Mitrovica’s
“Mediation Center”
July, 14th 2003
(Andrea
Saula)
We all have dreams, dreams of a better life, dreams of a better future; dreams of economic stability for our families; dreams of owning a home; In essence we all share the same dreams and wishes. In Mitrovica people also share the same dream and that is of one day becoming a normal, European town.
Bojan: Of course that I’m an optimist and
I have hopes that one day Mitrovica will be a normal city. That means
tolerance, freedom of movement and all the other things that a normal town has.
Astrit: Personally, I believe that it is
going to be better in Mitrovica. It’s normal that we hope that it is going to
be better, but everything that I could say in a way could be worthless because
there are people from both sides that don’t want to be better because they have
some other plans. And they are giving their best to do something bad.
Those were Bojan Vojnovic and Astrit Gashi, founders of the
Mitrovica based NGO “Mediation Center”.
The main aim of these guys and the other 13 members of “Mediation
Center”, is to establish a dialogue between the divided local communities of
Mitrovica.
Just two months ago Bojan and Astrit founded The “Mediation
Center”. They decided to start with small things, like helping people in
solving daily problems. Their aim, says Astird, is to show that there are ways
to solving problems, to show the other possibilities and that life can be
better.
Astrit: The NGO “Mediation Center” in Mitrovica is an
initiative of young people in Kosovo. After our last seminar held in Tivat, the Council of Europe and UNESCO suggested for a seminar like
that to be organized in Kosovo. After the seminar we decided to stay together
and to make a joint initiative, with the participation of all ethnicities,
Serbs, Albanians, Bosniaks.
Eight Serbs and seven Albanians are working voluntarily. The first step, Astrit emphazises, has to be taken up
among kids in Mitrovica.
Astrit: Every Friday, from 11 till 12:30,
we have meetings in the Community center in North Mitrovica. Next week we are
going to organize a seminar. On that seminar we are going to select the
trainers that are supposed to go to schools and organize so called cooperation
games. We selected four schools, two on the North side and two on the South
side. We are starting this program in association with Balkan Peace team.
The aim of this seminar is to hopefully start some kind of
dialogue among the young students. Bojan says that dialogue in Mitrovica exists
but just within some narrow circles. However the dialog that should exist,
dialoge between local communities still hasn’t happened. Bojan
Bojan: I think that the majority of people have
prejudices. Prejudices are the one to be blamed for not having a dialog. I
think that we can’t look only at what’s happening in Mitrovica. As soon as the
situation in the whole of Kosovo becomes better, the situation in Mitrovica
will improve and the dialog will naturally start.
Astrit: From the very beginning, we participated together
in some seminars; we have a lot of contacts and very good relationships. It’s
important to say that our NGO doesn’t pay attention to nationalities. Whats
more important to us is that we figured out that life in a conflict situation
is very stressful. We decided to change something and to do something for
ourselves, but also for the others. We want to use our experience, with help of
all individuals that want to assist us and with all organizations that are
prepared to support us, to find some peace and to establish a dialogue between
people with no their ethnicity.
Mitrovica is the beginning point for “Mediation center.
These guys are working on another very important project concerning returnees
in cooperation with the Municipality of Kosovo Polje / Fush Kosova and we wish
them the best of lucks, but that will be subject of another edition of UNMIK on
Air.
Meanwhile, thanks for listening and stay tuned for
more.