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In addition to the enormous economic
and social problems, many communities are still divided along ethnic
lines. People who had fled or been driven away are allowed to return.
But painful memories, mistrust, and a desire for justice (or even retribution)
make living together more difficult. It is important to build communities
where tensions can be aired and processed, where communication builds
trust, so there can be lasting and meaningful peace.
The project, "Building Sustainable Community
In The Aftermath Of The War," addresses this challenge. It combines
national forums (facilitated by Process Oriented Conflict
Facilitation specialists Lane Arye, Ph.D. and Arlene Audergon, Ph.D.),
regional
meetings that take place between forums, and a biannual journal. WHO PARTICIPATES
One of the special things about this project is the diversity
of the group that is gathered for each forum by Udruga MI (a
local non-governmental organization based in Split, Croatia),
with help from UNHCR. The 50 - 80 participants of each four-day
forum include mayors, local authorities, lawyers, psychologists,
social workers, nurses, doctors, and people in the fields of
conflict facilitation, peace-building and human rights advocacy.
They work with a wide range of political, social, legal, psychological
and economic issues concerning returnees, refugees and displaced
people. The participants represent governmental, non-governmental
and international organizations as well as local governments.
They also represent different ethnicities, nationalities, ages
and war-related experiences. Many participants are themselves
refugees, returnees or displaced. Participants include Croats,
Serbs, Muslims, Montenegrins, Hungarians, Roma, and people
of mixed ethnicity.
THE FORUMS
The forums are opportunities for the participants to interact
intensely together about the troubles they face in their communities
and in their work. These participants, who are dedicated to
serving their communities and those in need, are also community
members who are naturally deeply impacted by the war and its
aftermath. Like their beneficiaries, they may be haunted by
memories, dealing in their own ways with the upheaval they
have experienced. If they can work out their differences and
find ways to live and work together, then they can model a
new way for their communities and their country.
Since each forum is so diverse, the group becomes a microcosm
of Croatia as a whole. As a result, many of the country's ethnic,
political, and social tensions are sparked as the group interacts.
This gives the participants a chance to work with these issues
directly, rather then talk about them in theory.
Some of the issues that are processed in the forums include:
justice, human rights, ethnic intolerance, extremism, violence,
trauma, personal and collective accountability and responsibility,
war crimes, disinformation, education, minority issues, women's
issues, youth issues, property rights, housing problems, economics,
differentiating the ethnic nation from the political state,
communication between non-governmental organizations and governmental
organizations, burnout and hopelessness.
One of the foundations of this project is the idea that, in
spite of people's best intentions, conflicts will reappear
if they are ignored and avoided. Conversely, creative solutions
and true community building can occur when all points of view
are represented and have a chance to interact with one another,
including those views and feelings which are normally kept
out of the discussion or not directly communicated. As a result,
the forum not only deals with the complex problems listed above,
but also focuses on the participants' own conflicting opinions
and emotions about these difficult issues. When this happens,
it can at first seem like problems and divisions are getting
worse. But this is a natural part of the process of interaction.
What results is a togetherness that values differences, a trust
that is built on honesty, and a wisdom that emerges from the
group's grappling with the tough issues at hand.
Many participants feel that by directly addressing and working
through the problems and tensions that arise in the forums,
they witness and contribute to the transformation of conflict
into community. And these people, who all have positions of
responsibility and influence in their organizations and communities,
bring these experiences home with them to effect change on
a larger level. Thus the ripples of communication and true
understanding spread much farther than the walls of the seminar
room.
IN THE WORDS OF THE PARTICIPANTS
"I was moved that people with such different opinions could
sit together and talk. This almost never happens. And then
for some moments we could even share our deepest feelings and
open our souls. This gave me hope for the future."
"I am surprised by the intimacy of this community, the honesty
and openness. I feel we are all a family. I think now that
even the worst problems can be solved."
"I was all the time thinking how these ideas and methods which
were modeled so well would be applicable to my work in the
field of human rights."
"This is the seed I want to plant into my children. It gives
me hope for peace."
©2002 Lane Arye, Ph.D. All
rights reserved. |
