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COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN OTHER EUROPEAN LOCATIONS By Rev. Paul Cromwell June 19, 2006 Osijek, CroatiaThe Center for Peace, Nonviolence, and Human Rights in Osijek has spearheaded numerous projects in eastern Croatia since the 1990’s Balkan civil wars divided and destroyed many area neighborhoods and villages (http://www.centar-za-mir.hr/engonama.php). Staff and volunteers with the Center are currently exploring ways to utilize community-organizing strategies to augment their work with greater citizen participation in local government decision-making processes.
The Listening Program in Slavonia/Croatiavon Corinne Bloch Background: the war in Croatia
The collapse of socialist systems at the end of the eighties in many countries created conditions for possible change within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, new opportunities lent themselves to the development of nationalistic movements. The regime of Slobodan Milosevic came into power and used the existing problems in Serbia for homogenising Serbian nationalist programme and promoting the idea of the "Great Serbia". As a reaction to this politic, the Croatian Parliament declared the independence of the Republic of Croatia in June 1991.However, it seemed that the way to achieve the proclaimed independence was through a war, which issues concerned mainly territory. In Croatia, Serbs started to be driven from their houses. Manipulating people's fear for their minority status, Milosevic's regime provoked the armed insurrection of the Croatian Serbs in eastern parts of Croatia (Slavonia and Baranja provinces) and Krajina. The Yugoslav People's Army supplied the Serbian populations with arms and soon engaged in the conflict alongside the Croatian Serbs and Serbian paramilitary groups. The Croatian side also armed the civilians, regular police and then the newly formed military forces. The conflict started as armed clashes between the region's residents of different nationalities (and of different political convictions) grew into a war in the summer of 1991. The most extensive military operations were conducted in Eastern Slavonia where severe fights lasted 10 months. The simple and efficient way of territorial division used in the conflict was ethnical homogenization of the population. It was unfortunately achieved through different aspects of ethnic cleansing (massacres, concentration camps, etc.). This led to thousands of Croats, mainly civilians, being wounded, over 15,000 being killed and over 3000 having gone missing. The same goes for several thousands of Serbs. Almost 30% of Croatia's population – Serbs and Croats - was driven from their homes. Several places, like Vukovar, were completely destroyed, and a lot of towns and villages were heavily damaged. After the war, Eastern Croatia had the highest concentration of mass graves and missing persons in the country.
Prior the war, Eastern Croatia was a fertile agriculture land whose agricultural yield helped the region to enjoy one of the highest per capita incomes in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Its population was about 170,000 people. It was a multiethnic region with a population distribution of about 42% Croats, 35 Serbs and 23 others ethnicities.
In January 1992 a cease-fire was signed, followed by a five years involvement – but in a deeply tense atmosphere - of the United Nations mission including two military actions in 1995 in order to regain some of the Croatian territories. Afterwards only the first refugees who had left Slavonia started to come back to their previous houses, discovering ravaged sceneries, destroyed villages and all the disasters left behind by the war.
Introduction: the visit of the Peace Team"I shall never forget that day when they came to my door for the first time. It was in Autumn 1999, shortly after the murder of a Serb in Berak. About one year after I came back to my village. I had lost everything in the war and had been living for seven years in a refugee camp.” “I opened the door and there stood two people. They introduced themselves as part of a Peace Team working for the Center for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights (Centar Za Mir) based in the East Slavonia city Osijek. They said they just wanted to help. They were interested in my war-experience, in my opinion about current life in Berak, in my ideas to improve life in our sad village. They just wanted to listen to me and let me tell what I had to say. I let them come in and I started to talk. To talk and talk, to cry and cry… I could not stop any more to get rid of all the pain and questions I had inside myself for so long. They paid attention, taking notes.” “ To understand what the presence of these people meant for us you have to know what Berak was at that time. You have to know how terrible the lack of communication and trust between people was. You have to know how dark our future seemed."
Recounting the day she met the people working in the Peace Team still incites strong emotions in Dragica Aleksa. "They really brought something to me and to the community. They opened a way for communication and their commitment gave some of us the motivation to get involved in the community. They made us feel responsible for our life and future".
Dragica, a 51 year-old Croat and a life-long farmer, is today one of the most committed people for peace and reconciliation in Berak. At the beginning of 2004 - Luc' (small light) - the organization she set up with Mile Mrkobrat, a Serb, was officially registered. Its work has been acknowledged as being of invaluable support to individual people in Berak, as well as to the empowerment of the community.
Dragica is one of many in Eastern Croatia who started to empower herself and the others after the visit of Center za Mir’s Peace Teams. Forty kilometers from Berak, in Beli Manastir - the main city of the Baranja, another province of Eastern Croatia close to Slavonia - Dusko, a smiley 30 year-old Roma (Gypsy), has committed himself as a volunteer for more than five years to help his people fight for their rights and dignity. With other citizens, he has set up an organization in 2000 already – BRICC - Baranja Civil Center - with the aim to support the Roma community, whose economical and legal situation has still decreased since the war. Further to the west-south, in the small town of Okucani, in Western Slavonia, there is also Ljubica and all the war veterans who have rebuilt their lives through the Listening Project and are now involved in rebuilding community. Several months before the project ended they even decided to start their own association - Centre for Ex-soldiers and Community – in order to help other veterans and their family to deal with their traumas and to reintegrate a normal and active life.
And for each of these individuals there are others in the communities who have overcome huge barriers of fear and hatred, have learned to work together and build a new life out of the physical, social and personal devastation of war.
These stories are illustrative for the big change and new spirit that the Listening Project, conducted by the Center for Peace/Centar za Mir - Osijek, has brought about, step by step, in several local communities in the Eastern Croatian regions of Slavonia and Baranja. As Dragica would say, there is still a long way to go in reconciliation between Serbs, Croats and Muslims and in the rebuilding of community. But the Peace Team and its Listening Project have opened many doors, helped heal many wounds and have helped establish important community development efforts.
In an atmosphere of great inter-ethnic tensions and hatred resulting from the 5 years of war, destruction and ethnic cleansing, the Peace Team was the first example of ethnically mixed groups working together to promote peace and alternatives to violence. "Listen to understand" was the Project's slogan and the Peace Team’s first goal. Its approach of giving people ample opportunity to tell their stories was based on a specific method, which was developed by the American organization Rural Voices of the South for Peace (RVSP). During the first phase, about 1900 interviews were conducted in seven communities. Listeners were trained by Herb Walters of RVSP to use active listening within a framework of community organizing and empowerment. One of the major characteristics of the project was that it had been tailored to the specific needs of each community in the region: active listening enabled the Peace Team to develop its activities and solutions based on what it heard from the people. To encourage responsible participation of individuals in the process of social change and to help them to find their place in this difficult post-war environment was the other essential part of the second phase of project. As a result of its success in doing this, there are today a lot of "Dragicas" and a lot of "Duskos" working for peace in Eastern Croatia. Free from ethnic prejudice, they work to build a new society based on civil participation and sustainable peace.
Of course, that success neither happened in two weeks nor in two months. It has been a huge job, involving a lot of people, which is still going on today. But as Dragica says, to understand what that work meant to individuals, to the communities and to the Peace Team's members themselves; to measure its difficulties and impact, it is essential to know what the situation was some years ago in her village, like in so many others of Eastern Croatia.
A village like so many others…
Berak, a town of 350 people is situated on one of the rare hills of predominantly flat Province of Slavonia. During the war, Berak was taken over by Serbs. Almost all of the Croatian population was forced out of the town. A majority of those who stayed was put in concentration camps.
Now let's go to Berak in 1999, after the war ended. At that time, many of the fields around the village are still full of mines set during the war. Two small shops, two churches and a little wood bench on the main street essentially compose its public life. Since the war’s end, the village and region have been reintegrated by the United Nations into the Republic of Croatia. Displaced people, mainly Croats, have slowly returned. Dragica is one of them. After several years in refugee camps, she and her fellow returnees have been in a hurry to go back to their homes and to normal life. The ones who lost their sons or husband have even more crucial expectations. They come back with the hope that Serbs who stayed in the village during the Serbian control would tell them where their loved one’s bodies are. In Berak, 56 people - 10% of its population - were killed in battles or in the village's concentration camp between 1991 and 1995. Dead bodies were thrown in wells or buried in unknown places. Thirty of them are still missing.
But the reality the returnees find is far different from their expectations. The village has changed. In the worst case, they are confronted with the silence of the Serbs, explaining that the ones who had information about missing people have left. In the best case, they don’t recognize their village. “I was looking at all the neighbor’s houses, everywhere people were missing. Nothing was like before ” remembers Dragica. Even with her ex-best friend, a Serb, Dragica was unable to imagine reconciliation. “When she came to me, asking why I still didn’t visit her since I returned, I was just able to answer: “because you didn’t help us or come with us either when we had to leave.” After several years in refugee camps, the returnees have now to face new traumas: destroyed houses, economical difficulties, reintegration, etc.
Post-war tension in Berak is extremely high, because in this small community practically every family could be individually linked to the dramatic, violent events of the war. Among the Serbs, all the ones who are still here - mostly old people - are said to be parents of war criminals. Unlike bigger cities where neighbors maybe associated with traumatic events on a more anonymous level, as members of a specific ethnic group, in Berak the traumatic incidents are linked to individuals known by all villagers. So, in Berak, there is no generalization, or very little. Here are persons with names. The feeling of injustice is maximal. We are in the heart of the most severe trauma with victims and perpetrators – or perpetrators' parents – trying to live together. Concerning the missing inhabitants, an exhumation of a grave in May 1999 brought some hope. Not for long: out of 30 people, only 16 were finally found. Since that time, hate suddenly flared up. Also has increased the pressure on the people who remained in Berak during the war, mostly Serbs. Only few Croats in mixed marriage, and few others ethnicities like Ukrainian had a chance to stay. But all of them are sharing the same collective guilt. The tension is palpable. Now Serbs are leaving from fear of retaliation. Sometimes the horrors of the past incite even new confrontations. In August, the conflict has culminated in the tragic murder of a Serb. The situation is out of control. In a move to stem violence, the Organization for security and co-operation in Europe (OSCE) stepped in and called on the Center for Peace, Non violence and Human Rights to help.
People building peace
The Center was founded in 1992 as an attempt to counter ethnic, religious, political and ideological divisions resulting from the ongoing war between Serbs and Croats. It is based in the East Slavonia city of Osijek. Since its beginnings, Centar Za Mir’s work has focused on the promotion and implementation of creative methods of problem solving and conflict resolution.
In 1996 Centar za Mir, with the financial support of the European Union and of the Norwegian government, initiated its “Building a Democratic Society in Eastern Slavonia Based on a Culture of Nonviolence.” The program often took on a shorter name that referred to those who most directly implemented the program – the "Peace Team". In fact, the Peace Team is composed of six trained peace teams made up of local men and women who had themselves been victims of war. They have been provided with living stipends and assigned to live and work for two and half years in one of six communities in Slavonia and Baranja. Some months later, a seventh peace team will be created to work in Berak. The communities had been identified as important post war hot-spots - where fear, hatred and the potential for violence remained as a result of the war. One international person joined each team. The multiethnic and multinational make-up of each team was a powerful message that Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Roma could work together on peace and community building. That courageous choice did not, however, make the work easier! How would people severely traumatized by a bloody war, ethnic cleansing and concentration camps react? Especially the Croats towards Serbs involved in the Peace Team? This challenge was frightening and even dangerous.
The solution came from the Listening Project, a program of
“Rural Southern Voice for Peace" (RVSP). In 1992 Herb Walters had helped Centar
Za Mir develop a pilot Listening Project to ease relations between Croats who
has left the city of Osijek while it was under siege by the Serbs, and the rest
of the population who considered those who left cowards and deserters. This
project, as well as a project responding to ethnic tensions and violence in
Serbia, had some success. Thus, several years later, Centar Za Mir director
Katarina Kruhonja knew that the Listening Project was just the right approach
for the Peace Team. Rather than going into their communities as experts with
answers, or as mediators, Peace
" The fact that people could talk from their point of view, about their experience, their feelings and opinions, was a completely new approach", confirms Katarina Kruhonia. In the very urgent and difficult situation we had to face in the post-war period, Compassionate Listening was probably the only possible way to enter traumatized communities. Yet, for us, the Peace Team, it was also very challenging to give a peace message in this dark and even sometimes dangerous atmosphere. Just imagine: in two cases, like in Berak or in Tenja, the Project was a respond to recent murders! In some other villages, since the region had been reintegrated to Croatia, Serbs had barricaded the streets to prevent Croats to come back. There was no way to approach. We first had to talk to the villages' leaders to have a chance to get in contact with the inhabitants".
In order to offer the best chances and skills to work in such a tense atmosphere, a ten weeks training program prepared the teams for their work. Walters took a week of this time preparing The Peace Team members for their Listening Project. He conducted also an additional training over a three-year period and a Training for Trainers as well conducted by Centar Za Mir.
"In Osijek, we realized how a well-prepared listener could open up space, through the questions in a good structured questionnaire, for discussing war traumas. Moreover, by asking additional questions, the listeners helped the interviewed persons to articulate the problems in their private life and community", comments Sonja Stanic, the main coordinator of the project.
"By listening to people without prejudice we helped to reduce the fear and, by doing so, we found a way to open communication where there was no one before. This was crucial", Katarina Kruhonja adds. "Step by step, we could feel that the tensions and the hate were decreasing. It was an amazing encouragement. It gave us big motivation. Yet, it has been a very exhausting work. The lack of debriefing opportunities at the beginning made it even too heavy for some of the listeners and we had to improve psychological support. There is no doubt that Compassionate Listening transformed each of us very much."
Listening to understand
The Listening Project interview questions used in Berak consisted of 21 questions about five themes: 1. Experience of trauma; 2. Communication between Serbs and Croats 3. Problems of missing persons and recent murder of a Serb 4. Guilt and war crimes 5. Perspectives for the future.
Eight teams of listeners started to conduct interviews during two weeks. The plan was to interview one person from every family in the village. "At the beginning, active listening seemed very unrealistic”, admits Vesna, a member of Peace Team. “Then I realized how important it was to investigate the real needs of people. By listening to them, we helped them feel respected because they had a chance to express their own needs and the ones of the community. Listening helped us to build trust with the inhabitants. They would stop us in the street and talk to us. At first, approximately 90% of the people let us enter their home; the others did it after we had an informal talk. In Berak, we were particularly afraid, but people welcomed us, delighted that there was someone ready to listen to them”.
Even though the interview teams were obviously of mixed ethnicity -- because of name tags and language -- no person who was approached, refused an interview. Interviews lasted at least two hours and strong emotions came out. There were no incidents.
An important feature of the Listening Program is analyzing and writing a detailed report on what has been heard, and giving feedback to the community. That is the first step that enables people to hear each other. Of course, the reports do not contain names or any information that could compromise anybody. They are impersonal and without judgment, and therefore can be easily accepted by both ethnic groups. "The fact to report the results of the interviews and to give a feed back to the community was very powerful, Katarina Kruhonja confirms. "Especially for the people who felt like being more involved. Through the Listening Project everybody had a chance to ask oneself "what can I do personally to make the situation improve?" It helped us as well to target additional activities in the communities.
Particularly in Berak, the responses clearly indicated that the Croatian returnees – like Dragica - who had been driven out of Berak during the war, felt distrust in their remaining neighbors and loyalty towards the memory of war victims. This prevented them from communication with the people who stayed. The trauma experienced by the Serbs and the few Croats or other non-Serbs who had remained in Berak was related to a sense of imposed collective guilt, social isolation, discrimination at work, loss of employment and feelings of insecurity. For some of them, the victimization was even double as they had already suffered during the Serbian occupation. The peace team was touched to see how much energy these people, especially the Serbs, devoted to defending themselves against accusations that were not clearly expressed. No doubt that all the ones who stayed were also in a very difficult position.
Many people talked about the difficult economic situation and the problem of unemployment, which created a sense of apathy and despair. There was a consensus across groups that there was a need for revitalization of the economy and improvement of village infrastructure, cultural and social life. Moreover, the Peace Teams noticed that several persons showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and that several families needed humanitarian, legal or financial aid. Law experts, who offered free legal services to the population, were thus included in the team. The Center for Social Care, Caritas and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees once informed, responded to the humanitarian needs.
Obviously, Croatian returnees also needed support for mourning and help searching for missing persons. And the Serbs needed a sign that they are not personally blamed for what had happened during the war. It was very difficult for a healing process to start while there were still dead bodies nearby, but yet not found and not properly buried. Cooperation of the people on that matter was a precondition for peaceful coexistence. There also could be no peace until Serbs and Croats start talking to each other about the war. The situation was even more difficult in Berak as not even Croats wanted to discuss these matters among themselves. But how to open communication?
At this time, discussion on conflicting issues was impossible in Berak. The wounds and trauma were far too deep. However, analysis of the first interviews revealed concrete needs and possibilities for activities. As it was a shared opinion that the community needed better infrastructure, cultural and social life, the Peace Team applied another strategy -- organizing activities for children, youth and women. In order to build trust among Croat returnees, it tried to mobilize the citizens to participate in community actions they themselves pointed out through the listening interviews. Of course, activities were open to all ethnical groups and all inhabitants have been invited. But mostly Croats returnees, Croats and non-Serbs who remained in Berak during the war came.
To work together for a better community
The commitment of the population is a very essential aspect of the process. First, in a society that has a long tradition of totalitarianism, it means developing personal responsibility for one's own life and the life of the community. Second, it helps people to get used to hearing the needs and ideas of others, and to work together. Third, in the context of the Listening Project, the people who get involved in the community play a significant role as they create a bridge between inhabitants and the different social or ethnic groups in communities.
That is why, from the very beginning of its work, the Berak's peace team kept open lines of communication with people who showed interest to participate in the activities: the Catholic priest who made the parish house available, a young woman who started a workshop for pre-school children, a few people who led the initiative to rebuild the community center. This last project was particularly significant as Berak had no more space where people could meet together and organize events. A old destroyed house at the entrance of the village was chosen and, with the financial and organizational help of the peace team, some motivated citizens started to work on the project of restoration. Once rebuilt, the community center became a real space for people: workshops, lectures and meetings were organized there, a new hunters club started to use it and the youths of Berak found there a place to meet together.
"All the activities we conducted during this period were responds to the needs that people had pointed out during the interviews and the listening phase of the project", explains Igor Dordevic, a Peace team's member who goes on today working with the communities in which the Listening Project was implemented. "In that sense, all these activities were initiated by local people. But at that level of the project, the Peace Team was still the main organizer, the one who took the initiative to transform needs and ideas in concert solutions. It is only much later, during the third phase of the project and after we had worked several years with some motivated volunteers, like Dragica in Berak or Dusko in Beli Manastir, that some groups of citizens, gathered around these people, started to take initiatives and to create their own organization or association. Then, the peace teams could slowly play a second role in these communities, even if Centar za Mir goes on supporting these groups, sometimes financially or by providing them with training or workshops."
The different phases of the project varied in each community since the needs were different and since it mainly depended on some people ready to work as volunteers and who got the motivation to create bridges between inhabitants. The Peace team didn't find everywhere from the beginning people as committed as Dusko or Dragica.
On the other hand, it was evident everywhere that people were not yet ready to discuss conflicting issues. Therefore, like in Berak, a different strategy was applied, namely of organizing educational courses (foreign languages, computers, bio-farming, creative workshops) where different ethnic groups would meet and share impersonal, neutral experiences. Some communication activities or workshops were also organized for the inhabitants of all communities. In 2000, for instance, two-month computer courses involved 345 participants of different ethnic affiliation in several villages. Many - especially children and the youth - attended workshops of non-violent communication that were added to the basic computer course. There were sewing and hair-styling courses, seminars on vegetable and soy-bean growing, actions of cleaning the environment, theatre performances, humanitarian actions, women's workshops on empowerment, ecumenical prayers etc. There were also thematic workshops organized to meet the specific needs of people, like overcoming the victim role and taking an active role in various peace and democracy building activities, managing conflict, trauma and self-help. The strategy was efficient and it led to establishing good communication and group dynamics.
In Tenja, for example, a very divided village in the suburbs of Osijek, the first project which came out from the listening phase was the creation of a bibliobus (book mobile). During the interviews, several people had mentioned the lack of library in the village. With the peace team's support, some inhabitants managed to gather people from Osijek's library and municipality as well as representatives from the municipality of Tenja. After discussion, the idea of a bibliobus regularly coming from Osijek was adopted. This new event didn't only offer to the inhabitants a chance to increase their access to literature, but as well to meet during the some hours the bus was in the village and to talk together. Yet it was not enough. Tenja is a small village made up of two distinct parts. The new one, where mostly Croats live, and the old one, mainly Serb. Between the two parts was an invisible wall… but as well a unused plot of land. As the new Tenja had no playground for children, a group of citizens suggested to transform this plot in a place where all children could play and where the parents could joint them in a nice surroundings. The project was so good that even the municipality offered some funds to do it. Since, a lot of kids and people from both ethnic groups frequented the park everyday. Some years later the situation in Tenja has considerably improved. Recently, Centar za Mir has successfully organized a workshop called "power of cooperation" in order to connect people from all the community levels and from both ethnic groups with the aim to talk about the future of Tenja. Moreover, Ana, a woman of the village, supported by a group of about ten other inhabitants, plays today the role of the peace team in the community. She welcomes the suggestions of the people to improve the life in the village and, together with this group of citizens, helps them to work on it. This association of people tries also to develop links between the grassroots people and the municipality. More and more people are coming to visit Ana. Recently, even a policeman came to suggest to create a skateboard place for the youths and to ask how he could be more useful for the community. By this way, several initiatives have been successfully conducted in Tenja. Among them: a woman of the village is now cooking every day for the old widowers of the communities, and a Handball Club has been set up which promotes the idea of non-violence and reconciliation.
In the village of Dalj, between Osijek and Vukovar, the initiative to rebuild a firemen premises came from an ethnically mixed group of voluntary firemen very committed in the community. Beside it, a lot of initiatives have been taken by different youth groups supported by the peace team and some inhabitants. A group of young people organizes activities for children, an other works on the organization of big soccer tournaments in order to bring together teams and people, an other one is trying to promote ecological awareness and preservation of the environment in the community through concert initiatives. Some of these groups plan to become registered as non-governmental organizations.
Vukovar, at about 35 kilometers from Osijek, has to face a different situation. In this destroyed city of Slavonia, the first one occupied by the Serbs during the war after three months of constant shelling and fights, the school system is still divided between Serbs and Croats. That is why the Peace Team mainly focused its efforts on youths and children by organizing regular workshops. Some years later, some of these young participants have grow up and work together for the promotion of reconciliation in school. An other ethnically mixed group called P.U.P – looking to the future – organizes events with the aim to bring young Croats and Serbs together.
"Through all the activities that the Peace Team has conducted during the second phase of the project, the idea was to transmit to some committed inhabitants the tools they needed to go on working in the community without us, Igor Dordevic explains. And to make sure that they are responsible and able to pass them on further. It was also essential that the promotion of non-violence and reconciliation is part of the work they do, whatever are the activities they conduct."
That is why it was crucial during the listening phase of the Project to give to everybody an opportunity to get more involved in the community and to find motivated people able to take responsibilities. Especially in a village like Berak, where the atmosphere was especially tense and the people particularly distrustful. Fortunately, there was Dragica.
Dragica and "The Stories of Berak"
Post interview contact with Dragica resulted in her joining a program called “Empowerment of Women to Work in the community,” involving women from various war traumatized communities.
Dragica recalls: “I had no idea what a workshop was; but I went. Imagine my surprise when I realized that there were Serbs among us! As I introduced myself, saying I’m from Berak, a woman commented: ‘the village where a Croat killed a Serb two months ago.’ I immediately reacted aggressively: ‘and what about the 50 Croats who have been killed during the war?’ Today, this woman is one of my best friends and we fight together for peace. Things slowly change...”
During the workshop, everybody had 10 minutes to write something about her identity. “Nobody never asked me such a question before”, remembers Dragica. “It took me years to write only: Dragica Aleksa, Daniel’s wife, Croat, Catholic. Then I thought: It cannot be all!” Like others in Slavonia, Dragica started slowly to feel that she could be - and do - more. And she became slowly one of these important “bridges” between people -- visiting them, opening dialogue, and taking part in the rebuilding of her community. However it took her almost one year to enter the house of Baba Savka, the old Serb woman, living alone in Berak since her son, involved in the war against Croats, has escaped to Serbia.
Today Dragica is one of these people who say “hello” to everybody in Berak, breaking the invisible wall between the ethnic groups.
“I slowly understood that you can start a healing process and start to forgive someone who burned your house if this person is an individual, with a name and a face. But you cannot enter such a process for a whole ethnic collectivity when you don’t have any idea of who you are facing.”
Step by step, new people got involved and more activities supported by the Peace Team took place in Berak. The Center for Peace emphasized one of its very important tasks: raising children and youth in Berak to be aware of peace making. Almost all primary school children were included in its workshops. Some children even said they would like to work for peace later. Could there be better encouragement and reward for all these efforts? Three workshops for youth were also organized. A Youth Club was opened, supporting and organizing a lot of different activities in the village.
Only after having worked for months rebuilding trust - at least between people of the same ethnical group - the Peace Team decided that the time had come to start the process of holding a dialogue about the main problems with relationships in the village: missing persons and post war justice.
Serbs and Croats were still not brought together in joint activities. But strangely, it was on that very sensitive issue that the peace team succeeded in bringing together people from both ethnic groups. Serbs participated because they also would like the bodies to be found, realizing that this was an essential part of rebuilding community relations. A mixed delegation from the village went to ask the President of Croatia to put more effort in finding their missing relatives. The meeting was unsuccessful, but the discussion in the community was opened, allowing new possibilities and activities to go on with that purpose. At the same time, workshops for Croatian women including trauma treatment and bereavement support went on.
Yet, going on what they learned from listening to the real needs of the community – and even if the delegation to President was clearly mixed - the Peace Team decided that it is too early to organize direct dialogue between Serbs and Croats on issues of missing persons or on reconciliation. The traumas have to heal at least to some extent before the two sides could be brought together. To force them wouldn't it be like asking a victim to share an apartment in a friendly way with its torturer? That is why they decided to go on indirectly, with neutral community activities, but by persisting in inviting all inhabitants, even if mostly non-Serbs used to take part. Reconciliation is a long-term process, and active listening had to go on to open more communication.
Dragica realized it as well. In spite of her long days in the fields and her numerous responsibilities in the small family farm she runs with her husband, she joined a three-day active listening course to help her establish direct communication with residents in her community. The program was called "Citizens Listen to Citizens". Since that day, the busy farmer started to visit everybody in Berak, both Serbs and Croats. She decided as well to do something good for the elderly population in the village. She started to listen to their stories about their lives, pains and old customs. She helped them in their loneliness and collected a wonderful collection of stories. Their testimonies are today compiled in a book with peace message, "The Stories of Berak", which was published in 2002.
“I learned so much by listening to these people. I thought they had something to bring us, but I didn't expect so much. Even if they had to face two wars and if their lives have been terribly difficult, I haven’t heard any hate in their words. They always tried to point out the tiny good things that happened to them. They helped me to change. I realized then how important it could be for the community to share this positive experience and to remember how Berak was in the past”.
The book was a success and Dragica was requested to present it at the primary school in Berak and later on in several villages nearby. The old traditions and wisdom, as the antiwar message reflected in her stories helped bring a new spirit of pride to the village of Berak that had otherwise been steeped in an atmosphere of exclusion and national tensions.
The difficulty to be a Roma
The year 1999, when Center for Peace started to enter communities with the Listening Project, was as well the year of the parliamentary elections in Croatia. Statistical analyses had pointed to voter's inclination for changes in most parts of the country. Unfortunately, in Eastern Croatia, the majority of people showed apathy and readiness to abstain. Since Center for Peace was one of the founders of the Coalition for free and fair elections, it started to organize a campaign for monitoring of elections and looked - through already established relations made by the Listening Project - for citizens interested in being more involved in their community in order to educate them as observers. Dusko, from Beli Manastir, joined the group of volunteers for this mission. "I was unemployed. I had nothing to do and I was looking for some opportunities to help people around me; so why not?" he remembers.
At that time, Dusko was a 25 year old Roma (Gypsy) whose best years had been spoiled by the war. He was still in high school when the fighting started. As he was 18, he was, like most of the men in the Roma community, enrolled by force in the Serbian army to fight against Croats. Most of them were forced to stand in the front lines where a lot of them died. The old ones, like Dusko's father, were employed to pick up the corpses after the fighting. The prejudices toward Romas and other gypsies groups have always been very strong in Balkans where they are in large number. Marginalized, they always suffered more then other citizen concerning basic respect of human rights, access to education or to jobs. But there is no doubt that in this particular area, their difficult economical situation and their already poor standing of life became much worse after the war. First because of the general bad economical situation in the post-war period, but as well, of course, because of their forced involvement in the fight against Croats. Like Dusko, most of them had no other choice than to take part in the fighting.
"Already at that time I hated violence. It was a nightmare", remembers Dusko. "Fortunately, because I was educated, they needed me more in office for logistics". Still, to work in Croatia, especially for peace activities was very courageous for a Roma since they were not welcomed at all after what happened. "I've never been afraid as I knew that I had nothing to blame myself for", explains Dusko. "I just wanted to forget that bad time by helping the others. I liked the way the Peace Team welcomed me to get involved. I was especially interested in the possibility they mentioned to work with children. I decided to join a training for Active Listening.” One day after his training, Dusko started to take part in the Listening Project. He got involved in the peace team of Beli Manastir and, with other members, started to visit people, first as a recorder. "It was not an easy job. "Some inhabitants welcomed us; some others kicked us out, especially the Croats". The Peace Team was mixed and without ethnical prejudice, but some Croats did not believe it could support more than one ethnic group. Therefore they considered the Center's activities as being pro-Serb. This was the case for most of the NGO working on reconciliation at that time in Croatia. "When we started, a group of Croats was intimidating Serbs, trying to force them to leave by putting bombs in their gardens", remembers Dusko. "We pushed the victims to lodge a complaint with the police; they did it successfully and our reputation became even worse among the Croatians extremists. But this hard time gave us big motivation. We went on trying to get in touch with these people and, eventually, they brought us our nicest success. I remember especially a man who was one of this group's leaders. Through sheer patience, we convinced him to let her daughter participate in a Centar Za Mir summer camp on the coast. There, she got badly ill and we cared so much about her that her father admitted that we were really doing a good job for the whole community, not only for Serbs. Then, we went on visiting him and - you won't believe it - this man even started to come to our workshops!"
Once again, the power of listening to the other people’s truth, to understand and respect their needs, pains, or even hate and anger was successfully rewarded. "It brought us so much", says Dusko, “especially when we started to see some concrete results that improved not only people’s relationships but also their lives.” As was the case in some other communities one of the best results was the greenhouse project. In Beli Manastir, Centar za Mir's Peace Team conducted the project in cooperation with the Balkan Peace Group from Harlem. Serbians, Croatians, Romas and Hungarians took part together in it, going to seminar on vegetable and soybean growing and building a greenhouse they all shared. This created and increased income possibilities for participants in the project.
Dusko and the children
In the beginning, Dusko had no idea of what "empowerment of civil society" meant. Today Dusko uses that term frequently in his work at the Baranja Civil Center - BRICC - of which he is the President. This civil organization, made up of ethnically mixed members, was established as successor of the Peace Team in Beli Manastir in 2001 by local volunteers included Dusko. From its beginning, its 25 members conducted various initiatives to create links between the grassroots people and the official representatives in Beli Manastir in order to develop cooperation with the local municipality. In 2001, BRICC was part of the coalition of the youth non-governmental organizations of Slavonia and Baranja for the campaign for the local election. They notably conducted survey about the political candidates. Empowerment of the civil society is one of their main tasks: through various workshops, they trained and support numerous organizations in management, writing of project proposals and building capacity.
Being open to all ethnical groups, BRICC is a good opportunity for the Romas to find their place in the community and, through the organization, to fight for their rights and to become more involved in activities.
Every morning for instance, in the little Beli Manistir house with garden of BRICC that he repaired, Dusko helps the Roma children familiarize themselves with mathematics, spelling and basic knowledge of English. "Most of their parents are not educated and cannot help them with school work", explains Dusko. "If nobody supports them, the next Roma generation will face the same difficulties integrating themselves in society." At about noon, when time for a light meal arrives, children of other ethnic groups passing in front of the house after school are invited to join the Roma kids to share biscuits and orange juice. They usually accept with noise and happiness. Through the Civil Center Dusko organizes a variety of activities that help the Roma children integrate with other kids.
Working with children also offers Dusko a good opportunity to work with parents on improving their lives and their community. One current project of the Baranja Civil Center is a campaign for better access to soft water. Roma participants are learning what can be done, how to prepare an application for the municipality and the budget they wish to ask for. Other projects for the Romas have included building better access to people’s homes so the children don’t get to school with muddy clothes, and getting financial support for bus transport for children. "To do it instead of them would be a mistake", he explains. "They have to be trained and learn how to become independent and to fight for their rights". The Baranja Civil Center, especially through Dusko, is on excellent terms with the authorities and the media in Beli Manastir. This is quite amazing given the usual intense prejudice and resentment against the Roma people in many Croatian communities.
For more than four years Dusko has been fighting for the empowerment of his community. The job he made through BRICC is invaluable considering the situation of the Romas five years ago. But once again, everything started with the Listening Project conducted by Centar za Mir.
Listen to be understoodIn May 1999, a representative of the newly formed Roma Association of Baranja came to the Peace Team in Beli Manastir to ask for help. About 2000 Romas who had stayed in Baranja and want to live in Croatia were in a difficult situation. For them, like for Dusko at that time, the early post war period was still uncertain and dangerous. As some of the Roma had served in the Serbian army or various paramilitary forces, in the eyes of the Croatian returnees, they shared a collective guilt. Thus they were targets for revenge. The new Croatian authorities and police were not protecting them and the humanitarian organizations were not giving them aid. They did not have any personal documents, jobs or hope. There were a lot of problems of alcohol and violence in the community.
On a request from this man and from the Roma Association, members of the Peace Team started visiting Roma settlements and talking to people. They then initiated Listening Project interviews which helped them encourage the people to do something for themselves. As it needed a trained leader for this specific project, Center for Peace requested Dusko to become the responsible person for the Roma Listening Project. In the case of the Romas, the questions asked during the interviews mainly focused on their expectations for the future. Police protection, humanitarian aid and children education were the first expression of their needs and there were some solutions suggested. They as well pointed out their wish to express themselves about their war experience and to show their poor life conditions to the public. "But the most difficult was that they had no idea about their rights and how to start procedure to defend themselves", explains Dusko. "They needed everything, from wood for the heating to legal assistance and insurances".
With the Peace Team's help, and later with Dusko's leadership, the Romas organized themselves and slowly started to take initiatives. Some members of the Roma Association and some individuals went to the police and the municipality headquarters of the Red Cross. The most committed started even to encourage and help their fellows to do the same. They contacted journalists and a documentary was filmed about their life. They started to form branches of the Roma Association of Baranja in ten villages other villages of the province. To prove that they were part of the community, this group of people joined the Days of Culture of Peace activities by erasing graffiti with message of hatred in Beli Manastir and other places. Then they started a campaign whose aim was to enable their children to attend school. Legally, the Romas children had already the right to go to school, but basic support and funds were cruelly missing to encourage them to go. The campaign concentrated on the necessity for them to get a pre-school socialization and preparation – what Dusko is today doing everyday through BRICC - to receive staff and material for school and to find money for transportation costs to go to secondary school out of Beli Manastir.
Once again, all the initiatives came from the grassroots people during the interviews, but were supported by the Peace Team, mainly by Dusko. The Roma Association of Baranja played a very second role in those activities. Yet, one year only after the first listening, ten members of the Roma Association participated in the Workshop "From Vision to Action" for NGO. There, they agreed about plan of actions and activities for their Association. They notably decided to gather groups of Romas from different villages in Baranja and to organize together more events and concerts where other ethnic groups would be invited. Among their actions was as well a project of "self employment" by collecting all kind of recyclable and sellable materials, like metal for instance, in order to help some unemployed Romas to earn small but essential amount of money. The ambitious idea of a greenhouse came out, but hasn't been achieved till now. Last, but not least, they invited representatives of other Roma Associations in Croatia to learn something of their experience.
Some of them also took part in the training for listeners, so that they could carry out listening programs in their community and beyond the borders that separate them from other inhabitants of Baranja: to listen in order to understand… and to be understood. Few of them only went on listening to others' needs after the training. But, by doing so, they could offer some solutions to some problem of first necessity, like forcing the municipality to pay attention to the fact that numerous Romas families had no wood to warm their small houses at the approach of winter. Through this initiative every families which needed it received some cords of wood. Of course, Dusko played once again an essential part in this success.
Churches building peace
"Listening with one’s eyes, ears, and heart! In my opinion, that is the only way to really listen to people in a way to understand them well". These words could have been from Dusko or Dragica. They are from Ljubica. Ljubica was already a mother of three children when she applied to Center for Peace to be a member of Peace Team. In 1999, after participating in months of preparation and training, Ljubica started to work in Okucani, a village in South Slavonia, where a lot of people had recently returned after the war. Ljubica was part of them. Once again, the wish was to empower people so that they could find their place in the community and become initiators of changes and progress in this specific and complex environment: Okucani, next to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, is reputed to have housed a lot of displaced persons from both Croatia and Bosnia. At that time, people coming from 130 different parishes were living in Okucani!
In most communities with a lot of returnees, the Peace Teams had little chance to succeed without taking in consideration the religious community. In Croatia, working with religious people and cooperation with churches is of crucial importance in the process of peace and community building for two basic reasons. One is that religious identity is very strong and closely related to national identity. Secondly, priests are informal leaders in communities, especially for Catholics (Croats) and Orthodox (Serbs). Croatian Catholics have always been closely connected with their religious leaders, especially in the period when they were displaced and then, in the process of their return. In most cases, the Catholic priest is the one who leads the return, who gathers returnees, who feels responsible for them, and who has an important role in all aspects of life in a community of returnees.
Through the Listening Project, the Okucani peace team found that in Okucani more than everywhere else, it was absolutely impossible to enter the community without establishing contact with the local Catholic Church. They also learned that for many people, communication and access to the churches was very difficult. Thus, the Okucani peace team initiated activities promoting cooperation and dialogue between the local Catholic, Orthodox and Adventist churches. The result was that a number of public lectures given by all three priests were successfully organized, and there were many concerts and festivities with all three religious communities present. It must be remembered that this represented a radical change within the religious communities that had been bitterly divided during the war. Even better were the regular meetings for local clergy and believers, where they started to discuss the situation in the community and made suggestions and agreements about what they could do and say in order to resolve conflicts, or support people in their needs and in their healing of wounds. Their practice was to discuss not only the differences, but also the similarities of respective confessions. They invested their strength in the process of transforming the relationships between churches, and used it to influence other members of their religious community. Their public approach was a powerful message to people on plural society and tolerance. Moreover, meeting and discussing the situation and problems that could arise gives them an opportunity to prevent potential conflict.
A new life for the veterans
Yet, the biggest success of the Listening Project in Okuciani is not the religious dialogue it created. The most amazing and inspiring result of what can bring a true and compassionate listening approach is without doubt the project Ljubica conducted with the war veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
"One day Mr. Bura, president of the Okucani UHVDR - Association of War Veterans of the Croatian War of Independence - came to me with a question", remembers Ljubica. "Madam" he said. " I would appreciate it if your Centre could organize something for us war veterans. I have been thinking a lot about how to help people. There are my friends, fellow-soldiers, who are going through difficult times and need help. What can you do about it?"
Most of the war veterans were facing very hard situation after the war: traumatized by their own experience of the fights, harassed by pictures of horror and violence, pursued by guilty feelings because of their own participation in war, and left without recognition and comfort, sometimes without job or money, they all shared the same difficulties to reintegrate themselves in society. Apathy, depression syndromes or further alcoholism were going on spoiling their life and relationships to others. Harassed by the past, unable to imagine a future, they were blocked in a terrible present.
"It was important that Mr. Bura came and expressed needs related to war veterans because active non-violence begins with the needs of the people as a starting point,” explains Ljubica. The Peace Team responded by conducting a tailored Listening Project, visiting each branch of UHVDR separately and talking to possible participants. Most of them were rather suspicious about talking about their experiences. Yet, these interviews helped the members' Peace Team to point out the veterans' needs and to convinced some of them to join a cycle of workshops about "Trauma and Self-Aid".
The seminars had a therapeutic and educational component, which mutually interweave and complement each other. Faced with traumatic past and emotions emerging as a consequence of war exposure, the participants learned to observe their own responses, to use some relaxation techniques and exercises for getting rid of unpleasant feelings and nightmares. At the same time they learned the techniques of non-violent communication and creative resolution of conflicts and problems in order to start positive changes in their private lives, families, and the community life. Each participant developed his own vision of the future, became aware of his own wishes, and made plans. Yet the result was not that obvious at the beginning and the work not easy at all! There were great prejudices related to non-governmental organisations and insufficient flow of information about their work and purpose. "Therefore I always say that only "the bravest of the bravest" joined this work", says Ljubica. "In such an atmosphere I slowly started to learn about war veterans – sixteen people who I had not known before, but who have, after two years of work and time spent together, become like my brothers".
" I must admit that I agreed to go to the seminar only with distrust", explains one of the participants. "On the other hand, I was driven by curiosity. As the seminars passed, my distrust disappeared. Our educators were such good persons that I accepted them as my friends and I started to looked forward eagerly to each following seminar". He was not the only one. Most of them admit that they were suspicious, or even thought that it would not bring them anything. But at the end of it, their comments - today compiled in a booklet – testify that the seminar had completely changed their life: "I feel calmness and relaxation for the future life. In a way, I have become more successful in work and integration into the whole society". "The seminar has opened a great new view into the future. I have learned how to react in certain situations and how to solve problems and difficulties I face everyday". "The work during the seminar has helped me to easier cope with the problems that have been following me since war, especially since I was wounded. Only the realisation that I am not alone and that other war veterans have the same problems has helped me. I am sure that the seminar has contributed to the fact that there are no greater excesses and suicides of war veterans in our area". "During the seminar work I got answers to the questions I had been looking for in myself and other people for seven years. I have learned that in life not everything is black. That positive side is in our families, friends, neighbours". "I have learned how to be listened to and to listen to the others, and at the same time to be loved and to love, to love and forgive – and not to hate".
A story about friendship
On several occasions war veterans emphasised the importance of being listened to with a non-judgement attitude. “For the first time we felt that we were approached as persons, not as objects, numbers, patients. We could feel tolerance and the fact that our trainers wanted to get to know us as we were. It was crucial". And probably very true since Ljubica admits that she learned as well so much about listening through this experience. "Once I organised a working meeting in my house with the presidents of UHVDR branches. Planning of an important activity carried us away. At one moment my daughter peeped through the door and asked me: “Mom, is everything all right?” I was surprised by her question. Why was she asking that? We were talking from the heart and with temperament. Perhaps our conversation seemed loud to her. Yes, our discussion was perhaps. The difference, however, was in the listening. We listened in a new way that had rarely been experienced before.” That event made clear to me to what extent I managed to “walk in other people’s shoes”! I realised that I was listening to war veterans in a softer way, the way you listen to somebody who is important, closed to you - somebody from your family ".
Due to the quality of the listening approach, the trust between the veterans, the Peace Team and the professional trainers increased to deep friendship and further activities could be planned. A workshop was organised for the veteran's wives in order to establish connections and to learn as well about skills of non-violent communication necessary for successful communication in the family and the community. On their side, their children participated in a seven-day seminar and were introduced to the work through creative workshops, basic elements of non-violent communication and establishment of mutual connections.
"I felt extraordinarily after the finished workshop cycle", explains today Marijana Mitrovic, one of the professional trainers who worked in the group. "In my opinion, we have done a great job - and I am not a bit immodest when I say this - because the results can be seen on each person who has taken part in the seminar. Work with war veterans’ wives showed as well that they needed a lot of support and knowledge in order to cope with their own consequences of war."
The success of the two-years pilot programme has opened possibility for making of new plans. The cooperation between the Peace Team and UHVDR branches continues through such projects as art-therapy war veterans and their wives, and through common planning of workshops for other war veterans and their families. Due to obvious positive changes in the behaviour of their colleagues, several other veterans showed interest in getting involved in these activities. Furthermore, the Peace Team helped the active members of UHVDR branches learn skills and knowledge necessary for taking over this initiative and implementing a program that will be of benefit for their members, families and communities. "When people feel that you protect their dignity and respect them without attempting to dominate them, that everybody can be what he is – a human being with virtues, but also faults, accepted without judgement and assessment – the process of change and restoration may begin", concludes Ljubica.
Evaluation and burn out syndrome
Two years after the Listening Program was implemented in Slavonia, independent evaluators and researchers completed external evaluations. Doctor Slavko Mandic, a retired professor of psychology, designed a scientific research project involving three experimental groups. The results showed that the peace activities empowered both those who implemented it and those who were listened to. Their prejudices and fears towards others ethnic groups decreased and simultaneously the level of communication with others increased as well as the motivation for participating in peace activities. When being interviewed, the members of the Peace Team made the same comments about their experience: Through active listening and deep meaningful communication we have learned a lot about ourselves, about our fears and prejudices, but also about our inner abilities to empathize and see the part of somebody else’s truth to embrace it. We worked with people who all, in their own way, lived with their tragedies and it makes these people great, greater than anything we had ever encountered...
However, because they are involved in extremely demanding work, and because most of them share similar war-related experiences with the people they listen to, the evaluation concluded that Peace Team members had needed more skills to cope with the traumas of others as well as their own mental health. Some of them had burn out syndrome. That is why the evaluators recommended developing and putting in place for the Peace Teams additional education about debriefing techniques and self-protection against emotionally charged interactions.
When asked about experiences and results regarding the Listening Project, Katarina Kruhonja, the project director answers: "Listening program is the basic instrument in peace building both at the level of an individual and the community. It helped peace activists in reducing their own fears and prejudices and it helped them become incorporated in the communities where they worked. It also helped the people who were interviewed. Only when the communication was opened up citizens showed readiness for cooperation and activism in the community. That was the first step. Besides, when listening is very profound, it can be sufficient because it does not leave the feeling of something being started and dropped, and there are no false hopes. However, further communication can be developed later with a follow up. When the results of the Listening Project were made public in the communities it proved to be a very powerful tool. The second step of summarizing the results and interpreting them to the public is very demanding. But it is true that there is also a big danger of a burn-out syndrome because it is a very deep communication that requires a very experienced listener. On the other hand Listening Project is also a source of self-motivation and gratification, it is an instrument for building up the identity of a peace activists."
After all positive experiences and research results regarding the listening project, Mrs. Marina Skrabalo, the external evaluator made several recommendations in the end. She said: "Articulate sampling methods should be used in order to consider the different needs of each listening project. Namely, benefits of a random sample should be compared to selection of respondents on the basis of special characteristics, such as nationality, gender, age, education, etc. It should be clearly articulated when there is a need to cover complete population and when only one segment. She advised also to create regular breaks between each listening project in the community, in order to save energy, create time for data analysis and a more solid basis for longitudinal comparisons. To create a more structured debriefing and supervision system for listeners. And to organize more exchange sessions with similar projects in the region and the whole of Croatia where lessons learned about listening project methodology could be disseminated.
More than integration, creation and development!
In Okucani, according to the evaluators, the impact of the workshops with the war veterans was of extraordinary value. They increased self-control of aggressiveness and alcohol consumption; decreased participation in verbal and physical conflicts; increased ability to directly express one’s needs and emotions and to actively ask for support in the moments of crisis; improved communication with wife and children; increased interest in participation in socially useful activities and hobbies; increased self-respect and trust in one’s own abilities at a personal, business, and social level. At the end of the project, when ex-soldiers talked again about what they had gained by taking part in the programme, they also mentioned good communication and increased cooperation with, local government, civil associations, family, the Serbian community, and ex-soldiers' associations.
Depending on their inclinations and interests some veterans gradually got involved in community work. For example, while helping with organization of international youth peace camp one of them suggested to initiate a symbolic closing of bunkers on both the Bosnian and the Croatian sides of the river Sava. They have encouraged their own children to take part in the School of Peace in Mrkopalj, which gathers participants from all countries of ex-Yugoslavia. One of the veterans has even become a member of the inter-religious forum and, together with Orthodox believers, he works on inter-religious dialogue. Given the many post war expressions of ethnic hatred and violence, it was very important when, on prime time national TV, he witnessed that he and other members of their war veterans' group have been working on trust rebuilding with Serbian returnees! In May 2004, the veterans who had participated in workshops have decided to found in Okucani their own association - Centre for Ex-soldiers and Community. Perhaps it is a symbolic sign, the first activity organized by the new Centre is a trauma and community recovery workshop for wives of ex-soldiers from a new group. The mission of the association is to provide a similar recovery program to groups of war veterans and their families and to encourage and implement different projects, actions, and activities for improvement of life quality of the community in which they live. More than integration, there are evidences of creation and development!
Last, but not least, the United Nations has included the Project “Community Development and Peace Building” implemented by the Peace Team in Okucani among the 10 most successful examples from the whole world, and have published it in the book "Capacity Development – Let it Happen".
On her side, Ljubica admits that its amazing experience has changed her as well. "Through joint work and topics that we dealt with, we changed together. After this experience my life is not the same anymore. We are bound together by honesty, by bonds that will hold as long as there is life in us. We are all together on an unmarked path and we are the first ones to leave any traces on it. Today, several years after active participation in peace work, I can say that I understand much better what Ghandi was thinking when he said: “Non-violence is the greatest power that the mankind has at its disposal.” For me this is a great truth!"
A respected Roma in Beli Manastir
In Beli Manastir, if the situation of the Roma community is still not perfect, it has noticeably improved these last years. Through the empowerment of the Roma Association of Baranja, with the help of the Baranja Civil Center and Dusko's personal commitment, the Romas have developed regular contacts with the municipality and the media. Their problems are taking today more seriously and different initiatives have taken place to improve their life conditions.
Their children receive education and the Romas are, with the same chance that anybody else, on the municipality's list to obtain some of the new houses which have been recently built in the city.
Other Romas, like Milan or Nada, started to became more involved in their community after some workshops and during the follow up activities of Peace Team. Nada for instance established recently an Association of Roma Women that should bring better support to the women of the community. It is of crucial importance as the Roma girls are still getting married very young and therefore are very often uneducated. Now if the Romas have nothing against women emancipation, girls grow up with lack of information. Still, the community has to fight with a lot of problems and difficulties, but it is already a lot compared to some others regions, or compared to their situation five years ago. Dusko, in collaboration with others NGO or ethnic groups, goes on organizing activities, like parties, concerts or soccer tournaments, to force Romas and others people to work or simply to enjoy themselves together. More generally the tension between the different ethnic groups has decreased in the Baranja region, even if the society is still often divided, in public places for example. But there are more and more people working on peace and reconciliation. Two other NGOs have opened these last years and one of them is multiethnic. Dusko's personal efforts have been as well rewarded. He is now so integrated and respected in the community that he cooperates with all ethnic members and NGO, and has even became a member of the Minority Council within the local government! "It is a significant step which is going to help us to develop and empower the community better", he explains. "For me, it is as well a big personal success as I have worked so much on this good cooperation with the authorities. It is a proof that they trust me, and my job". This is not all. Since some months, and for the first time of his life, Dusko receives a salary for his work. Until there, he has always worked as a volunteer and lived with the small help of the social care. But for the first time this year, the Center for Peace – Osijek could allow itself to support Dusko financially for a 50% job time. Dusko does not complain because of his previous personal situation. "The improvement of the community and the feeling that I contributed to it was my salary", he says. "I can see today in Beli Manastir different ethnic-group working together, this is already a big reward. My biggest motivation is all the people I meet every day through my job and the pleasure I have to do something I really like".
Small light and big spark
Five years after the first visit of the peace teams in Berak there are no violent incidents in the village anymore. According to the OSCE, the project was a breakthrough in the communication between divided populations. In addition, no more violence took place in Berak afterwards. As OSCE respondent points out, one can never know how effective such an intervention really is, one can only imagine what the situation would be like if the problems had continued. In Berak, even with exhumation of war victims happening, the situation stayed extremely calm according to the international police monitors. More missing people have been found, but six are still missing. One can see their photos on the village's monument. Even if there is still a lot of bitterness and bigotry among people, there are examples of individual communication. In 2003, five members of the Youth Club accepted for the first time to participate to an ethnically mixed summer camp. As a consequence, ten of them have joined the group in 2004. "If problems remain, they are more between people than between ethnical groups", says Dragica, even if she admits that there are still people who don't talk to each other. "I think they would like to, but they are still more afraid of the judgment of their own group than to speak to a Serb. Still, compare to some years ago, it is not a risk anymore to say "hello" to someone".
In 2003, she, Anton, a Croat inhabitant, and Mile, a Serb, even succeeded in bringing together a sufficient among of money to open a mixed Milk Association in Berak in order to keep the milk of the farmer community fresh. Even dialogue with the municipality has improved and this one offers financial support to some activities.
The situation in Berak was especially challenging. Ethnical conflicts are yet not over. But the Listening Project has been successful in opening up the process of dealing with war trauma and reducing high tensions in the community. It supported and empowered the process of community recovery and motivated people, in spite of traumas, tensions and apathy, to take part in different community activities. And, most important, it helped to empower one Croat returnee – Dragica – to give up anger and bitterness, to overcome fears of her own group and to start to work on building bridges between people. She is the one who suggested activities and invited people, including Serbs.
Dragica, the Croatian farmer who in the beginning didn’t know what a “Workshop” was, today organizes plenty of them for the people of her village: poetry workshops to enter a process of facing the past through literature, and to train her neighbors to become, like her, peace workers in the community. Her next plans? First, to develop a network with NGOs from other towns and villages in order to share experiences and organize common seminars. Then, to push the participants of the poetry workshop to write peace messages. Third, to organize a huge multiethnic event in Berak, with lectures and concerts. "As nothing never happens in Berak, everybody is going to come and people are going to talk about it during months", she promises. Dragica has a lot of plans, but only one goal: "to make the words "forgiveness", "reconciliation" and "coexistence" become more popular in her village". When you ask her today what her biggest success in Berak is, Dragica answers “my biggest success is not the work I did for the community but the work I did on myself.” The time is far when Dragica looked at her fields without seeing any future on the horizon, just darkness. That is maybe why her association, which was officially registered as an NGO in 2004, is called “Luc” - Small light. A small light, but a big spark for the tiny village of Berak. A spark that is maybe going to get a reward: Dragica is nominated, together with one thousand other women around the world, for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.
Written by Corinne Bloch* In the name of:
Center for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights – OsijekZupanijska 7 HR-31000 OsijekWeb: www.centar-za-mir.hr e-mail: czmos@zamir.net tel/fax + 385- 31-206 886
*Corinne Bloch is a Swiss journalist. She worked these ten last years for various daily and weekly newspapers and magazines. After her studies at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva, she came to Croatia in order to broaden her experience in peace building. Since the beginning of 2004 she works for Center for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights – Osijek in Bosnia and Croatia on different projects.
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Herausgeber: Forum Community Organizing, Website: Michael Rothschuh, Brühl 20 31134 Hildesheim, HAWK
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