The training was empowering for all of us. We worked a lot, went through a lot together, we cried and we laughed, and we came out braver, stronger and with a feeling of comradeship transcending all borders, the external – national, gender, age – and the internal. While we dealt with difficult topics, we were soothed by the magical atmosphere of Ulcinj’s Old Town, the sea, the waves and the conspiratorial friendship of our hosts, the staff at the Palata Venezia Hotel, towards all of us, a boundless hospitality.
But, let’s start at the beginning.
The training received 132 applications, most from Bosnia and Herzegovina (79), followed by Serbia (24), Macedonia (11), Croatia (11), Montenegro (4) and three from Kosovo. Almost twice as many women (86) as men (46) applied for the training, which is a trend that continues from the past few trainings. In the selection process, we sought to achieve a gender, regional and age balance. Once again, we had a few last-minute cancellations, but this gave those willing to stay on the waiting list to the very end a chance to participate to our mutual satisfaction. Ultimately, the group was made up of 20 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina (7), Serbia (4), Macedonia (3) and two each from Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo.
Relating experience
As a one-time participant in Basic Training, I know how difficult it is to relate the experience of the training, especially when you’ve been fortunate enough to have a life-changing experience. Not by having all doors magically open before you, not by graduating in the topics, but by becoming able to see thing differently, by expending your perspective. You take of your shoes and try on someone else’s, and that takes courage. The training is long and intensive, lasting for ten days, with the one day break in the middle that is just perfect to settle your thoughts from the first part of the training (the basics of teamwork, communication, prejudice, discrimination, violence, understanding conflict), so that you can move on to finding constructive use for the experience gained, through experiential exercises for dealing with the past, peacebuilding and non-violence. These were our topics and we dealt in depth with each of them in turn. We got a bit stuck with gender, going straight to social implications, while it would have been perhaps more useful to start with personal experience, the extent to which our gender identity defines the roles we take on in society, and the extent to which we have a choice in the matter. Then moving on to how this is connected with our social world and how it impacts peacebuilding. However, the personal became wide open during the workshop on identity and national identity, which in terms of opening up and sharing experience about when and how national identity impacted our lives was something of a breakthrough. We had a safe space to share very personal stories. And all social change starts from us as individuals.
Among us were students, reporters, members of political parties, human rights activists, religious officials, academics, professors, museum workers, veterans, soldiers and artists. Old and young, in terms of age our group ranged from 21 to 65. Far from being an obstacle, this enabled an exchange of experience and knowledge, practical and emotional, about the world and about life. The war left its mark on some of us already in the 1990s; others, born in the immediate aftermath, were marked by the war’s consequences, which are imposed on new generations as natural and desirable; both experiences were crucial to understanding how war comes about, and why in the case of the Western Balkans it never seems to end. What are the mechanisms working in the background, what must we watch out for when we judge others, and what must we be aware of in our immediate surroundings. And finally, how important it is to approach the whole process with an open heart.
One of the greatest advantages and benefits of the training was that we had an opportunity to learn about the situation in countries that we know little to nothing about, although we share a common past and the misfortune of war, which is particularly true of Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. However, the situation in the countries of the Dayton triangle (BiH, Croatia, Serbia) is not much better; few of us have an opportunity to peek into our neighbours’ yard and ask them about their troubles. And especially about their troubles when it comes to relationships between our countries and societies. And the image we have of each other.
Open Space
We went through the taboos of a violent past present in our societies and what they are used for, we talked about national myths, collective responsibility, the things that tell us we are not living in peace. The training participants used the open space to bring up topics important to them personally or to present their own peacebuilding work and the challenges they face, so we discussed the impact of fake news, historical revisionism and history as a discipline, how to actively stand up to such phenomena and how to not give up on our antifascist legacy. We thought about what our societies need for a more just relationship towards the past, and a step towards reconciliation.
The encouragement the training team received from the group inspired us to shape the workshops so as to allow space for thinking about concrete action in peacebuilding, about possible future actions, exchanges with allies we can find in the process and the support we would need to have. In that sense, this training surpassed the expectations of the training team, because it exhibited characteristics and the kind of energy common to more advanced trainings.
The team that worked together for the first time included Ivana Franović, Nedžad Novalić and Davorka Turk from CNA and our friend and comrade Luan Imeri from the Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution in Skopje, whose presence and experience, his sensitivity for people and the gentle manner in which he helped everyone in the group deal with strong emotions, helped to make us feel at home in this process. We tried to get a sense of the group and we hope we were up to the challenge. We worked a lot, but efficiently, which left us enough time to socialise with everyone and feel like we were part of the group.
And finally, to this former participant, peacebuilding training seems even more needed now than it was 20 years ago when this peace education programme was started. The whole truth would be that it is always equally necessary, both then and now, given that the topics it deals with never cease to be relevant. We are always equally in need of being active participants in the social life of the countries where we lie, to fight against all forms of injustice, in the family, at school, at the workplace… Not to allow ourselves to become mere consumers of policies served up by someone else, but to claim our right to react and the skills to do it, and what is most important, to know that we have allies in that struggle. Then, reconciliation is no longer an empty phrase or a politically prostituted word, but the very driving force of life.
The photo gallery from the 42nd Basic Training in Peacebuilding can be viewed HERE.