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| Port of Call-Dubrovnik,Croatia-June 5th and 6th |
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| The morning market |
There are few places along the path of the Peace Boat as we travel around this earth that capture people like the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The eighth stop on Peace Boat's 37th world cruise, Dubrovnik, located at the lowest reaches of Croatia's narrow coastline on the Aegean Sea is home to a 500 year old castle town made of marble and of stunning beauty. Centuries back, the city-state of Dubrovnik rivaled Venice for trade and influence in the Mediterranean Sea, yet during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, fell under siege and bombardment by the Yugoslav army and navy. While the diversions on land and in the beautiful sea were many, among the more interesting were NGO study tours in Dubrovnik and to the city of Mostar, three hours away in Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
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| The Neretva River in picturesque Mostar |
As beautiful as is the land and delicious the food, in the trip to Mostar by Global University participants and International Students, the weight of history and war was inescapable. In 1992 and 1994 the city went though self destruction as the city's Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian people turned on each other. Our first stop was to see where once stood a famous 16th century bridge which crossed a rugged and beautiful river running through the city which because it had so long been a great symbol of the unity of people in the region, rather than for any actual military value, was destroyed out of spite by the Croatian Army. There was hardly a spot in the town which had been spared the anger of war. Where one didn't see bullet scared walls or gutted buildings still as they were eight years earlier, the new plaster and paint on a few of the coffee shops and restaurants around the rolling and twisting streets of the charming old town seemed like patches of newness trying to cover the left over horror of the old. |
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| Participants inspecting war damage |
On the banks of the brisk, clear-water river, in front of a lively vegetable garden and amidst battered remains of apartment buildings on the front lines of the war was a repaired house from which the local NGO Forma-F operated. Run by women for women, the organization worked to assist women refugees of different ethnic groups in returning to Mostar, reintegration into the community, economic development and political participation. Forma-F focused its energies towards business education, NGO education and political participation programs. A group of begging children from the Roma community accompanying us inspired the question of whether attention was also given to these people who at the start of the war were among the first to escape because, as they see it the Roma are often the first to be targeted. The response to this that programs incorporating or assisting the Roma people are few and far between, and this problem was a good example of however much NGO's are helping the community rebuild, there are always endless more places and people in need. |
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| Some of the art produced by Mladi-Most, and a participant learning about youth working for change |
Down the road and across a bridge
built after the war we visited an NGO called Mladi-Most (www.mladi-most.org),
meaning young bridge. There, Adisa, the young director of the organization
in her early twenties told us about how Mladi-Most began during
the war as a German and Dutch-funded micro-environment where young
people could meet safely. Over time it has evolved into a local
NGO which focuses on four projects; photography, a non-violent communication
program, film and documentary production and women's projects which
get women to address issues of identity, violence and other scars
of war which have hindered the healing of society. Through these
means of practicing art and communication the aim is to foster healing
through creative expression, but when asked about programs promoting
direct reconciliation, Adisa said still the division of the town
and the pain and scars of war are too close for people to address.
Instead, the people left in the town, Croats on one side of the
river, Bosnians on the other and Serbs more or less expelled, live
in a quiet, depressed and tedious coexistence with each other. Looking
around, one could see signs both good and bad. While it was now
becoming OK for people to cross the bridges, at the same time one
could notice that while much of the town was still in absolute ruins
eight years later, funds for rebuilding were in part used on new
mosques and churches leaving us less than optimistic about the future
of the city and country.
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| next page / Peace
Boat's 37th Voyage |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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