Women Regional Initiative

Balkan women for peace

Reconciliation, emphasizing the individual accountability (including the punishment for the guilty individuals) blaming it on whole nations who took part in the conflict and especially putting an end to the manipulations of children and planting ethnic hatred into children and young people are one of the key aspects in the work of the Balkan women in the project of the French organization “Transeuropeennes”

The seminar that recently (in October this year) took place at the Cultural Centre “Tocka” in Skopje called “Women experience in the conflict and the post-conflict period” was another of the activities that are part of the big project implemented in ex-Yugoslavia and Albania by the French organization “Transeuropeennes” in cooperation with local partners from all countries. The project was initiated several years ago. One its most significant activities – the 15-day women caravan – was implemented in 2002. The caravan went through places covered with the conflicts and military activities that followed the disintegration of SFRJ. Part of the caravan were 50 women from all ex-Yugoslav republics and Albania. On their way, they were sending a message for peace and reconciliation in order to cross the new borders in the region, but also to overcome the barriers that were placed between the people. At the same time, the women were overcoming the mentally barriers within themselves.

The seminar in Skopje was organized by the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia which is the local partner of Transeuropeennes”. Some of the women who had formerly taken place at the caravan, took place at the seminar as well. They spoke about their personal experience from this extraordinary voyage, but also about the importance of the women action in the process of peace implementation. The action includes a number of women associations and other organizations, which both before and after the seminar had taken place, realized contacts with the governments, the local governments and in the places where the conflict is still going on, hidden or openly with representatives of the opposed sides.

Among the key points of this women action are the activities directed towards reconciliation, emphasizing the individual accountability (also including the punishment for the guilty individuals) instead of assuming a collective guilt for whole nations who took part in the conflict and especially putting an end to the manipulations of children and planting ethnic hatred into children and young people.

The documentary showing the caravan voyage made by “Transeuropeennes” was shown t the Seminar, as well as statements made by the women and their facing with the regions where the tension has not end yet, or vive versa, where people have returned to their usual life. The project – the caravan and the other activities – has been published in a book, translated into several languages spoken in this region, together with the impressive photographs taken by Goranka Matik. Besides sharing this type of experience, a training course was implemented on the basic methods of oral history as an important tool for documenting the women experience and witnessing.

Marijana Ivanova