Building bridges in the former Yugoslavia

11 year old Balyos at a camp organised by the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation to break down barriers between Serb and Croat children [Patrick Nicholson]

Serb and Croat children learn to confront their prejudices at a unique reconciliation camp run by CAFOD's Serbian partner, the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation

by Patrick Nicholson

Petrovaradin Fortress dominates the city of Novi Sad in Serbia. Built on vertical rock on the banks of the Danube, the castle once marked a dividing line between East and West, Orthodox and Roman Catholicism, Muslim Ottoman and Christian Hapsburg empires.

From its medieval ramparts, there is a spectacular panoramic view of Novi Sad, with its numerous church spires – bulbed for Orthodox, pointed for Roman Catholic - and its bridges half repaired after the 1999 NATO bombing that again divided the city.

The name Petrovaradin carries traces of empires and kingdoms that ruled the fortress over the centuries. The Latin word "petra" for "rock", the Hungarian "var" for "city", and the Tukish "din" for “faith”, all combine to form “the city on the rock that is strong as faith”.

Such ethnic integration is now just history.

“They don’t like Croats in my village. They did bad things during the war,” said Marko, a 13-year-old boy from a nearby village in Serbia.

Prejudices passed on

Marko lives just an hour away from the Croatian border. But he had never met a Croat until April this year, when he came to a unique peace and reconciliation event for children of the former Yugoslavia.

All he knew about Croats were the stories his father told about fighting them. Marko learned about the brave Serb soldiers battling against Catholic Croats to protect their Orthodox brothers. And he learned about the expulsion of thousands of Serbs by the Croatian army in the final offensive.

But he said he did not know about nearby Vukovar – the Croatian ‘Stalingrad’ that fell in the year he was born. After a three month Serb siege, the sleepy border town was nothing but rubble.

The massacre of 260 Croats detained in Vukovar by Serb forces heralded what was to come in Sarajevo and Srebrenica, Krajina and Kosovo. By the end of the decade, the region would see the return of genocide to Europe, detention camps, and the use of rape as a weapon of war. The chilling term ‘ethnic cleansing’ was born amidst the ruins of Vukovar.

Marko fidgeted uncomfortably as he talked about his feelings towards Croats. He was much happier playing ping-pong with his new best friend, Denis, a boy his age from the Croatian village of Lug.

“The ripples will be felt”

The children at the meeting, aged 10–14, came from two villages on different sides of the Croatian-Serbian border. Their small farms lie on the fertile plains of the Danube. Farmers still take their produce to market by horse and cart. Both villages are identical, with the only visible difference the shape of the church spires.

By bringing the children together to a camp for a few days of games, play, history lessons, and parties, the organisers, British aid agency CAFOD and a local NGO, the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation, are attempting to fight racism.

“It’s just a drop in the Danube, but I think the ripples will be felt much wider,” said Valerija Gasman, a Bosnian Muslim, leading one of the workshops. She hopes that when the children return to their homes, and tell their friends about their experiences, the meeting will have wider repercussions.

“My parents did not teach me that I am a Muslim, she is a Serb, he is a Croat. We did not know about these distinctions,” said Gasman. Now she feels that the opposite is true, with parents handing down their prejudice like a genetic disease.

“If these kids grow up with ethnic hatred, I fear another war,” said Gasman, pointing to the alarming rise of Ultra Nationalism in the region. The far right Serbian Radical Party is the most popular political party in Serbia despite its leader, Vojislav Seselj, being held by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Games teach cooperation

Gasman teaches the children how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. She said that it is often too late for the parents: the war, its tragedies and their own suffering are still too vivid. But she thinks children still have a chance to overcome their prejudices.

Co-operative games help Serb and Croat children overcome their prejudices at a CAFOD-funded reconciliation workshop [Patrick Nicholson]

To win the games, communication and cooperation are vital. A game involving water balloons ended in many wet children who had not worked with their partners.

By the end of the weekend, everyone had become inseparable, some were in tears as they said goodbye to their new friends.

The meeting does not attempt to apportion blame for the past. That would only reinforce divisions, say the organisers.

Instead, the children give presentations about their cultures and countries – whether it be folk dancing in traditional costume or miming along to the latest hit pop song with a hair brush for a microphone and a series of dance moves well practised in front of the mirror.

Deep trauma

In workshops, the children are asked to write on flip charts what they think of mothers, fathers, teachers, Croats, Serbs, and Roma. While teachers get a predictable rough ride, the typical comment about Croats and Serbs is “cool”.

Though not all the comments are positive. One message on the what-you-feel-about-Croatia board was an explicit request to go home. Gasman said that you should not underestimate the deep trauma that some of these children carry.

Many of the Serb children experienced bombing first-hand. NATO planes dropped more bombs on Novi Sad during the 1999 Kosovo crisis than any other Serbian city.

The children must also cope with suffocating poverty. A million Serbs live below the poverty line, millions more close to it. Hospitals in Novi Sad are crippled by a lack of working equipment and medicine. Schools are crumbling without any investment. Nobody has textbooks. Unemployment is 40 per cent.

Corruption is rampant. Only Mafiosi can afford to go the swanky nightclubs, where a glass of beer can cost an average week’s wages. It will take decades before the Serbian economy has recovered to its 1988 level.

Malnutrition has become a problem for the first time. Marika Bolyos, one of the Serb teachers, said children can’t concentrate at school as they are so hungry.

They become like ghosts, she said, and as they physically diminish, they also fade emotionally and mentally.

Bolyos said that the meeting was difficult for some. She said for children who suffer direct or displaced post-traumatic stress, it is the hardest thing to do to face that trauma head on.

But she believed showing the children that they have nothing to fear from “the other” is the most important part of the reconciliation process.

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