By Jon Land
Television, radio and newspapers are filled with the floundering attempts of the "international community" to deal with the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Cease-fires and agreements never last. This is an ethnic feud over irreconcilable cultural differences, we're told.
To the peace, human rights and community groups organising against the war throughout the former Yugoslavia, this is the biggest myth of all. The Western media machine has been holding up a veil to cover the failure of UN/NATO intervention, while ignoring the efforts of a wide range of organisations and activists. Green Left Weekly spoke to Jasmina Bajraktarevic, a Bosnian peace activist now living in Sydney, about the coverage of the war and the work of the antiwar movement.
How did the antiwar movement in the region begin?
When the war in Croatia started, a group of people who were part of the alternative movement — different green groups, left groups, anarchists and women's groups — formed an alliance, the Antiwar Campaign of Croatia
It happened not only in Croatia but also in Sarajevo, with the formation of the International Peace Centre. In Belgrade there was the formation of the Centre for Antiwar action. There is a Peace Institute in Ljubljana, in Slovenia. Each of these groups organised more or less independently. The first of these organisations started in 1991.
In Croatia, there is a network of different organisations which might not agree on everything and don't have one opinion. There are many different organisations and individuals, but the one thing they share is a strong antiwar commitment. They share the idea of not becoming part of the madness and doing something creative in the middle of it.
How do the groups carry out the work they are involved with? What sort of campaigns do they run in the community?
I think that the whole international peace movement will have things to learn from the Croatian antiwar movement, because it is different to when you have one peace movement. They decided to go about it differently.
The organisation that I have been working with is an independent organisation that works in the refugee camps, sending local and international volunteers to do community work in the camps. That's one thing.
The main purpose of this is supporting the refugees in regaining their self-esteem, their dignity and, as much as they can, control over their lives. However, it's extremely difficult in the conditions they are in now of complete insecurity. It's quite difficult to do, but you try. Sometimes it works.
The other things they are doing include such initiatives as those carried out by the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights. They carry out different sorts of educationals and workshops for members on non-violent communication and conflict resolution.
Also they try to educate the whole community on these issues. They give workshops for teachers in primary schools. If children are brought up in such madness, they are poisoned from the very beginning; they are lost more or less. They are based in Zagreb, also Osijek in Slovenia, in Split, Karolvac, Rijeka — throughout the whole of Croatia.
They do one thing which is amazing to me, where they cooperate directly with the Belgrade antiwar movement. There is a town in Croatia which is half Croatian and half Serbian and in the middle of the town are UN Protection Forces. The Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights in Croatia sent a group of international volunteers to work on rebuilding the Croatian side, while at the same time the Belgrade peace movement sent the first group of international volunteers to the Serbian side. They will try to carry out social reconstruction from both sides. The basic idea at the end of the day is reconciliation and getting the people to live together again.
What role are young people playing in the antiwar movement?
There is a big response from young people; youth are very involved. Most of the people involved are quite young: the oldest would be about 40 or something like that. Older people are doing more work around issues of human rights, cooperating with Amnesty International, the Helsinki Citizens Committee and other organisations — giving legal aid to people who need it, helping conscientious objectors, editing alternative newspapers like ARKzine.
Much of the coverage of the war in Bosnia has been centred on the notion that this is a timeless ethnic and racial dispute. How accurate is this?
I don't agree with that sort of coverage. It has nothing to do with reality. In Bosnia we lived hundreds of years together and there was no killing and no hatred. In Australia there is a lot of talk about Australia being multicultural and the "cradle of multi-culturalism". I have heard it so many times, yet I think there is much that Australia can learn about multiculturalism from Bosnia as it was before the war. We didn't talk about multiculturalism; we just lived it.
In Sarajevo, you were able to see within 300 metres the Orthodox church, next to a Catholic church, next to a mosque and next to a synagogue, the biggest synagogue in the Balkans. People were visiting each other when they had their religious holidays .
It didn't really matter which language you spoke. Everybody was accepted there, and it was quite obvious. That's why I don't agree with the coverage you mentioned. I think there is a lot behind the conflict, a lot of manipulated aggression. It was calculated. People were misled by the politicians and the media.
What do you think about the prospects for peace in Bosnia at the moment?
I think it's going to take a long time. I think it's still possible because we proved it. You can't really destroy something.
You can do ethnic cleansing as much as you can — as if cultures which are linked or show understanding are something dirty so you have to clean it. Despite all of that, I think it is still possible. However, it is going to take a long time.
I can understand people that maybe don't feel the same way. I don't know what the relatives of those 68 people killed in Sarajevo last week would say on the same thing. If they said it was impossible to live in peace again I would understand them; however, I wouldn't agree.
I think it's still possible and it will take a long time. Maybe more than one generation.