Ohrid/Macedonia, 08-18.10.2010.
The 34th Basic Training in Peace Building was held in Ohrid, in “Klimetica” hotel, from 8th until 18th October. The training team consisted of Nedžad Horozović and Sanja Deanković from CNA and Ana Bitoljanu from Miramida Centre from Grožnjan/Skopje. The fourth member of the team could not attend due to private emergency situation. Since we could not find anybody for the position of fourth member in the team (other persons we contacted were already preoccupied), we made a decision to roll the training with only three members of the team and a person in charge of logistics and technical support.
We were fascinated by the number of applications arrived. Great number of applicants was certainly due to the fact that Ohrid is attractive location and because of good information network and advertising via popular regional websites (www.infostud.com, www.iro.hr), Facebook and intern mailing lists. Although we were glad to see such interest, a number of 178 applications gave us a lot of work. We had to read them all carefully in a very short period of time, choose only twenty and inform the rest that they are not admitted. Choosing the right applicants was a bit frustrating because there were a great number of quality applications. We have been even faced with some unpleasant verbal assaults from the omitted applicants. Similar to some earlier cases, some applicants cancelled their admittance in the last minute, or just did not show up. Final outcome was 18 persons attending our training, two persons less than planned. We regret that two places remained omitted, concerning such interest for this particular training.
There was a diverse section of participants, ranging from interested individuals who have no connection to any formal organizations, to individuals engaged in public sector, education and social activism, union representatives, war veterans, politicians and journalists. We were glad to see that a number of them showed a significant interest for participation in another, different CNA programs in peacebuilding. It is also good that some war veterans are becoming regular participants in this field. It indicates that we have made some progress in building trustful relationships. Beside the represented ethnic diversity in the group, we still lacked individuals with a stronger articulation of Croatian and Albanian identity, which was much needed for a more detailed inspection of complexity of relationships and responsibilities. Such individuals could encourage other participants to make a deeper reconsideration the “self” and the “enemy” images within their ethnic collectives.
There were a lot of themes enrolled within the program: communication, decision making and understanding of conflicts, violence, perception, gender roles in society, prejudice, national identities, dealing with the past and peacebuilding. We are fully satisfied with the enrollment of majority of the themes, but there were also a couple of problematic ones. Even if it isn’t our main focus, and we try to explain to every participant that the training isn’t about the skill for nonviolent communication, it could still have been useful that we have done some more work on sensitization for essential principles of nonviolent communication.
This deficiency could be noticed in occasional participant’s incomprehension of some basic processes during the training and because of that, some interventions of the team members were misjudged (“the team is harsh”, “we do not get the opportunity to replicate” and similar). We were satisfied with the enrolment of the themes of national identities and prejudice, especially because those workshops indicated some basic problems of regional societies (“us” and “them” perspectives, “enemy” images etc.). We were also pleased with the way we succeeded to define the connection between general gender roles in society and the situation of war and the ways in which the state of war produces and reformulates the positions and roles of men and women. The longest and the most intensive theme block was, as usual, the one concerned with the subject of Dealing with the Past. In the three separate working sets (each lasting for three and a half hour), we made enough space for individual experiences and analysis of the region.
On the day envisaged for free activities, most of the participants, as well as the team trainers, took a trip to the Republic of Albania. Participants visited Tirana and the team trainers went to Pogradec. We are aware that it is not possible to erase all prejudice attributed to Albania, even with the fact that the state border is near and easy to pass, and the fact that the participants had only positive experiences during the trip. Yet, the trip tour was certainly an extraordinary and significant experience. It could intact the deconstruction of earlier negative narratives on Albania, which unfortunately still exist. In regard of this issue, one of the participants was explaining: “I am glad to come here. I have overcome some prejudices toward Albania. It is not so different from the rest of the region and Tirana is a big, European, Balkan city.”
Although we were missing a fourth team member, all of us enjoyed the work and where enthusiastic, beside the fact that we had to work harder than usual. We don’t think that working with just three trainers could be a standard set of organization, yet in special occasions it is possible to do all the work effectively in such way. From the very first day, to the end of the program, we were complementary and helpful to each other. For the first few days the training team had many problems with the hotel management concerning the working utilities, accommodation and food service. Such things should be arranged much earlier and more carefully in the future.
We are glad that The Basic Training in Peace Building was held in Macedonia for the first time. It almost became a rule that The Republic of Macedonia is delayed or neglected in regional processes. This was our contribution in opinion making and activity in the region of Former Yugoslavia toward a change of such situation and moving away Macedonia from the edge of interest and events. We also noticed that Macedonia was an exotic destination for many participants, which tells us that, beside the fact that the region is now generally open for circulation and travel, there is no specific interest for social and cultural processes in other states (especially ones which are not direct neighbors and between whom there were no problems in the past).
Evaluation of the training showed a significant satisfaction of participants and confirmed existing need and urgency for trainings of such kind. We conclude that, as time keeps passing since the wars in nineties, there is a growing need for constructive approaches to their causes, consequences and their legacy. Such need is not in a decline, as one may expect or wish.
A.B.