EC funded youth projects

Screm Mostar

Two hundred teenagers a day visit the "Srcem" centre in Mostar. "We are one of the few centres that welcomes teenagers from all communities", says Miro Rosic who is in charge of the European Commission-backed centre.

"We offer three types of activities to the kids who come here: lessons on such diverse subjects as computing, photography, radio, dance and fashion design, psychological support and various organised activities including trips abroad, parties and concerts. In all of our activity groups and among our staff members we always encourage people from different ethnic groups to mix with each other and up until now things have worked very well."

Miro believes it is vital to provide stimulation for Bosnia's youngsters in order to prevent them losing hope in a country that is still divided by politicians. Mostar, he argues, is perhaps one of the saddest examples of this division.

Nasa Djeca

One of the key aims of Nasa Djeca (Our Children) is to raise public awareness about the Convention for Children's Rights. The organisation's charismatic ambassador is opera singer Gertruda Munitic, known as the 'female Pavarotti'.

"Bosnia signed the Convention on Children's Rights in 1989 but the war meant that all of its provisions were effectively annulled", she explains. "People do not have a clear idea of democracy and the rights and obligations that stem from it."

Nasa Djeca regularly organises seminars aimed at training teachers and carers who work with children and young people and some 350 people have already taken part in these sessions.

"One of the things we do is to teach participants how to organise group games that help children understand the importance of freedom of expression of opinion and of movement. These are very important messages to get across in Bosnia. Children and young people represent the hope of tomorrow's Bosnia and it is our duty to explain to them these concepts that form the basis of al democratic societies, " argues Gertruda Munitic.

The First Childrens' Embassy

Bosnia's first ever children's parliament; a 24-hour telephone hot line for children; an 'Olympics for humanity'; the evacuation of thousands of children from Sarajevo and Mostar during the war ­ all of these actions have been made possible thanks to the energy of Dusko Tomic, the founder of 'First Children's' Embassy.'

"After having fought to save the lives of many Bosnian children, I'm now fighting to ensure that our children becomes citizens of both the world and of Europe in particular. The international community is spending millions on rebuilding infrastructure that was destroyed during the war but at the same time we are all forgetting perhaps the single most important thing: teaching children to become responsible citizens and fighting the sort of insidious nationalism that poisons people's spirits."

Rehabilitation for torture victims

Healing the body, healing the mind

Torture was used systematically during the war in former Yugoslavia and thousands of Bosnians were victims of the practice, either in concentration camps, transition centres, villages or towns.

According to the International Council for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ICRT), the kind of torture carried out in the former Yugoslavia had two principal characteristics. Firstly, it was conducted on a massive scale and secondly the methods used were similar to those employed the world over. According to the ICRT, this shows clearly that torture was used as part of an integrated strategy designed to terrorise specific sections of the population.

In 1997, neuropsychiatrist Sabina Popovic opened an ICRT-backed centre to help torture victims come to terms with the ordeals they were subjected to. The facility is being part-financed by the European Commission. In the two years since it opened its doors the centre has expanded its activities and is now responsible for 400 patients who are able to benefit from such diverse treatments as traditional medical care, psychotherapy and physiotherapy.

Sabina Popovic believes people can recover from the effects of torture. "It may seem surprising, but it really is possible to help people regain a positive outlook on life. For example, a woman who has been raped will often feel considerably better after being examined by a gynaecologist who can assure her that she is physically healthy. Good medical care has a direct impact on a person's mental health. People who have been physically injured while being tortured often feel disgusted at their own bodies. Physiotherapy and massage can often help them regain possession of a body which has become alien to them."

In most cases an entire family will "heal" if one family member is able to regain their dignity after being tortured. "Torture is carried out by human beings, but human beings also have the power to heal its wounds," argues Sabina Popovic.

WUS Austria

Encouraging cooperation between Universities

Fact: Universities in Bosnia-Herzegovina are working together. Since November 1998 they submitted almost 25 common projects to the Austrian arm of the World University Service (WUS), an organisation which is receiving financial support from the European Commission.

WUS Austria is currently running a programme called Support to Inter-community Projects (SIP) in Bosnia. One of the conditions for taking part in the scheme is that proposals must come from teachers or students from at least two different universities in BiH. The maximum funding that can be awarded to a particular project is 5000 DM. One example of a proposal that was accepted for SIP funding was a plan to compile a new manual on histology that was drawn up by four professors of medicine from the universities of Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka. It is vitally important to encourage joint research within Bosnia's academic community, and this particular scheme is encouraging students and teachers to re-establish links severed by the war.

WUS Sarajevo website:

http://www.wus-austria.org/sarajevo/

Healing Bosnian society

Protector gathers eyewitness accounts

Protector believes in replacing ethnicity with humanity. The organisation has set itself the task of gathering accounts from people who helped, or were helped by members of another ethnic group during the war. This EC-sponsored search for individual stories led recently to the publication of a book called "Light in the tunnel", which is filled with accounts that are extraordinary and at the same time extremely simple: Catholic priests saved by Orthodox churches' bells, a Croat actor who saved Serbs in Sarajevo, a Moslem woman whose two nephews were killed by Croats but who was saved by other Croats herself.

"We believe that our work can help to heal scars that are still too obvious in Bosnian society," explains Protector's Jedzimir Milosevic, who put together the book. "We need to highlight people who have never viewed things in terms of ethnicity and who have often risked their lives because of a simple desire to remain human. They are the real war heroes. This work of gathering stories has proved that there are normal people here who have human reactions."

Jedzimir hopes his book will play a role in achieving the difficult goals of reconciling Bosnia's still divided communities and restoring a feeling of confidence within the country. All of the accounts gathered have been verified and every chapter dedicated to someone who was helped is coupled with a comment from the person who came to their aid. The accounts were recorded on audio tape and can be listened to at the Protector information centre, so that there can be no doubt about the authenticity of what appears in the book.

A large number of Bosnian NGOs praised Protector's work during a conference in Vogosca in April this year. Protector is currently busy organising seminars aimed at young people that will take place in all of Bosnia's major cities. Discussions will be based on the accounts in the book and young people will be encouraged to talk about positive actions that were carried out during the war for and by Bosnians, regardless of their ethnic origin. They will then be asked to think about what is important in life and the difference between good and evil. Protector is also hoping to produce a film based on some of the amazing accounts it has gathered.

Protector Website:

http://members.xoom.com/svjetlo/default.htm

 

e-mail:

protector_sarajevo@yahoo.com

"They are the real war heroes" - Protector

This is a short extract of the story of Uros Kravljaca, a Bosnian Serb actor who stayed in Sarajevo during the war.

My father often used to tell me: "A neighbour, my son, is closer than a brother." In this last war this statement proved to be true in many cases.

..."How can I forget other people who helped me? Niko Mestrovic and his wife Mara. They are Croats. If Niko had two cigarettes he would give me one, and the other he would leave for himself. Or Hamil, who was an orphan from the Second World War, a beautiful man. When he moved to Aneks he planted some trees and they had grown up over the years. While we were short of fuel during this war he ended up having to cut them down. When he would go to cut them he always called me to go with him. He used to say: "Go ahead, Uros, cut yourself some of these branches, you need to warm up". He was criticised by some, (I shall not mention names) because he was giving me firewood. To those criticisms he responded by saying: "Don't even pay attention to that. Take the wood and get warm".

How can I not mention engineer Izet Vukoti, the commander of "Civilian Protection" in charge of putting out fires. He once met me on the street, carrying a blanket and taking it home. Izet said to me: "Uncle Uros, take this blanket". I said: "Izet, but you also need it". ­ "I'm younger, and I can stand the cold." I felt uncomfortable and said: "Don't, Izet, please". ­ "Take it, when I say, so" he insisted. I took it. (Uros lights a cigarette and starts to cry.)

Yes, we will remember these fine people. All those people from Aneks: Niko and Mara, Kemo, Rabija, that lovely woman whose children used to pick up cigarette butts from the asphalt and bring them to me so I could roll my own because they knew I could live without bread, but not without cigarettes; Samir, a telephone operator from the barracks who used to bring me cigarettes, probably because they received them there; Franjo Horvat and his wife Ljubica, my first neighbours, who, whenever they got some coffee, would call me: "Come on, Uros, it is ready"; Izeta, at whose place you could make bread if you got some flour; they all deserve to be remembered. They helped me in the most difficult days of the war, during 1992 and in the beginning of 1993. "

Publisher: Hans Jørn Hansen, European Commission ­ Directorate General External Relations 200 rue de la Loi / Wetstraat B - 1049 Brussels

Design and Editorial coordination: Strat&Com + 32 2 649 62 82

Europe for BiH
Quarterly newsletters published by the European Commission on its actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina
No 7, June 1999

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