Training for War Veterans: We Were by the Battle / in Doboj

For more than a decade, the Centre for Non-Violent Action has been working war veterans and organising Trainings for those who participated in wars. Bringing together war veterans, members of opposed armies from the wars in former Yugoslavia, is a challenge in and of itself. To organise a training with workshops where they will discuss violence and war, and all in the interests of reconciliation and peace building means to raise the stakes and face an uncertain outcome. It is a gamble that can result in a complete washout or a jack pot. I say this because there is always a degree of caution in the sense that the everyday political situation has a strong influence on veterans. And we have a general interpretation of the post-war period being just like the war, except there’s no shooting. What used to be opposed armies has now become people with opposed memories.

After years of actions that involved war veterans from the region, who make up the core of a mixed group that visited marked and unmarked sites of suffering in BiH and that started the practice of visiting each others’ commemorations and events organised to mark important dates from recent history[1], a need arose for new people to join in, people prepared and motivated to participate in and advocate for peace building. Also, by involving new individuals and organisations, our aim is to encourage further regional expansion of peace building activities.

This time, we organised the training in Doboj, a town in northern Bosnia that was named, as legend has it, after numerous battles occurring in the field adjacent to it, so that there were travellers going to the site of the battle. I wonder how many of those people wanted to wage war, and how many were pushed or forced into it? What name would be given a place never touched by war and known for it? What would characterise such a place, what would dominate its landscape the way the fortress on Gradina hill dominates the landscape of Doboj?

Doboj was an alternative solution. For reasons of geographical accessibility for people from the region, the training was initially planned to take place in Brčko.  However, due to a lack of professionalism on the part of the hotel management there, we had to change the location, and only four days before the event.

Forming a new group, we relied on people that CNA had established initial contacts with through visits to execution sites that we organised, and on recommendations from war veterans that we had worked with in the past.  The group was reinforced by two war veterans from the above mentioned core.

Unfortunately, some of the participants cancelled due to obligations that had cropped up suddenly, as they said.

Ultimately, the group consisted of eleven participants, members of veterans’ associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of BiH (Bihać, Vitez, Brčko, Žepče) and Republika Srpska (Šamac, Rogatica), Serbia (Leskovac, Kruševac) and Croatia (Zagreb), and the four of us from the team of trainers, Nenad Vukosavljević, Adnan Hasanbegović, Nedžad Horozović and Amer Delić.

At the very beginning of the training, it was noticeable how the participants were quick to establish dialogue. Transparently, without holding back and with a lot of enthusiasm they entered into discussions of the most difficult topics from the past, the so-called burning issues. In the case of war veterans, honesty, which is becoming increasingly rare in communication in our contemporary society, comes out as a spontaneous reaction of people wanting to be heard and to hear each other out. Aware that they have different perspectives and opinions on the past, they do not shrink from expressing them and from being accepted as such. We talked about the ideals that were fought for, victims and suffering, both of our own and of other peoples.

Also, there was a pronounced critical view of one’s own role and responsibility in the past war, as well as awareness of personal transformation in the post-war period when it comes to national and ideological interpretations of the course of the war. It was beneficial that the training team saw that it had the trust of the participants based on their knowledge of the activities CNA has conducted in the past and the expectations they had from this training. At no time was there any reluctance to cooperate with the team members.

To revive war memories through the cycle of having people go back to their apocalyptic experiences carries a particular weight at these events. This sort of training is not straightforwardly therapeutic, instead, through deeply personal stories, participants develop empathy towards each other, which is key to building trust as the cornerstone of future cooperation.

In general, the training exhibited a condemnation of war as a social phenomenon and all other forms of violence.  Especially the insidious form of violence we encounter in our societies daily, but are often unable to clearly identify.

Based on past experience and along with a presentation of the work conducted with war veterans, the team of trainers opened discussion on the possibilities and numerous dilemmas inherent in the peace-building process. There is no alternative to reconciliation, unless we opt for a closed society where a new conflict is just a matter of time. The current situation is such that peace-building veterans stick out in their local communities and are frequently ostracised by both their fellow veterans and the political powers that be precisely because they stand up to socially accepted interpretations of the recent past, which propagate irreconcilable opposition between the peoples in the region and see the regular recurrence of conflict as inevitable.

From the point of view of the organiser, we can generally say that the goals and expectations for this training were fulfilled. A possibility for cooperation in hitherto under-represented areas of eastern Bosnia and the Cazin region opened up. Participants from these part of BiH offered concrete cooperation and coordination in developing further actions. I must point out that before the training, we from CNA established contacts with representatives of BORS from Prijedor and Šipovo. Due to prior engagements, they were unable to attend the training, but they expressed their support for the idea of cooperation and joint visits by veterans and their readiness to contribute to our work.

Also, all the participants expressed their readiness to participate in visits to sites of suffering with people from the existing group, and they also realised what they may be able to do in their communities either as individuals or members of their respective organisations.  Working for the common good in such a delicate mission as reconciliation entails understanding the needs of the other side, of former enemies.

The approach and commitment of the participants enabled the team of trainers to plan concrete future activities in coordination with the veterans.

Enthusiasm and readiness are in abundance, now we must put them into practice – in the field.

Amer Delić