by a strong impression that in our societies war is in most cases perceived as a “male’s” issue, of which only men -combatants, defenders -have something to say. The perspective of women, who have survived wars and lived through them in different ways, typically remains in the background or sidelined. The work on this book has confirmed our belief that showing male and female perspective is neither homogeneous nor unambiguous. As the published interviews show, experiences and life stories are diverse and multi-layered. It is therefore impossible to draw a clear line between these perspectives without reaching for essentialism, so close to the patriarchal way of thinking, inside of which one “knows” exactly who should do what and whose role it is. On the contrary, in this book you can read both the story of a veteran woman, and the story of a man who did not carry arms, but whose father had been killed in the war.
The focus of this book is on the wars, waged in the nineties in this former Yugoslav region, with a particular reference to the 1991-1995 wars. However, since personal stories are interwoven with collective narratives, they are also imbued with the memories of the wars of the past, and more recent periods … Special attention was devoted to the triangle of Serbia – Bosnia and Herzegovina -Croatia, although the echo of other areas, especially that of Kosovo can be heard. The World War II is mentioned in personal histories on a few occasions and is interwoven with the wars of the nineties. Although wars are the focus of this book, in one story one can read about how people lived before and after the war, what their everyday life and social aspect of their lives were like…
Our work on collecting oral histories is in a way a continuation of what some other organizations had been doing in this field before us, one of which is the Documentation Centre Wars 1991-1999 whose incredibly valuable work we find worth mentioning. However, the distinctiveness of this book and our approach lies in the fact that stories were collected and conducted by former war veterans and peace activists, representatives of two social groups that are often in conflict that is accompanied with labelling each other or even overt contempt.
All the interviews were conducted in the summer / fall of 2009, after a three-day training which was attended by thirteen people – veterans and activists. The preparations for the actual interview were carefully designed and carried out, in accordance with the present standards in the field of collecting oral histories. Finally we got twenty interviews from eleven interviewers. All the interviews were accurately transcribed and stored in an archive while the most impressive ones in our opinion were published in this book. It was challenging to work on this book, collecting stories and sometimes having difficulties deciding whether to include a personal story or not, reading in one place how people were coping with the war and its consequences and furthermore, indirectly sharing many personal losses, whether it was someone’s home, health, their loved ones … According to Žuna, one of those who spoke: “The war destroys everything from the top of every single hair of one’s head down to the little toe, soul, just everything”… On the other hand, these life stories also bring authenticity, simplicity, caring for others, love, and plenty of other emotions that can not but touch you.Personal stories and personal understanding are important parts of peacebuilding.
This collection of personal stories is our contribution to widening the space needed for sharing personal experiences, without which we believe, the chances of genuine mutual and human understanding would be tremendously reduced.
Although these are personal stories of ordinary people, according to Aga-Pop, one of the speakers, one can also recognize from them collective narratives imbued with the traumas of both distant and recent past. Although this book is not intended to provide material for the analysis of ethnic / collective narratives, it is still impossible to escape them and they permeate and shape personal stories and experiences in a similar way to that in which they shape and influence our society. In certain cases, however, the power of the collective narrative completely disappears as opposed to the power of personal story.
We hope that this book will be read with an open heart and the stories of people will be approached with an intention of understanding them, instead of condemning and rejecting them, which is frequently the case.
H. R.
in cooperation with other organisations
the third peace academy
Sarajevo, July 18 – 27, 2010
Last summer, the Franciscan Student Dormitory in Sarajevo, for the third consecutive year, became a gathering place for about 60 participants from all over former Yugoslavia and also from Germany, Ireland, Turkey, USA, UK. Among this year’s participants were activists, theorists, journalists, employees of colleges and schools and a few veterans who attended one of the three courses offered.
When the team of seven people from four different organizations (besides CNA, there were colleagues from Nansen Dialogue Centre Sarajevo, MCC South East Europe office and Terca, Sarajevo) nearly five years ago started to plan this activity, we described what we wanted to create as a “meeting place”. We were a little aware that those words were somewhat overused, but what was driving us towards them were a need and a feeling that somehow we had lacked a place to meet and reflect. For one thing, after three Peace Academies we organized that’s what we have achieved exactly -that people want to come and meet up, think critically and examine the world we live in.
In 2010, the organizing team of PA offered three courses (two in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian language and one in English):
- Religion and nationalism, Vjekoslav Perica
- Understanding elements of collective violence and mass crimes and its consequences, Vlasta Jalušič and Tonči Kuzmanić
- Memory and its role in Conflict and Conflict Transformation, Orly Friedman
We have received the biggest number of applications so far (nearly 180), and the reason for this lies (apart from the fact that the previous two academies provided excellent publicity) also in a bigger effort that the organizing team invested into the promotion of the Third Peace Academy. Hence, besides the usual invitations sent via email, people were invited through banners placed on some of the most popular alternative web portals in the region while the promotion of this programme in Priština, Kosovo, was attended by around fifty people.
According to the trainees’ assessment, the courses were quite stimulating and reached a high level. The objections were mainly related to methodological uniformity and even inadequacy at certain moments (either not enough or too much discussion, either not enough theory or too much theory -depending on one’s liking and preferences). The gains are, as it seems, numerous. People stay in touch, think and write. This time we have received the biggest number of essays (a total of 41) after the Academy and their quality has significantly increased, in comparison to the previous years. Starting with this year, the lecturers were involved with reading and the selection of best essays which seemed to motivate people to make an effort and write down their thoughts. One of the main programmatic challenges for the future is related to finding new potential lecturers, able to create space for interaction, discussion and exchange, that will turn neither into a mere ex-cathedra lecture with 15 minutes left for discussion, nor into workshop with a sole aim of sitting in a circle and randomly sharing personal experiences for the sake of it. Peace Academy neither offers training events nor college courses. It aims to be a point of intersection between theory and practice, reflection and action. It’s a space inside of which different emancipating practices meet, criticize and join together.
Thanks to a good teamwork organization and cooperativeness of lecturers and participants, the organization went on without too much stress or panic. It seems that the biggest challenge in the organizational and technical sense was how to find a suitable restaurant where about 60 people can eat decent food, for decent money in a decent environment … and within a decent time frame (without waiting for an hour and a half). Furthermore, how to ensure that the wonder of technology known as the Internet operates throughout the duration of the Academy.
What’s next?
In order to make the Peace Academy sustainable and effective, (in terms of detestable language of project management) big changes needed to take place in the way it was operated and in its status. Therefore, last August the Foundation of Peace Academy was registered. Starting from next year it will try to live its own independent life. We did not decide on it so there would be even more NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in order to breath a new life into this initiative by building a more comprehensible structure for it. Its value and programmatic orientation that was honed nearly five years ago will not be changed. The organizing team hopes the change in PA would lead to capacity building and better distribution of tasks that will leave more time for dealing with the programmatic and creative work. For now, the Foundation has one employee who is in charge of administrative work. How will the future of this old initiative and new organization look like, remains to be seen. What is certain is that there’s no shortage of motivation and enthusiasm. That’s enough to continue. Sorry, to begin with.
PS For more information on the Future of Peace Academy please visit www.mirovna-akademija.org
T.Š.
veterans in peacebuilding: potentials and limitations
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 27 – 28, 2009
From September 27 – 28, 2009, a seminar on the theme: The Role of Veterans in Peacebuilding: Potentials and Limitations was held as a result of partnership between MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) Sarajevo office and CNA, in Sarajevo. Along with the organizers, the implementation of this seminar was helped by the Centre for War Trauma from Novi Sad, Serbia and our special guest – trainer Carl Stauffer, from the MCC office in South Africa.
The participants were the members of the organizations from the region (Centre for War Trauma, Mennonite Central Committee, CNA and Trauma Centre, Sarajevo) and seven veterans from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. The veterans who took part at this meeting are long term collaborators of CNA on peace activities we have organized in the region. The basic idea of this meeting was an exchange of various approaches to work with veterans in the field of peace building in the former Yugoslavia and South Africa and the promotion of the activities and experiences up to date of the organizations and individuals active in this field. Our intention was also to start a dialogue between veterans and peace activists at the regional and international level. The seminar was designed as a combination of presentations, exercises, work in small groups and discussions, through which our guest from South Africa and representatives of CNA and Centre for War Trauma were taking us.
The facilitators presented their work with veterans, and the ways in which veterans could be involved in the process of peacebuilding.
The interesting workshops were those where Carl Stauffer, who has been working with veterans from South Africa for several years already, presented his method and approach and most of the time in the programme was devoted to it. That allowed us to get a better insight into the context of peacebuilding in South African Republic and to compare it with the context of our region which was the most discussed topic in the workshops. We also had the opportunity to talk about the impact of local cultures and their specificity with respect to the process of peacebuilding and reconciliation, which proved to be an inspiring topic, especially for veterans.
Methods that were used included a lot of creative and empirical exercises related to activism and reconciliation which was quite well received by the present advanced training veterans and other participants.
CNA team made a presentation of their activities and approaches, and with the support of veterans, initiated a conversation about the advantages and difficulties of involvement of veterans in the peacebuilding process in our region.
An important impression from the seminar was veterans’ willingness to get involved with more specific and advanced forms of peace education, such was this one.
This type of activity also indicates that there’s a need, ability and interest in a more concrete international cooperation in the context of veterans’ contribution to peacebuilding at both local and global level.
As a continuation of this idea, for next year, MCC plans to try to arrange a meeting of veterans from the former Yugoslavia and veterans from some other post war area in the world, with the support of CNA.
N.H.
dealing with the past in the context of peacebuilding
Wustrow, Germany, November 23 – 27, 2009
Our close long-term cooperation and partnership with Kurve Wustrow – our sister organization was materialised last November in yet another way. Our colleagues Nenad Vukosavljević and Tamara Šmidling participated in the implementation of the advanced training programme that Kurve has been organizing every fall, for the past several years. The CNA’s training pair designed and facilitated a five-day training on “Dealing with the Past in the Context of Peacebuilding.”
The main characteristic of the whole series of the advanced training events is that they are open to an international group of participants who posses certain prior knowledge and experience in areas covered by the training. Hence, we had an opportunity to work with a really small group, consisting of seven participants, with a distinct diverseness of both personal and professional backgrounds and orientations. The group included people from Nepal, Burundi and Germany. Most participants from Germany were preparing for volunteering (as civil peace workers) in Bosnia, Macedonia and Palestine, which means that the role of so called “outsiders” in these societies was frequently thematized in these training events. In addition to that, there’s our long-term experience of work in the region of former Yugoslavia, so we can say that despite the small size, our group certainly did not lack diversity of perspectives, experiences, and sometimes even values.
For us in the training team, the biggest challenge was finding a common language and base from which we were to start analysing the situation in our mutually diverse societies. Working in international groups keeps reminding you that no arbitrary analogies are allowed, and that the situation in every society must be put in a concrete historical and political context in order to understand the local process of dealing with the past. During the five working days we tried to put emphasis on mutual exchange within the group and to initiate questions and discussions that would shed more light on the complexity of the process of dealing with the past and reconciliation in order to help us recognize the similarities and differences between our contexts.
As it is usually the case, besides working on the main theme, we did a lot more on many other levels – primarily on practicing authentic and experiential intercultural learning (by way of decrypting different communication codes, which wasn’t always easy; as well as by fighting against self-intelligibility of some generally accepted notions like truth, justice or transitional justice). Our intention was to offer a conceptual framework for work on dealing with the past in the context of peacebuilding to the participants and therefore familiarize them with a specific perspective of work in this field that is wider than the standard “arrest war criminals” approach.
The actual venue where the training took place is an interesting one and deserves to be mentioned here. It is a house that belongs to Kurve Wustrow, and it really brings specific dynamics, especially to us who have been accustomed to working in hotels all over the former Yugoslavia. Nothing of the atmosphere of a hotel can be found there. Instead, you get a chance to work in a “domestic” environment that we all took care of – with all its strengths and weaknesses. It is a unique activist concept (even lifestyle) that Kurve cultivates that we think should be enriched by an introduction to the local context of Wendland region. Since you have participants from all over the world, many of whom find themselves abroad for the first time in their lives, it is worth considering how to additionally introduce them to the place where they spend their (autumnal) training days. All the more so, since that is not your typical “EU-consumerist paradise” (which is the image that many people have of Germany), but the region with several decades long history of social and activist engagement.
In any case, this October brings the chance to continue this kind of cooperation, as well as correct some of last yeas’ oversights, with CNA members facilitating another advanced training on the same topic. We hope this time the group will be bigger, hence surely there will be no shortage of challenges and inspiration.
T.Š.
international conference new horizons.
Linking Development Cooperation and Transitional Justice for Sustainable Peace
Berlin, January 27 – 28, 2010
www.frient.de/en/conference2010/programme
The FriEnt (Working Group on Development and Peace) conference held in Berlin attracted many decision-makers, scientists and practitioners from around the world. Due to creative energy of the organizers, the concept applies allowed much more exchange and indepth discussions than one usually experiences at conferences. Since I truly dislike long, I-do-great-workand have-all-the-answers kind of boring speeches, it was remarkable that organizers have vastly succeeded in creating such learning and exchange space where important questions could be raised and probably also some very important answers could be found.
It would be impossible to report appropriately on learning points, so here are some of the impulses and thoughts I have picked up and would like to mention:
Peacebuilding cannot be squeezed to fit “logical framework”. (representative of DFID, British development agency)
We (various actors in this field) ocassionally understand each other.
Being flexible and adaptive instead of rigidly planning, is often more apporpriate in peacework.
Aftermath of violent conflict can not be settled or resolved solely through judiciary.
I was strengthened in my resistance towards using the term “transitional justice” which apppears rather inappropriate and overstretched to cover all it is meant to cover (and gets expanded daily towards the terms “peacebuilding” and “dealing with the past”)
My participation was within the conference Working Group: Education and Remembrance: Laying the Ground for new Generations
I have conducted a workshop within this working group, titled “Complexity of Dealing with the Past (DwP) -Based on experiences in Western Balkans”, download https://nenasilje.org/wp-content/uploads/FriEntJan2010NenadVukosavljevic.pdf
Congratulations to FriEnt team on their achievements and thanks for the energy invested.
N.V.
activities we joined
international conference “nonviolent livelihood struggle and global militarism: links & strategies”
Ahmedabad, India, January 22–25, 2010
The conference which was organized by the War Resisters’ International (WRI) in collaboration with Gujarat Vidyapith (University), Gujarat Sarvodaya Man-dal and Smpoorna Kranti Vidyalaya (Institute of Total Revolution) was held in the Western Indian state of Gujarat.
The whole conference had a special quality to it due to the place, country and region in which it took place and I believe that it would have somehow been different if the organizers had chosen some other region.
Firstly, in order to reach India, one has not only to travel for several thousand miles, but also to cross some personal borders, look at the world from another point of view (and leave their own aside, as much as possible), observe some different values, not comparing all the while but trying to understand.
The conference was prepared with great ambition and gathered many participants, speakers, workshop facilitators etc. (few hundred of them, actually). It was opened by Arundhati Roy, an author and activist, in this region mostly known for her novel “The God of Small Things”. She is an activist whose life is threatened because she raised her voice against some standpoints and/or actions of the state (of India). Togehter with Ashish Nandyi, she is one of the key critics of globalization, capitalism and militarism.
In addition to this topic, in the Conference’s plenary sessions, speakers were presenting the contexts of their origin and the problems related to it, such as: Displacement, ‘Development’ and militarism, Mining -threat to community, Fuel for war, Nonviolent resistance from local communities, Nonviolent struggles for land, Forming trans-national alliances.
The workshops were diverse regarding both the subject matter and the point of view of the speakers, and the workshop participants and speakers came from countries like Ecuador, Germany, South Korea, Chile, India, Colombia, Kashmir, Papua New Guinea … What crossed my mind was that there were all these problems and so many motivated people, enough to give you, too, a shot of motivation. There’s a hope that a different world is (still) possible, or at least that there are people who really believe in it.
Some of the workshops were related to the displacement of the indigenous communities, military bases and displacement, furthermore: Violence against regional identities; Meaning of ‘war on terror ‘ to social movements; Constructive work and self-sustainability as nonviolent resistance; Nonviolent actions against NATO; The question of peace in West and Central Africa; Towards nonviolence as a philosophy of life: class, peace, and’ transformation ‘; India – the struggle for land rights; Women and population displacement caused by development; Nationalism and anti-fascist movements and so on.
Together with Boro, CNA’s colleague from Macedonia and Olga from Russia, I facilitated a workshop on Nationalism and anti-fascist movements. Participants were people from different parts of the world, and, of course, with different views, which was quite a new experience for me (being used to the problems of the region of former Yugoslavia). It is interesting though how nationalism, unfortunately, speaks a common language to all of us who were in the workshop. The difficulty of the workshop lied in the fact that there were people who had already reflected on these issues and dealt with them, and also those who were only just trying to find out what exactly it was about and what nationalism looked like elsewhere. Sometimes, as it was the case here, it is easier to look at someone else’s yard rather than one’s own.
Yet another important point of this Conference was an organized trip to one of the centres (Rural Service Centre, situated 65 km away from Ahmedabad) that Gandhi had founded with his followers. The Centre is an educational and agricultural self-sustained system in the affected area with low literacy rates. After the visit to the Centre I had an impression that even though I live in the Balkans, which is burdened with numerous problems and the legacy of the war, I am still privileged because of living here.
The conference was closed by Narayan Desai, a prominent Indian follower of Gandhi. Since the following day an anniversary of Gandhi’s death was commemorated, the hosts organized a march to Gandhi’s ashram, Kochrab in which a memorial service was held.
I was especially impressed by the attitude of people in India towards Gandhi with some kind of worship for him. After having been India and being able to get a better insight into the Indian context, somehow I understood his importance and the meaning it had in the past and has today. The distance I have since I live in the Balkans and in a completely different context of living and problems has resulted in me having a totally different attitude towards Gandhi. I can not say that it has changed very much, but I do see him from a completely different point of view and with different understanding.
After the conference, from January 27 to 29, WRI hold a council session in which I was elected. It was a great honour because it meant that both my work and the work of CNA were recognized. Like all organizations, WRI has their own dynamics, their ups and downs, but I especially admire people who have been dedicated to it (for a number of years) like Howard, Joanne, Andreas, Javier, Jorgen and others. Knowing those and some other people helped me to broaden my perspective on peace work at least a little bit, and I hope to be able to contribute to their work.
H.R.
workshop: „dealing with difficult pasts in the western balkans and western europe – possibilities and perspectives for trans-european cooperation“
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 02 – 04, 2010
The international workshop „Dealing with difficult pasts in the Western Balkans and Western Europe – possibilities and perspectives for trans-European cooperation“ was organized by the French-German Youth Office, the André Malraux Centre in Sarajevo and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights Bosnia-Herzegovina. The workshop took place in Sarajevo 02. – 04. 06. 2010. The 23 participants, working in NGOs, memorial sites, museums and research-centres, came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany and Serbia. Jessica participated in the name of CNA.
The overall goal of the workshop was to bring together professionals from Western Balkans and Western Europe who are involved in the field of dealing with difficult pasts in order to exchange experiences and to examine possibilities for cooperation.
The confusion about how to call the meeting from the site of the participants during the workshop („….this conference… – ahm- … workshop….“ ) was the „running gag“ , due to the mix of methods which were used: Context overviews regarding the situation of Dealing with difficult pasts in the Western Balkans and Western Europe in form of lectures, presentations of activities in the field of Dealing with the past and examples of regional and international cooperation, exploration tours of sites in Sarajevo and workshop-moduls on developing concrete actions for cooperation.
During the workshop the complexity of the situation and the challenges which exist in the field of dealing with the past especially in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina was worked out very well. Does dealing with the past in BiH really mean dealing with the past, since in BiH nearly everybody still has to cope with the after effects of war, and conflicting memories exist? Dealing with the past in the Western Balkans is also a political issue: monuments are used to mark one’s own territory, to remember one’s own heroes and victims, while trying to prevent the establishment of monuments for the victims of the „other“ side. In contrast, in Germany and France dealing with the past is handled more with professional distance.
As an initiative for further cooperation the organization of a workshop/forum in 2011 was proposed, including a 3- day study trip to different memory sites in the Western Balkans before the workshop.
The workshop was held in a respectful atmosphere, in a spirit of „learning from each other“.
J.Ž.
word of a new team member
coming to cna sarajevo
Jessica Žic
In the meantime, some months have passed since my arrival in Sarajevo:
I do not get lost in Bascarsija anymore, and I do not jerk when somebody asks „Gde si?“, thinking that he/she is calling me (Jessi!). Moreover, I can recognize the refrains of some sevdalinke. And I have even gotten used to news reports about war crimes, genocide and mass graves…
Coming to CNA, sent by its German partner organization, KURVE Wustrow, means integrating in a team with a high degree of professionalism and a lot of experience. Thinking about a small peace organization without hierarchies like CNA, many people may imagine something like a crazy, non-organized crew of Hippies. But, also if a lot of things are going on in a sympathetic, non-formal, trust-based way, I realized that having no hierarchies does not mean not to have clear responsibilities and standards of planning and implementing activities. Also, if the structure of CNA is quite easy to understand, the subject of its work is not: It is complex, loaded with emotions, with a high risk of misunderstandings.
Since my colleagues only have to hear one word to know in which direction somebody’s argumentation is going, the first challenge for me was – and still is – to read the codes when places or names are mentioned, and to build up a kind of raster in my mind to be able to sort out the things people say, and reflecting about their meaning between the lines.
To me it seems like the image of Internationals in BiH is very bad, according to the experience of the locals, that Internationals often behave like coming from the “civilized west” to the Balkans, without knowing about the context of the region, with prepared solutions, pseudo-analyzing the situation, telling something about reconciliation.
Being asked how I experience the situation in Bosnia, the answer may sound banal for the people here who survived the war: there are hardly no contacts and a lot of mistrust between the religious/ethnic groups, and this situation is fueled by media and politics. Everything seems to have an ethnic label, and not much space is given in society to overcome these clusters. People are still struggling with war experiences, also if some of them cognitively decide not to deal with the past.
Nevertheless I think I am perceived as an „International“, it is also my personal interest to support the work of CNA in the field of building lasting peace in former Yugoslavia, since my father comes from Croatia and half of my family lives there, being part of „that story“. During my internship in Serbia I was working with refugees, coming from Croatia and Bosnia, and the personal contacts were very impressing for me. As a social worker for refugees in Germany, being confronted with their stories, I often asked myself what is the situation like for those who had to stay, not being able to flee. Or which situation they would have to face if they returned to their countries after the conflict.
So, coming to CNA Sarajevo means a great chance for me to learn, I am very happy about that possibility, and I hope I can usefully contribute to the organization’s mission.
contexts in which cna works
croatia
In the past year, Croatia has been struggling to meet the conditions needed to continue the negotiations for accession to the European Union. Another year is almost over (once upon a time, 2010 was supposed to be the year of joining the “magnificent Europeans”), yet there is no end to the chapters that ought to be closed.
Without pretension to cover all the important events that have marked this period, I singled out those most memorable ones of the past year that had to do with more or less successful work on closing the “accession chapters”.
Slovenes have ceased to be our national enemy No 1, which hampers the negotiations for Croatian accession to the European Union.
Little over a year ago, the agreement on the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia was settled in the Trakošćan castle. It seems there might also be a solution to the problem of Croatian clients’ savings deposits in Ljubljanska Banka *After the disintegration of former Yugoslavia a problem of about 130 000 Croatian clients whose savings deposits were kept in Croatian branch of Ljubljanska banka has remained unresolved to this day. For two decades they have been trying to regain their deposits, with the total debt estimated to about 150 million € including interests. Until now, it has been unclear who should pay the debt– the state of Slovenia, Nova Ljubljanska banka (legal successor of Ljubljanska banka) or some third party. *. Now that we’ve proudly defended our piece of Croatian homeland in the Piran Bay, other great temptations and challenges have remained. They have nothing to do with Slovenes, but rather with those we keenly keep on electing and putting our trust into year after year.In order to restart the negotiations on joining the European Union it is necessary, to put it simply, “to complete some chapters” of judicial reform, fight against the corruption and organized crime, processing war crimes, refugees’ and minorities’ issues and full cooperation with ICTY. And that’s a lot of work, no doubt about it. Unless those from Europe to whom we look as if they were the Virgin of Medjugorje (because Croatia is above all a Catholic state) don’t turn a blind eye, it’s unlikely we shall ever join their ranks. And that’s what we want and what we strive to, or at least everyone says so: state leadership, local politicians, Croat Church, media and most people.
Now, let’s start with the judiciary and the new laws …
In May, the Government adopted a new Labour Act (LA), which was presented as being in compliance with European standards, changes of which are related to the extension of
collective bargaining rights. Rather than imposing penalties to employers who do not pay salaries to their employees (which was the initiative of the opposition) or encouraging the adoption of the general collective agreement for all employees in Croatia, the
Government in fact calls upon a unilateral
termination of the collective agreement thus handing over the employees to the mercy of the employers and their work bylaws. Trade unions, together with opposition parties and
nongovernmental organizations organized signing of a petition in favour of the referendum on the LA. Lot more than statutory 10% (more precisely: 15.95%) was collected; however the Constitutional Court rejected the referendum because the Government had withdrawn the bill. Was the Government
afraid of its citizens’ judgement because it would mean that the law contrary to the decision taken at the referendum could not be adopted for another year or is it just a way to restart the procedure of the adoption of the new/ old Labour Act, this time with only skin-deep changes?
Perhaps the results of the judicial reform are reflected in the fact that this time the decision of the Constitutional Court was reached very quickly – it took only a month, while the decisions on some other sensitive social issues are being dragged on and avoided endlessly. For example, the reviews of constitutionality and legality regarding the Abortion law which was submitted to this instance in 1991, the Law on artificial and medically assisted insemination (2009) and the Law on Cooperation with The Hague (2001) are still pending. In these cases the decisions are still awaited because politics known as “better to be silent than to make fuss” seems to take precedence over constitutionality and legality.
The fight against corruption and organized crime…
Ivo Sanader, the former Prime Minister, returned to the Parliament, and in style, some would say.
He says: “some amazing developments in the aftermath of my departure forced me to come back”. After some rumble amongst the reporters and MPs, a seat was found for him and he was once again protected by parliamentary immunity, like an endangered species.
He took his seat in the Parliament again, after Croatia was brought to the brink of economic ruin under his rule and after serious charges for corruption and crime were brought against most of the CEOs of state owned companies who are now in custody, but were once his associates (the most infamous scandal was the one in connection with Hypo Bank). This time it was USKOK (The Bureau for Combating of Corruption and Organized Crime) and DORH (State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia) who failed, which is yet another proof that the law does not apply equally to all in this country.
Damir Polančec, former Deputy Prime Minister in Sanader’s Government, stands accused for paying the unnecessary expert study, which cost the state half a million kunas. It sends a strong message to see the former Deputy Prime Minister standing in the dock. However, it remains to be seen whether it is only the beginning of the confrontation and fight against corruption and crime on the highest level or Polančec is the scapegoat and an alibi for the whole structure of corruption at the top of the administration?
While the Government and state leadership plead ignorance, factories go bankrupt, people are left destitute, and according to some estimates, about a million citizens of Croatia are starving.
Humiliated and exhausted workers of Kamensko textile factory recently went on hunger strike and protested in front of Zagreb Cathedral because they have not been paid for five months and cannot support themselves or their families.
The ministers offer their sympathy, but since the company in question is privately owned, they say they cannot do anything. They can do nothing because the Government refused to accept the opposition proposal to persecute not paying wages to workers but also because certain businessmen have evaded paying for health care and pension benefits and taxes for years and the system protects big business. It is very difficult to exercise a basic human right to a dignified life in our country and we also lack human solidarity given that the support to the Kamensko workers came only from their family members and students gathered around the web portal Slobodni filozofski.
Kamensko’s workers are no exception. It’s just another sad news from day to day life in Croatia about troubled factories ruined by privatisation and their employees.
It seems that after numerous rallies, the citizens protests to preserve the Varšavska Street pedestrian zone in downtown Zagreb failed. The interest of private investors’ Hoto group, took precedence over the citizens’ will. All building permits for erecting construction on the city’s public lots were valid and issued by the City Council with Mayor Milan Bandić at its helm. Even though 50 000 people signed the petition against the construction in Varšavska Street and the protests of citizens initiated by two NGOs: the Right to the City and Green Action forming a human shields around the construction site continued, it was all in vain. Mid-July, police carried out mass arrests of protesters, there were no more trees in Varšavska Street, and the whole street was dug out with the strong assistance of riot police, which arrested 151 persons.
The construction continues, as well as the citizens’ protests while the procedures of obtaining and approving certain building permits are being re-examined. The Varšavska Street has become a symbol of resistance against wild capitalism and encroachment of public goods, and hopefully a strong message for the future: citizens are not a mere unconscious voting crowd; they can and will exercise their legal right to control government decisions.
The prosecution of war crimes, refugee and minority rights, cooperation with the Hague Tribunal…
The sentence to Branimir Glavaš for the war crime of killing Serbs in Osijek was reduced. At first, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence from ten to eight years of imprisonment due to “circumstances of war and the fall of Vukovar”, as it was explained. Croatia makes no mention of the outrageous behaviour of people in the Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonija and Baranja (political party Glavaš had founded) and some individuals and “entrepreneurs” from Osijek who organized fundraising in order to bribe the judges of the Supreme Court so they would abolish Glavaš in the “Duct Tape Case“.*The “Duct Tape Case” is a war crime committed by the members of the Croatian Army in Osijek, in 1991, under the command of Branimir Glavaš, then commander of the town’s defence. About a dozen Serbs from Osijek were eliminated and thrown into the Drava River. All the corpses were found with their hands tied down and gagged with duct tape. * It’s scandalous even more so since his sentence was actually reduced, and he said that “if I was really guilty for the killing of these people I should be sentenced to at least 20 years”.
Although the denial of the crimes have finally stopped and the intent and cruelty were disclosed after all, what remains is a bitter taste in one’s mouth because the crimes committed during the Homeland War are still treated as something left to the arbitrary will of individuals and rather accidental. Regardless of the fact that Glavaš is currently serving time in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he once ran away when his trial was reopened, he will continue to receive his parliamentary pension.
The sentence in the process to Croatian generals Ivan Čermak, Mladen Markač and Ante Gotovina is expected to be delivered in December, The Prosecution’s Office asked they be sentenced to 17-27 years for crimes committed against Serbs during and in the aftermath of the Operation Storm.
At the same time, the average Croatian citizen is confused and wonders why that is so, because “the Operation Storm was a military-police operation that brought us freedom, the action in which we pushed away our “arch enemy” and regained control over our territory.”
Celebrating the Homeland Gratitude Day in Knin, The President of the Republic Ivo Josipović stated: “Because of the small portion of the events that were not welcome, the entire operation is often being unfairly
questioned which is incorrect and not right from a political, historical and moral standpoint”.
A small portion of the events that was not welcome?! That small portion of the events that was not welcome resulted in the exile of the entire Serbian people from Croatia! The suffering of others still goes unrecognized, and even if a crime is punished, it will remain socially unaccepted as a crime.
Hence, the rhetoric of the state leadership has not changed although more was expected from Ivo Josipović, especially after his visit to Ahmići*On April 16, 1993 the members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) committed a war crime in the village of Ahmići, in central Bosnia killing 116 people* that caused a huge, tectonic shift on the Croatian social scene and offered a glimpse of the shake up of nation’s sacred truths. The visit to Ahmići was a big step, and I do not want to diminish it, but yet again, at the beginning of the road leading to social catharsis, after making one step ahead, we stumbled on the first rock that set us three steps aback. Such a social climate ultimately hinders lasting solution of the rights of Serbs regarding their property, status etc.
Hence, what to say in the end?
Here we are Europe, even though we are in an economic chaos, with a minimum of economic growth and a foreign debt that we will not repay for another 5 generations, our administration is slow, judicial system is corrupted, there’s a million people on the verge of starvation, the unemployment is rising monthly; but we are better then Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and others… so, take us in because we’re yours…
Sanja Deanković
montenegro without alternative
The least common, but certainly one of the most original answers to the already legendary question: “Do you support Milo (Đukanović) or Momir (Bulatović)?” would be: I do! Apart from the most frequent and dull explanation of that answer (that it only serves to circumvent further discussion) there is another one, according to which, it means a refusal to accept what’s been offered, non-compliance with the choice, negation of the alternative presented as the only possible and essential. What kind of choice or alternative is it about, in Montenegro? Firstly, the choice being offered is almost always false; the range of al
ternatives amongst which citizens can choose freely in a democratic way does not exist. The only thing they can do is choose lesser of two evils, and that is at the same time the argument of those who supply us with these false alternatives. Wonderful choice that is – being forced to choose an evil, in any case.
This report, too, can be based on the fact that in the past year, Montenegro was characterized by nothing but a series of most incredible false alternatives, which were unfortunately, rarely answered with aforementioned answer – the one that would dismiss them in advance, refusing to accept that kind of alternative.
To put it more drastically, almost everything that is being done in Montenegro is of such utmost importance that it simply HAS NO ALTERNATIVE.
EU Without Alternative
All available public and secret forces of Montenegro have been activated in order to complete EU integration process successfully and as soon as possible, while the process itself, of course, has no alternative. After having responded to the questionnaire with more or less success, in the process that took several attempts to finish and with more secrecy than it is allowed in a democratic society, Montenegrin officials keep announcing with fanatical joy the possibility of receiving EU candidate status day in day out. What an amazing success of young Montenegrin democracy! An issue as big as that, must bring along the fact that the needed stability and security of the state can primarily be obtained through NATO membership, therefore the campaign to join NATO is progressing rapidly. Last year the Parliament approved of the deployment of Montenegrin soldiers in Afghanistan, therefore these days, another contingent is getting ready to replace them. This means that the revitalization of democracy in friendly Afghanistan has been defended with Montenegrin lives as well, for almost a year now, while there’s no mentioning of neither NATO nor God forbid EU membership (surely the two are being sold together). The most worrying is that except for the few lonely outcries, indented to score some low and petty political points, there is no single organized anti-NATO or anti-militarist campaign in Montenegro whatsoever.
Montenegrin Nation With No Alternative
Ministry of Education and Science of Montenegro (i.e, Slavoljub Stijepović, newly elected minister who is, by all accounts, appointed just for that purpose) has drafted and proposed the adoption of a new Education Act according to which Montenegrin language must be studied as an official language in all educational institutions. It appears that the completion of Montenegro, i.e. of Montenegrin nationalism is under way, full steam ahead: after the restoration of independence -the territory, followed by the Education Act – the language, and most likely the law on religion
-the Church, therefore the last communist stronghold in the Balkans, is being successfully transformed into the youngest nationalism in the region, following its neighbours’ recipes. Just like any other, our spoilt little nationalism must be fed with hatred toward the other and at this moment that is the Serbian “occupying and conquering” people in Montenegro. For God’s sake, human rights can not be respected completely, because Montenegrin language has no alternative, hence over 60% of the citizens of Montenegro who speak Serbian, over 10% of those who speak Albanian as well as those who speak Bosnian and Croatian – as of September 1st must learn Montenegrin as the official language, contrary to the Constitution of Montenegro. The series of campaigns and reactions that came from almost the entire local and international community were initiated and the president was put under pressure not to sign the bill, but in vain. As a consequence, in the name of Serbian, Croatian and Bosniak peoples in Montenegro, initiatives were launched to allow school curriculum in native languages in the municipalities where those nations are either majority or
make up large percentage of population. Correspond
ing initiatives were pushed through by Montenegrins in Serbia to allow curriculum in Montenegrin language in some places in Serbia. Nothing unusual – might comment the reader of this report in case they do not know that it’s the same language. Ah, with nationalism 1 times 0 is equal to 2, and 1 divided by 1 is equal to 3! One can only imagine the kind of multiplication, division and results the implementation of this law will provoke in already deeply divided society. The worst thing is that it all starts from an early age – from the first grade of primary school.
Violence without Alternative
Many workers of Montenegro commenced the year 2010, impoverished, without resources to cater to their basic needs, in endless debts and lethargic when it comes to just about anything. The most striking of all were, however the miners who went on strike at their workplace – underground. Their agony – without food, water or daylight – lasted for days, until the Prime Minister addressed them, in a personal letter promising they would get their unpaid wages. The radicalization of the protest showed how trustworthy he was. The miners blocked the entrance to the mine and got beaten up by his dutifully loyal police. Those are the same police forces that raided a disco in a coastal town of Budva, demolishing its interiors and behaving violently towards the guests, pushing them around, punching and knocking them down. The “performance” with the policemen wearing masks and being fully armed was so authentic, that some English and French guests concluded there must have been a terrorist group carrying explosives in the disco and the police were to get rid of them. Again, the very same police pushed, carried out (by pulling their legs and arms), and arrested about thirty residents of Golija (near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina), who wanted to protest peacefully and prevent the Army from destroying the surplus weapons in their village (an interesting choice of location: populated place, with rich flora and fauna) and from polluting the countryside well known for its ecological-beauty. That’s the way it goes … What kind of alternative one is to expect as long as an attack of a
citizen against a politician and a major against a citizen
doesn’t mean a thing and the State Attorney says that “criminals have morals and respect her because they know she will not wrongly accuse anyone”? Oh, our safe homeland!
Dealing With the Past Note Even As an Alternative
The Kaluđerski Laz case, the Morinj camp case, the
bombing of Dubrovnik continue to unravel based on
a good old recipe: only the direct perpetrators stand accused, while those who were part of the political and army leadership at that time and the most responsible for what was happening don’t even get to be mentioned. The announced founding of the Documentation Centre, an institution that would collect documents and materials of the wartime and intensify work on dealing with the past is not going to happen. When the process (of dealing with the past) is mentioned it seems as if it were the Japanese-Russian war (1904 – 1905), in which Montenegro did take part (on the Russian side, of course), but it was so long ago and so far away, just as was fair and honourable warfare although more on a symbolic than real level, that every discussion about it seems rather absurd and fairylike.
The Standard Of Living without Alternative
Looking at the list of new citizens of Montenegro (Thaksin Shinavatra, Darko Šarić, possibly Miroslav Mišković, Pamela Anderson, maybe Roman Abramovich) one might think that the plan to attract huge foreign investments via high-end tourism is gradually being achieved. However, once we know that it costs half a million € to get the citizenship of this country and when we read carefully the biographies of the new Montenegrins, it becomes quite clear what part of the world we are in. Namely, once the most beautiful prison in the world is now the richest fortress and hideout for overseas bosses and drug dealers. The case of Darko Šarić, fortunately a Serbian citizen, although born in Pljevlja, who now owns half of Montenegro, still remains an enigma for both European and Montenegrin police, as well as police forces of the region, while the pairing of his worldwide cartel with the state structures will remain a mystery, as it seems, forever. When we add a few “minor” mafia shootouts that took place on the squares of coastal towns in broad daylight resulting in brutal murders, long and diligently prepared and created international image of Montenegro as a stable, prosperous and above all safe tourist destination is dizzily rising, and is confirmed by the tourist season which has “never been better”. Therefore, welcome – WE ARE CLOSE!
Radomir Radević; Kristina Bojanović
serbia: sovereignty! but integral, please.
Two nouns: integrity and sovereignty (with a range of accompanying epithets), have been reigning supreme in the public space of Serbia this year. These two words lie in the foundations of parliamentary decisions, media headlines and officials’ statements, explaining all our circumstances and predicaments. It’s enough to reach for them to shout down the incompatibles and silence the discussion. Conformity is pursued – it is a purpose and an end in itself. Conformity will spare us (the citizens of this state) of reasonless suffering caused by re-examination of not only our today’s leaders’ steps, but it will also alleviate dealing with the painful issues from the past.
And what ongoing events of the political arena could we now manage to depreciate and swallow, starting calmly yet another ordinary day, while simulating normalcy?
The International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on the request of Serbia’s authorities on whether the declaration of independence of Kosovo was in accordance with international law – and affirmed it was. The reaction in Serbia was quite tempestuous. The ruling was interpreted in various ways, but the dominant discourse came down to it being a political decision. Both President Tadić and Foreign Minister Jeremić said that the official policy would not change and that Serbia would never recognize Kosovo’s independence, thus reaffirming the tendency of local politicians to determine not only the present, but also the future of their citizens, in an absolutist manner. The response to the controversial opinion was quick, efficient and (somewhat) coherent. The original Resolution on Kosovo, which was to be submitted to the UN General Assembly, was supported by a significant majority of the Serbian Parliament, while the solution to the decades-old problem was once again transferred to another place (from the scope of the International Court of Justice to the one of the Security Council). In the meantime, the previously accepted Resolution was amended in the direct talks with the European Union officials and adopted by the UN General Assembly unanimously. The cooperation of highest officials has been welcomed by international actors and the new rounds of negotiations between Serbian and Kosovo officials, with international mediation, were optimistically announced. It remains uncertain whether this time around the negotiations will be approached differently (it was announced that the practical, less painful issues than the one on status would be resolved first) and whether negotiating strategy would take into account real problems of Kosovo society (like restrictions on movement, poverty and unemployment, among others) or they would reflect medieval national myths and narratives.
This year’s most important event regarding the wartime events from the nineties was the adoption of the Declaration on Srebrenica by the Parliament of Serbia, fifteen years after the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of Ratko Mladić committed the genocide against the local Bosniak population. The political ground was being prepared long in advance in numerous consultations, to ensure the parliamentary majority for the Declaration (127 of 250), which was adopted after thirteen-hour debate. During the preparation of the Declaration the wordgenocide was replaced with the word crime, with noticeable insistence that the crimes against the Serbian population would be addressed in the following declaration. In the region, the Declaration was received as a positive step of the official policy, while its content refers to the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the lawsuit of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia and Montenegro that ruled Serbia was responsible for both failing to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica and to punish or extradite perpetrators to the Hague tribunal, referring primarily to Ratko Mladić. In addition to strengthening the needed political will, which would eventually result in the arrest of Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadzić, we are facing a process of recognition of Serbia’s role in the wars of the nineties that would reflect an honest attitude towards the past, instead of it being exclusively the result of pressures and stipulations of international community.
The last state-organized mobilization of the masses was arranged following the death of Pavle, the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church – a “humble” man who “refused all worldly honours”. A three-day mourning was declared and the media scrupulously covered the death of Patriarch who assumed his position in 1990, skilfully avoiding to address the nineties wars and the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its leaders in them.
Along with closing one’s ranks goes marking, i.e. defining the territory. Hence President Tadić speaks about the clash of cultures and civilizations, all the while sharing concern for “the preservation of our Christian identity”. The Serbian Mail charges for mandatory stamps whose proceedings go to the fund to build the Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade. The declarations on religious and national unity are being adopted and grandiose crosses are being erected (in Niš and Kragujevac). When a community define itself on the basis of ethnic, religious and hetero-normative matrices, leaving a little room for the recognition and respect of other identities, it is difficult to prevent or adequately respond to the violence toward the others. This year’s example for this kind of approach is the violence that occurred in Jabuka, a small village near Pančevo. After the killing of a Serbian minor by an underage Roma, an outburst of violence and hate speech against the Roma population erupted and lasted for several days before the police intervention. There’s still a great deal of fear among Roma people, with occasional positive steps towards resolving this problem. There are more such examples – like violent attacks against those who are different (German tourist in Belgrade was attacked, because he “looked gay” and Teofil Pančić, a newspaper columnist and author, who
publicly condemns all forms of fascism in our society, on regular basis). In both cases the assailants were arrested shortly afterwards, which is encouraging. Now it is up to the judiciary to do their job effectively and without political compromise, and send a clear message that the state will not support such attacks, neither directly nor indirectly, but will severely sanction it. In the case of Pančić, all hopes that the transformation will occur have failed. The charges were re-qualified and the assailants were sentenced below the statutory minimum.
In the course of this year there was a noticeable increase of activity and a number of meetings of political leaders in the region, resulting in positive and encouraging messages that were sent out to our societies about starting the dialogue and jointly resolving some controversial issues (mutual charges of genocide between Croatia and Serbia, for example).
There’s noticeably more political will that is being invested in increasing visibility of problems of sexual minorities in Serbia. Unlike last year, when the Gay Pride was cancelled due to a lack of political will to guarantee safety for the participants, this year the President received the delegation of LGBT organizations and supported the parade, describing it as “a civilizing step forward”. Let’s hope that this support is not only declaratory, and that the Gay Pride will be held safely this year.
Visa-free regime for Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro came into force on December 19 last year. The freedom of movement we have finally got made our holidays nice and made it easier to breathe. However, who are the ones who can take advantage of this freedom of movement? According to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy, we’ve come out of the world economic crisis (which is often used as a euphemism for war and post-war economic collapse, plundering transition, enormous accumulation of wealth by the tycoons, increased class inequality and destruction of social policies) several times already. In the meantime, following the orders of the International Monetary Fund, the welfare and public spending is being cut, the Labour Law and the Pension and Disability Law are being altered and amended, i.e. tightened all the while we have the lowest wages in the region and the list of soup kitchens is getting longer.
The Serbian government adopted the decision to finally abolish the military service, starting January 1st 2011. Happy New Year!
Nenad Porobić
kosovo
When high politics is viewed from the standpoint of an ordinary citizen of Kosovo, one can declare that there were no major changes in the last year: for the administration in Belgrade, Kosovo remains a part of Serbia, under the UN Resolution 1244 adopted in June 1999, which reaffirmed sovereignty of Serbia over Kosovo. For Priština, Kosovo has been an independent state as of February 2008.
Beside the high politics and the fact that until now 71 countries have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, (although rest of the world didn’t – as the administration in Belgrade would underline regarding this matter), practically, on the ground the lives of ordinary people have remained the same. The unemployment rate is raging 41 %. It will further grow with the return of Roma refugees from the European countries. It seems that this forced return to Kosovo will be the first “successful” one, having in mind that only a few
thousand displaced non-Albanians returned to their homes out of a total 200.000. The latest example is a returnee village of Žač where twelve returnees are being stoned on almost daily basis. They are not being hurt by the stones only for they are still living in tents, while waiting for their houses to be rebuilt. On top of everything aforementioned I should add that the level of corruption has not been reduced, and then there’s human trafficking. There are a number of problems that are being discussed repeatedly, but obviously without major success.
If we step out of the shell of an ordinary man and scratch the surface little deeper, we shall come across the hot topic as of recently. It will surely continue to be so next year, too, having in mind how slowly these issues resolve: after the recent adoption of the UN Resolution that united all members of the European Union on the issue of Kosovo, the dialogue and negotiations between Priština and Belgrade will reopen. What will be negotiated, where, how and when remains unknown. What is certain is that the two sides have different views on almost every issue; therefore sitting together at the same table won’t be easy. The new negotiations would provide an opportunity for either side to resolve some of the problems, overcome some of the obstacles and strengthen their position on the way to integration into the European Union. The dialogue between the two sides should start before the New Year. Brussels has offered to host the negotiations and the UN to be an observer. Priština wants the EU and U.S. to be observers while Belgrade would like China and Russia to be involved in the talks. How the pieces will come together remains to be resolved, but it is almost certain that the two sides will decide on their own regarding: where, how, when and who. There are opposing views even on who should lead the negotiations on both sides, but this time the international community should for the first time be a mere observer without taking part in decision making whatsoever. Are the two sides even ready to make their own decisions?
What are they going to negotiate? Priština does not want to negotiate neither the status nor the territorial integrity. A number of international actors believe that this questions can not be avoided and that they are the key to the solution of other issues as well, while some others think that the negotiations should start with less important topics and then move on to bigger ones. Besides the status, the issue that certainly requires the utmost attention is the one of northern municipalities in which Albanian administration was not established. No major change occurred there after the war, nor was there any kind of integration of Serbs. It is rumoured that another option might be the division, with the north of Kosovo becoming a part of Serbia. Another alternative that is being mentioned is a territorial exchange with the mostly Albanian-populated Preševo valley.
For the Serbian side it is just as important to preserve monasteries and churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo. Having in mind that the property of the SOC was demolished during the 1999 war and again in March 2004 Serbian side will most likely require extra-territorial status and the continued presence of NATO forces on the sites of its most important buildings, although NATO has announced it will withdraw KFOR troops as soon as next year.
Those two issues represent a huge challenge for Priština and they would rather negotiate customs, trade, transport, traffic and other easier and rather technical matters. It is clear from the above-mentioned that for a start, the international community is likely to support the proposal to discuss those issues in order to establish trust between two parties and further move on to the aforementioned, more important issues. So far, we’ve had different negotiations in and bout Kosovo: standards before status, UN-sponsored negotiations on six-point plan and then there is the Martti Ahtisaari’s plan of which only 50% was implemented over the course of three years. In order to achieve even the slightest success, all problems must be negotiated again from the beginning. Unless all the problems are dealt with, we shall continue to have so-called frozen conflict in Kosovo.
There’s almost no mentioning whether the questions leading to reconciliation are to be discussed or not, like for instance: finding the missing persons or 200,000 pending court cases. Those are the crucial issues for an ordinary citizen, because in order to live without hate, next to each other (we’ve stopped believing that the coexistence is possible, therefore we now tend to talk about neighbourly relations more and more) we must resolve the things that keep our pain outside and above anything else.
For some ordinary person the most important thing is to provide for their family, while for the other of different ethnicity it is the freedom of movement, obtaining the documents in their native language or preserving their identity etc. Everyone is just as fed up with the fact that there’s no change and the society is spinning its wheels. For Kosovo, the important thing is to become a member of the UN. For Serbia, the important thing is that fewer countries recognize Kosovo. For Kosovo, it is important to get recognized by as many countries as possible, amongst other things because it means taking part in European and world sport competitions. What does an ordinary citizen care for all this, except that we must admit that it all looks like an endless football match; therefore we cannot complain that we’re bored at any point. Both sides are throwing punches on regular basis wile an ordinary citizen of Kosovo gets to be a football.
Gorica Šćepanović
macedonia: we are waiting for…
What would be the most accurate description of what has been going on in Macedonia for the past year. We are waiting for … something. Every one of us is expecting something. Like during the best of times of Yugoslav “future” communism. The same communism we had been waiting for, too. Just as Matrix’s Neo stubbornly waits for the train at the station. Even though he doesn’t know when it’s coming, or if it’s coming at all.
Nonetheless, let’s see what exactly we are now waiting for in Macedonia.
We are waiting for the EU and NATO to come to their senses
The dispute with Greece over the name of our country was dominating the public life in the past year, too, although there were no major changes in the negotiations held under UN auspices. Greek side has insisted on a new name for general use (erga omnes). Macedonian side is trying to win so-called double formula – one name in relations with Greece and the constitutional name for international use (this position is supported by the fact that 128 countries have already recognized the constitutional name – Republic of Macedonia). Official views of the EU and NATO representatives were quite resigned – both refered to either bilateral negotiations or the process conducted under the auspices of the UN, which seems to be the same, because within that process it all comes down to bilateral agreement between the two countries, settled by mediators. Regardless of the international law. Yes, the author of this article also sees it as an irrational conflict, outside the international legal frame. It is the conflict between two exceedingly unequal parties in which the weaker party only suffers damages. It’s a no win situation. The present Macedonian government is still on the view that any possible agreement with Greece over name change be put to a public referendum. Judging by the public mood, such referendum has a minor chance of “success.” Which means, we remain where we are. We are waiting. “We just need to tell our international partners that we remain committed to the values of the EU, but simply cannot accept such a dictate and change the name of the country in this way. We simply need to tell them that, we are here and waiting”. So, we’re waiting.
We are waiting for even more beautiful and old, baroque Skoplje
Last year the Government bombastically announced its megalomaniac project to build a new baroque downtown city of Skopje, called “Skopje 2014” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iybmt-iLysU). After the initial fiery reactions and violent confrontations in downtown Skoplje (on which occasion the group of architecture students called The First Archi Brigade was assaulted for protesting against the government’s idea to build an Orthodox church, among other things, with the public money), things continued as planned. For almost a year now downtown Skopje has been undergoing a dramatic change. An “Albanian answer” in Skopje has been recently presented in the form of Skenderbeg Square project. Some would say that instead of one large square in the centre of the united city named Skopje, that lies on both banks of the Vardar River, we are about to get two separate squares profusely decorated with dozens of sculptures of “one’s own” national heroes – one on the left and the other on the right hill of Vardar. It seems that the rest of the country has already chosen their favourites; hence the post-modern case of baroque Skopje 2014 is being observed almost as if it were a football match. Everyone is cheering their own, from aside.
We are waiting for either “traitors” or “patriots” to realize that they were wrong and repent
In my last year’s report I wrote that the Macedonian public was polarized to the point of effervescence. Now, it’s boiling already. It is just as dramatic as it is stupid how easily the public became divided into so-called “patriots” and “traitors” (last year it was all about “sorosoids” and “makedonoids”). At the same time, this is the issue that is accompanied by the highest level of violence in public. A TV presenter emotionlessly declared on the air that the traitors do deserve hate speech, because there is no other way of dealing with them. He also added joking light-heartedly that elimination may be the next step. Since some activists accused him of spreading hate speech in public, he sued them for libel for having his reputation tarnished. It has become quite normal to have two positions for virtually every issue. Anything can be reduced to an attitude towards the preservation (or betrayal) of the name of the state and radically tough stance on the subject is immediately taken. One for each of the two groups. Yet, no other group exists, at least not in public, let alone individuals. Just as there is no middle way or at least basic communication between the two opposing sides. It is interesting that completely identical statements made in similar contexts can have dramatically opposite explanation in public. For example, when the president says he’s in favour of a reasonable compromise with Greece, he is a national hero. When the opposition leader says the same thing, he automatically becomes a traitor, at the very least. Our visible public is so wise.
We are actually waiting for the public to finally appear in public
What does that mean? Our public was kidnapped by the political elites that installed ad-hoc organizations willing to simulate whatever, wherever needed. The groups of citizens often hold protests outside the offices of the opposition. (What do they want from the opposition? To disappear?). Other groups of citizens push every authentic public expression of protest into the daily political discourse as if it were a matter of life or death. (Even when it refers to the long-term demands. Why?). There are few authentic organizations that have managed to endure. It’s worth mentioning here the independent student association (finally!) called Free Index, as one of those. All this would be somehow OK if social engagement was openly and honestly promoted and accepted as normal political activity. However, we live in a society that gradually left the entire space of politics, in the widest meaning of that word, solely to political parties. It is their exclusive area. “Phew politics, it’s dirty, disgraceful.” “We are non-political activists” are just some of the announcements that are often heard. And then everyone freaks out when someone’s public advocacy either matches or defies exclusively enthroned protagonists of politics – political parties.
Oh yes, in the new report of “Reporters without Borders”, in terms of press freedom Macedonia is ranked 68th out of 178 countries. It dropped dramatically considering that only last year we were ranked 34th (and the year before that 42nd). These are the same media outlets that decide what representatives of the aforementioned “public” are going to be given a chance to promote their ideas and influence the discourse. There is nothing more to be said about it.
Finally, we are still waiting for to the global economic crisis to end
Actually, to be honest, we might really not wait for that. Because, how else could we justify the fact that 31,5% of the population lives in poverty and that nearly 30% of citizens are officially unemployed? And in the meantime we continue to engage in fiery conflicts, hate and threaten each other … for all other issues.
P.S. All this long waiting has obviously influenced me, too. I have long waited for this article to somehow magically write itself. I had the best excuses. I apologize for that to my dear friends in CNA, who waited patiently. In the end, understandably, it was me who had to sit at the computer.
Boro Kitanoski
bosnia and herzegovina: spinning the wheels with dignity
There’s one good news at the beginning of this year’s article on the context of work and life in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnia and Herzegovina still exists. Bosnia is still alive. Lame, but alive. Despite both those who whish its imminent and inevitable doom and those who pledge undying love for it. Among the former ones, despite fierce competition, the most prominent was Milorad Dodik, former prime minister and president-elect of “Srpska” (translated: the President of the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, known as the Republika Srpska). Amongst the latter, also numerous ones and rampant in their love, particularly impressing was Željko Komšić, new-old member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representative of Croatian people, who was elected by the majority of Bosniaks (and “others”). Hence, we can onceagain see for ourselves on the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina that love kills nearly as efficiently as hatred. And when we bear that in mind, it is possible to understand why there’s not a shred of irony in the sentence that this article begins with. However, in order to better understand the context of these words it is necessary to make a small review of all the things the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its society have been through for the past 12 months.
In early October 2010, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens went through another general elections. Like most previous ones, these, too, were viewed as “critical, fundamental, crucial” ones. The word “changes” was heard even more often than “constituentness and integrity”, but still not as often as the famous “dignity.” Weeks before the elections, loud representatives of numerous political parties were competing in the political arena, advocating and defending the dignity (of a man, a worker, a Serb, a Croat, a Bosniak) to the last drop of (other people’s) blood. The exclusively masculine gender in the previous sentence is more than intentional. The presence of women in the campaign (on billboards and lists) was barely big enough to earn a subdued praise from the restrained officials of some international agency in charge of monitoring gender equality. To those who were not so preoccupied with numbers, percentages and form it was clear that this was another in a series of “serious games for wise men.” So, other than the leaders of political parties, public space was filled with actors of the civil scene and numerous public figures who called upon going to the polls, taking a stand and changes. The author of this article, yet without the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and therefore without the right to vote, was aware that she had no right to be cynical. However, the author of this article could not then, nor can it now realize and understand what kind of dignity or changes these highly-esteemed members of our society are talking about.
There’s not a trace of basic human dignity here whereas changes are so far away simply because there are no relevant political or civically aware change agents. This is why the “changes” achieved by these elections seem somehow insufficient and inadequate, to say the least. What do we really have as a result of these elections?
There’s a landslide victory of Dodik’s Independent Union of Social Democrats (SNSD) in all constituencies of Republika Srpska, including the victory of their candidate in the elections for the Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and an overwhelming victory of Milorad Dodik in RS presidential elections. Consequently, from this entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can expect the continuation of the policy which is fully in line with their leader’s inspiring note: “Republika Srpska forever, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as long as we have to! History teaches us that nothing is irretrievable, and so is the existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia and Herzegovina won a very convincing victory in all the constituencies with Croat majority. That success was overshadowed with a huge frustration of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina due to their inability to choose “their own” candidate for the Croatian member of the Presidency. Practically the only change in the disposition of political forces took place in areas with Bosniak majority. The Party for Bosnia andHerzegovina of Haris Slajdžić (with its stubborn policy, disinclined towards dialogue) suffered losses. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), whose candidates won in the race for Croatian (Komšić) and Bosniak (Izetbegović) member of the Presidency achieved big (although relative) success.
As soon as the election evening, it was obvious to the careful observers that major complications would ensue regarding forming a government and post-election coalitions, as well as tough clashes and confrontations on the issue of future organization and territorial structure of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dragan Čović, leader of HDZ, announces the final battle for the third entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina while Milorad Dodik arrogantly declares that he enjoys being defiant and undermining the state of Bosnia and Herzegovian. From so called “hope for change”
-SDP comes a following statement: unless Zlatko Lagumdžija (their President) is elected as a leader of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they will organize the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina economically and politically similar to former West Germany, which would then swallow Republika Srpska politically, economically and morally, just as it was once the case with East Germany!
Changes? Right. Ethnicization of the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina is more evident than ever, just as there is an apparent lack of positive political projects and visions that could challenge ethnicization. Primarily social but also political phenomenon known as “Željko Komšić” only supports the claim that true and positive political alternative still does not live here. Although there’s a significant number of those who will interpret his (incredible) success in the elections as a way of circumventing the ethnic principle, the author of this article consider it to be an immature and disastrously harmful strategy in the long run, which really demonstrates that the rule of the stronger, i.e. more numerous lies behind the mask of “civility”.
Because of these and other phenomena of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian socio-political life, the most interesting things to analyze are in fact those beyond the mere scope of the election results. The question is when this society will be able to face the fact that it still resides in pre-political state, where vague and deliberately undefined categories of ethno-national vocabulary are dominant over political agendas and clear ideological orientations. This condition causes miserable situation (in economic, moral and political sense) inside of which it is difficult to find a way out. With that in mind it is not difficult to understand how it is possible that the first two political parties that made clear that they would BY NO MEANS WORK TOGETHER were the strongest ones with social-democratic prefix. It also helps us understand why those who boast with their social-democracy increasingly resemble to the other kind of socialists – the national socialists. However, as we can see, in this region we learn from history in a very selective manner.
I’m about the finish this article but let me get back once again to the word “dignity”. It is certainly one of the most over-used words the abuse of which is common to both totalitarian and so-called transitional, i.e. democratic systems. Everyone’s throwing the bull talking about civil, ethnic, racial, religious, etc. dignity. What does it look like on the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Workers’ dignity – various ministers, criminalized tycoons, employers and others go all out in defending it. The last apparent example of workers dignity being defended occurred some days ago in Jablanica. The group of workers who were on strike at the factory site were attacked by 300-strong special forces who intervened with tear gas and police dogs. As a result, thirty workers were injured and the Ministry of Internal Affairs admitted that the violent raid on the factory was against the law.
Dignity of press – varies depending on the type and quality of journalists. Those more inclined to research and asking unpleasant questions have less right to dignity. Those who send them the kind of messages that they deserve a bullet in the head, or should get a heart attack and so on – go unpunished. By the way, Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 47th in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index List, and the situations is deteriorating. The dignity of those in need of medical help – a lot is
being done, but you know how it is – world economic crisis, money is tight. Only the cynics might think that the nepotism and corruption have something to do with it (by the way, we are ranked 93rd in Corruption Perceptions Index). While we are waiting for the world economic crisis to end (and for all of them to stop harassing us) so that we can fix our hospitals and health-care – there’s Mekki Torabi, our Moroccan buddy. Mekki Torabi cures and heals with his touch and water. Thousands of people keep queuing in front of Zetra Olympic Hall for days for some hope and some kind of medical treatment.
All in all, there are plenty of problems in this country. Many of them are expected to be resolved by themselves the moment we join EU. They say that will happen as soon as 2020 or so (it better not be by the Hijra calendar). However, not everyone believes in the image of enticing and bright future that awaits Bosnia and Herzegovina upon joining EU. It is becoming ever more apparent that we are spinning our wheels perilously and that internal incapacity of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in dealing with its systematic and structural limitations and problems tends to irritate more and more rather than win support on the international scene. Unless the citizens of this country start acting in accordance with that guideline soon, the country is going to vegetate in the darkness of internal tensions and antagonisms that are threatening to escalate in a very ugly way, for a long time. And rather undignified, too.
Tamara Šmidling
from a personal point of view
‘awakening’
What started to happen to me at the meetings with veterans and visits to the execution sites in this unfortunate country of ours, had a certain feel of ‘awakening’ to it, in comparison to what I had been going through in the first few years after the war, when I had the chance to meet with people ‘from the other side’, whether we had known each other before or not.
What it meant was to talk about issues and topics that were until recently considered a taboo, in my view. People mostly try to go by an unwritten rule, or more precisely, a code of conduct, that does not allow us to ask the others about the things we would not like to be asked, therefore more time is spent talking about political and economic situation, and how many people took advantage of this evil times and benefited from them, then asking or talking about mass graves, rapes, executions, slaughter, camps and so on and so forth, or even about some brilliant examples of humanity and nobility of the last war.
I felt this awakening in such a way that I could talk candidly about everthing what was going on in the war and about people’s roles in it, normally with my own perception and subjectivity. I also felt that that the other people’s ‘defence’ was slowly coming down, too. We were becoming more and more humans and were less hiding behind “ours and yours”, and were looking for our own positions regarding the past events, including our own responsibility.
No need to mention that CNA switched on a good deal of those switches in our heads and provoked our badly damaged brains to move into a new direction, not to devastate or destroy, but to build some new, I wouldn’t say bridges, but shores onto which the foundations of those bridges that are to be erected, should be laid.
The entire process that was going on inside of me was probably quite recognizable with others too, as soon as I was in a position to be asked a favour, so to say.
During the veterans’ visit to Zavidovići, after leaving the Memorial Room, Lj. approached me, visibly agitated. I did expect the rush of emotions from him because the Brigade from his area had had some huge losses on the frontline around Zavidovići and the room was full of “trophies” that bared the insignia of that unit. He also started to talk to me about it, and how it had struck him, because he had lost a lot of friends and acquaintances there, and a lot of them were still missing. Basically, he asked me, if it wasn’t a problem, for him and few of his friends to come to Zavidovići to visit the Memorial Room.
Since the Memorial Room is at the premises of the Disabled War Veterans of Zavidovići and they have the key to it, I consulted A. and I was told that there was no problem, and that all it took was a few days notice, to take the key.
I passed the information on to Lj. and after having agreed on it, we parted.
Maybe less then a month later, Lj. got in touch and announced his arrival. I did everything in advance and was expecting them. However, the morning they were supposed to come something happened, I think someone died, and he informed me that they wouldn’t come.
More than a month passed since then, when he called again and said he was coming.
I prepared everything once again, informed A. and
M. and we waited for what must have been two hours when he called again and said that there was something wrong with the car and they could not come that day.
When he called the following day and said they were on their way I took it with a pinch of salt, thinking something would come up again. M. was at work, and A. had something to do on his own and said that he could be with us for just a little while. I went to the Disabled War Veterans’ premises from work and spent an hour there with the president and the secretary of the organization, waiting. They knew some Serbs were coming to visit, but did not open the subject. A. was also there, trying to tidy things up in the Memorial Room.
Soon I got a call from Lj. and he said they were parked outside the building.
I got out and saw him, and the two men I didn’t know before, so I was somewhat taken by surprise, because I had expected that he would come with some colleagues from his veterans’ organization that I had had the chance to meet during the visit to Prnjavor.
We met and if I remember correctly, I think that one was named P., and the other B. I saw they were carrying officers’ purses and cameras. I thought “Fuck Lj., who did you bring along!” They did not seem to me as people who came to see something and evoke some memories. At that moment, I was angry with Lj., for not telling me in advance who was coming. Perhaps he was afraid that in that case I would turn him down.
P. asked whether they could enter the Memorial Room to see it. I told them that was what we were there for and invited them in.
A. said goodbye to them and apologized because ha had to go. I brought them into the office of the President of Disabled War Veterans’ Association and he received them nicely, welcomed them and said compassionately that if there was anything he could do they should come to him and that they should feel at home.
All that time, I felt confused. Thousands of questions were brimming in my mind, I was looking for answers: who were they, did they belong to some security forces, what were they really interested in? The only thing that encouraged me was that I recognized some signs of their discomfort, too.
Some sort of bell of silence had come down upon us before we entered the Memorial Room and somehow isolated ourselves. Then we started talking and one of them said he was from some place near Banja Luka, and the other one was from Srbac as it seemed, but I’m not sure. They asked whether they could take photos, and I agreed reluctantly, but I was thinking to myself: why the heck they wanted it, whose archives did they need it for?
Then Lj. stepped in and said, if I understood well, that one of them was searching for his father and the other for his brother, who had both disappeared in this area. It may sound bad, but I felt relieved then. I needed to know the purpose of their visit, and I knew that units from their region had been here.
I did not want to dash their hopes, but I said that all the documents that were stored there were one hundred percent processed and that the data had been already forwarded to the authorities in charge but that they were free to look at anything they wanted.
That’s exactly how it was, they reviewed all the confiscated military id cards, personal id cards, drivers’ licenses, war diaries and took pictures of the documents that belonged to the individuals they had known or those they knew were from their region. I was initially little uncomfortable because there was a lot of poking around, and I’m not really at home with it, but I went out of my way to make it possible they check everything. Unfortunately, they did not find any information on their loved ones, but they were glad they had the chance to look and see.
When they were done with their part, we spent the rest of the time looking around the other exhibits in the Memorial Room. They asked and I answered as I could and explained. I saw melancholy in their faces, just like with any normal person when they saw all those names and pictures of the killed. This is particularly the case with the people who have lost their loved ones.
We went out, said goodbye to the people from the Disabled War Veterans’ Association, thanked them for their hospitality and stopped at the parking lot for a smoke.
They were very pleased and said they did not expect such reception, but Lj. had told them he never doubted it, having known me.
We said goodbye, they went home, and I got back to work and back to my thoughts.
Anyway, let me get back to the ‘awakening’ from the beginning of this story. If something like this had happened to me before, if I had been under some circumstances in a similar situation and had to do something in the same way, I would not have made it. I’d be a rack, it would tear me apart to think whether any such expression of good will towards people who were a part of something that wanted to destroy me and my own, whether “theirs” who had been killed were some butchers or just unfortunate plain soldiers, whether they were the gunners who shot schools and kindergartens with a smile, or forcibly mobilized people with health problems, who did not have any money to bribe the authorities to let them off the hook.
What will people from my community and those ‘verified patriots’ say? Will I be labelled a traitor and accused of betraying the legacy for money? Will I become worse and more hated than those who slaughtered on my behalf? Will they let me desecrate the Veterans Memorial Room by bringing some “Chetniks” into it? I can go on and on with such schizophrenic questions, I’d surely keep thinking about it and that would torture me.
But thank God, that is not the case. I have seen my light at the end of the tunnel and I can do whatever and help if I get a chance to every human being, hurt by this war, whose sacrifice I do not recognize by their name, but by the pain it left, with my head clear and without my conscience objecting.
Amer Delić, veteran of Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina November 2010
many thanks to all of you who give us support
