Iii. Case Studies of Local Peacebuilding Practices in Croatia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
III. CASE STUDIES OF LOCAL PEACEBUILDING PRACTICES IN CROATIA 1. Creating a Community-based Security Structure in Eastern Slavonia: The Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights, Osijek, Croatia For five years, the Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights in Osijek1 (CZMOS, Centar za mir, nenasilje i ljudska prava), Croatia, has worked effectively to support local capacities for peacebuilding in eleven communities in Eastern and Western Slavonia and the cross-border region of Bosanska Posavina through two phases of the project originally called “Building a Democratic Society Based on the Culture of Nonviolence.” The focal methods include catalyzing partnerships among a wide array of local state and non-state actors, education and mentoring support of local community organizers, mobilization of local peace constituents around conflict transformation and issues of direct community concern, and integration of participatory action research into each stage of its work from needs assessment to evaluation. The project is unique in the post-Yugoslav context as one of the most ambitiously envisioned community-based peacebuilding endeavors, undertaken by an indigenous peace organization and enriched by international, national and local partnerships. Overview of the Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights 1991-2003 The Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights was conceived in 1991 in a basement during the shelling of Osijek when the people seeking shelter, who had mostly not known each other, began to discuss a peacemaking civic action in an environment directly affected by the horrors of war. From the very beginnings, the Center got connected with emerging peace initiatives in Croatia and solidarity groups throughout Europe. It was among the first self-organized peace groups to join the Antiwar Campaign Croatia in early 1992. One of the group’s first mentors has been Adam Curle, a world-known Quaker peace activist. The initial goal of the group was long-term peacebuilding through peace education. However, immediately after their first public advertisement, when the group still had no office, a phone call from a woman in need, challenged them to take direct actions for the protection of human rights of vulnerable citizens who were, due to their Serbian nationality, an easy prey for confiscation of property through illegal evictions (Jegen1997). Therefore, from its early days, the Center has taken a multi-faceted, integrated approach to peacebuilding that combines direct human rights protection, peace education, promotion of creative methods of conflict transformation at the individual, group and political levels, mobilization and capacity building of emerging civil initiatives, public promotion of the culture of peace and advocacy for policies and political processes conducive to human rights and peacebuilding. On different occasions, CZMOS has partnered with other peace and human rights groups from Croatia and the region, among the first of which was the establishment of human rights monitoring and support presence in Western Slavonia during 1995, when activists from all over Croatia rotated to provide support to the Serbian population that remained in the region after the military operation “Flash”. The Center was particularly active in organizing dialogues between more than 1300 citizens from Croatian and Serbian controlled communities in Eastern Slavonia, most of whom met even before the signing of the 1996 Erdut Peace Agreement. Many of these meetings took place at the Meeting House in Mohacs, Hungary through cooperation with Peace Bridge Danube, an international solidarity project and the Association for Peace and Human Rights, Baranja, an indigenous group at that time active in the Serbian-controlled part of the region. Through the “Coordination of Peace Organizations for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium” the civic initiatives from the both sides of conflict 1 www.centar-za-mir.hr within the region as well as from Croatia and the neighboring region of Vojvodina (in Serbia) demonstrated the ability of local actors to open communication across lines of conflict even before the beginning of the UNTAES mandate (Kruhonja 1996:11-12; Jegen 1997). Over the past decade, the Center for Peace Osijek has transformed from a small, unstructured group of concerned citizens supported by local and international grassroots solidarity networks, into a network of its own, with more than 120 members, 30 full-time activists, more than 2 million USD annual budget and four major program areas: (1) Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, (2) Peace Education, (3) Peacebuilding and Community Development and (4) Support to Civil Society Organizations. It is the biggest indigenous NGO primarily focused on peacebuilding at different societal levels of intervention, with an administrative structure in place and partnerships with numerous local and international NGOs and agencies, including USAID (Academy for Educational Development, Mercy Corps), UNHCR, OSCE, EC, the Life and Peace Institute, the Croatian Government Office for NGOs, and municipal and county authorities. In line with the objective of creating a regional civilian security structure, CZMOS’s programs are implemented throughout Eastern Slavonia and Baranja region, in Western Slavonia, as well as cross-border communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Protection and Promotion of Human Rights program provides legal aid through three local offices (Osijek, Beli Manastir and Vinkovci) and mobile teams covering most other communities where CZMOS’s community-based peacebuilding initiatives are active. A special project for conscientious objection provides advice on civil service to military conscripts, organizes roundtables and effectively lobbies the Government, in collaboration with other similar projects affiliated with the Anti War Campaign Croatia in Zagreb, Poreč, Karlovac, Vinkovci and Vukovar. CZMOS’s human rights activists are also active in public debates on the new law on health insurance, protection of tenancy rights and cross-border collaboration regarding refugee return process. The Peace Education program area entails three specific multi-year education projects, focusing on integration of peace education into the school system (“Creative Workshops – Education for Peace” ), introduction of mediation into schools, courts and other public institutions (“Conflict as Opportunity”) and systematic education of trainers and facilitators engaged in community-based peacebuilding initiatives (“Education House”). The Peacebuilding and Community Development program is the richest in the variety of activities undertaken and the most complex in terms of field presence and mentoring required for sustained support to and facilitation of peacebuilding initiatives in six different communities in Eastern Slavonia (Tenja, Dalj, Bilje, Berak, Beli Manastir and Vukovar), Okučani in Western Slavonia and, until recently, three villages in the cross-border region of Bosanska Posavina (Kolibe Gornje, Zborište and Novo Selo). The core activity of the program is regular provision of training and mentoring to local volunteers who attempt to mobilize their own communities around identified needs and explore creative ways of opening communication between populations divided by war experiences. At present, CZMOS has daily field presence in Okučani, through its Peace Team that puts special focus on empowerment and social integration of war veterans, facilitation of inter-religious dialogue and support to the local youth peace activism. Special projects in this program area include annual summer camps for children from different post-war communities; a series of psycho-social workshops for trauma relief workers; a region-wide series of inter-religious workshops, meetings, prayers and international exchanges and a women’s self- support group Femina in Osijek. The Support Program for Civil Society Organizations focuses on provision of networking, logistical support, technical assistance and training in organizational development, promotion of volunteering and enhancement of inter-sectoral cooperation and philanthropy throughout the region of Slavonia. Specific projects include NGO Incubator, Volunteer Project (creation of a volunteer database) and the setting-up of a regional foundation for civil society development. In addition to regular participation in national advocacy efforts related to peace and human rights, CZMOS has recently intensified its involvement in highly politically charged public debates, as it started a series of public discussions named “Public Interest”. At present, the Center is in the limelight of the regional and national media due to its courageous public statement and provision of additional evidence to the judiciary, in support of a recent public disclosure of evidence of murders of Serbian citizens, as well as members of the Croatian military and the police that took place in Osijek during the early war years and were most probably commissioned by the ruling clique around Branimir Glavaš, former Prefect of the Osiječko-baranjska County and one of the most influential HDZ politicians. The CZMOS activists hope that their demand for just and through processing of these long-obscured murders and other severe human rights violations in Osijek, such as illegal evictions of Serbs conducted under death threats, may lead to a chain-reaction of public disclosures in other parts of Croatia and eventual dismantling of the corruption present in the processing of these