...8/23/06 - More Reflections on ROM...
...through a glass, darkly...
So much time and effort is invested on the other side of a conflict or dispute and rightly so. Without peacemaking and reconciliation efforts, the cycle of violence will most likely continue. Yet someone must also actively research and address the question of building sustainable peace and avoiding violent conflicts. To gain some understanding of the systemic processes required for building sustainable peace, only studying what has gone wrong in the past is insufficient. It seems to me that we must also spend time studying what has gone right. I was ecstatic on the Thursday morning of the second week of ROM when I realized we were going to be given that opportunity.
During the horrors of the wars of the 1990s in the Balkans, one region of Croatia experienced no ethnic violence. Gorski Kotar, an administrative region of Croatia, had in the 90s, and still has, an ethnically and religiously diverse population. Villages populated by Serbs co-exist next to villages populated by Croats. At a time when the government of Croatia was led by nationalists who encouraged ethnic division and distrust, when neighbor turned on neighbor simply because the neighbor belonged to the wrong ethnic group, Gorski Kotar somehow remained an “Oasis of Peace,” the title of a book that has been published to tell the story. On Thursday morning of our second week together, we had the great privilege of hearing that story from three key leaders whose courage and wisdom helped keep the peace.
With Tihomir Kukolja interpreting, Jozef Horvat, then president of the Gorski Kotar regional government, Franjo Starcevc, local peace activist, and Nada Glad director of Radio Delnice, told us the story of how Gorski Kotar, with the exception of a single air attack, avoided the war and the violence that took the rest of the Balkans into hell.
We heard first from Mr. Horvat, the author of the book, “Oasis of Peace,” and a key leader in the region. I was immediately struck by the humility of this obviously intelligent and very competent man. He wanted us to know from the outset that he is not a hero. He claimed to be a leader who simply followed the will of the people of the region. He firmly believes that if the people of Gorski Kotar had not wanted to continue to live peaceably with their diverse neighbors, he and other leaders would have been unable to make a difference. I am in no position to disagree.
What I do believe is that Mr. Horvat and others made some key decisions and took some very important actions that were vital to preserving peace as the people demanded. Because efforts are underway to translate his book into English, I will not give you chapter and verse of the presentation that morning. I do want to highlight elements of the story we heard that morning.
One of the first things that Mr. Horvat did was to negotiate directly with the commanders of the Yugoslavian army based in the capital of Gorski Kotar. Mr. Horvat understood that the war would quickly come to his region if the members of that garrison were to come under attack by Croatian forces or even if they were to feel threatened in any way. He met frequently with the commanders and men of the garrison to reassure them and ultimately to work out a plan to smuggle them out of Croatia and back to their homes. This they successfully did. Unfortunately, the commander of the base and his second in command were tried before a court martial in Serbia and served time in prison because they did not stay and fight as the war between Serbia and Croatia began.
Mr. Horvat also recognized that to avoid destruction of Delnice, they had to transfer three large warehouses of munitions out of the city and into the mountains before the munitions depots could be attacked by air. They were convinced that an air attack would occur to keep the arms out of the hands of the locals. When the attack finally came, only one warehouse was bombed and it contained only 5% of the munitions it once held. That was still enough to knock out all the windows in Delnice, but miraculously there was no loss of life in the attack.
Ms. Nada Glad, manager of the radio station played a key role by airing programs that supported peace in the region. She chose not to content mandated by the government that could have excited the people to violence. Ms. Glad was ultimately fired when it was discovered that she had been using the radio to preserve peace instead of airing the government’s pro-war, pro-ethnic violence programming.
Franjo Starcevc actually had the temerity to start a School of Peace in Gorski Kotar after the wars began. He ran his school of peace for 5 years during the wars, teaching non-violence and conflict resolution principles. Mr. Starcevc is a very humble and gentle soul. He belittled his own contribution, but I have heard from others that it was his gentle influence as a teacher over a period of years that may have had the greatest impact of all.
Despite their protestations to the contrary, I do believe that these otherwise ordinary people did do something extraordinary. At the risk of their jobs and even their lives they stood for what was right, good and decent. They refused to succumb to the hate talk and the manipulations of the natural patriotic fervor and religious commitment of the local citizens. Edmund Burke, 18th Century statesman and philosopher, once observed: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In Gorski Kotar, good men and women acted and evil was averted.
Let me share with you a personal dream. We should raise funding for the translation of “Oasis of Peace.” Then a group of young scholars or graduate students from multiple disciplines should be assembled in Gorski Kotar to learn more about how and why a critical mass of the people in this region chose peace over war. Then the results of that research should be published for the world to read. We spend so much of our time analyzing what went wrong. Let’s spend some time researching and then spreading the good news about what went right.
If you agree, I welcome your ideas about how best to make it happen.
So much time and effort is invested on the other side of a conflict or dispute and rightly so. Without peacemaking and reconciliation efforts, the cycle of violence will most likely continue. Yet someone must also actively research and address the question of building sustainable peace and avoiding violent conflicts. To gain some understanding of the systemic processes required for building sustainable peace, only studying what has gone wrong in the past is insufficient. It seems to me that we must also spend time studying what has gone right. I was ecstatic on the Thursday morning of the second week of ROM when I realized we were going to be given that opportunity.
During the horrors of the wars of the 1990s in the Balkans, one region of Croatia experienced no ethnic violence. Gorski Kotar, an administrative region of Croatia, had in the 90s, and still has, an ethnically and religiously diverse population. Villages populated by Serbs co-exist next to villages populated by Croats. At a time when the government of Croatia was led by nationalists who encouraged ethnic division and distrust, when neighbor turned on neighbor simply because the neighbor belonged to the wrong ethnic group, Gorski Kotar somehow remained an “Oasis of Peace,” the title of a book that has been published to tell the story. On Thursday morning of our second week together, we had the great privilege of hearing that story from three key leaders whose courage and wisdom helped keep the peace.
With Tihomir Kukolja interpreting, Jozef Horvat, then president of the Gorski Kotar regional government, Franjo Starcevc, local peace activist, and Nada Glad director of Radio Delnice, told us the story of how Gorski Kotar, with the exception of a single air attack, avoided the war and the violence that took the rest of the Balkans into hell.
We heard first from Mr. Horvat, the author of the book, “Oasis of Peace,” and a key leader in the region. I was immediately struck by the humility of this obviously intelligent and very competent man. He wanted us to know from the outset that he is not a hero. He claimed to be a leader who simply followed the will of the people of the region. He firmly believes that if the people of Gorski Kotar had not wanted to continue to live peaceably with their diverse neighbors, he and other leaders would have been unable to make a difference. I am in no position to disagree.
What I do believe is that Mr. Horvat and others made some key decisions and took some very important actions that were vital to preserving peace as the people demanded. Because efforts are underway to translate his book into English, I will not give you chapter and verse of the presentation that morning. I do want to highlight elements of the story we heard that morning.
One of the first things that Mr. Horvat did was to negotiate directly with the commanders of the Yugoslavian army based in the capital of Gorski Kotar. Mr. Horvat understood that the war would quickly come to his region if the members of that garrison were to come under attack by Croatian forces or even if they were to feel threatened in any way. He met frequently with the commanders and men of the garrison to reassure them and ultimately to work out a plan to smuggle them out of Croatia and back to their homes. This they successfully did. Unfortunately, the commander of the base and his second in command were tried before a court martial in Serbia and served time in prison because they did not stay and fight as the war between Serbia and Croatia began.
Mr. Horvat also recognized that to avoid destruction of Delnice, they had to transfer three large warehouses of munitions out of the city and into the mountains before the munitions depots could be attacked by air. They were convinced that an air attack would occur to keep the arms out of the hands of the locals. When the attack finally came, only one warehouse was bombed and it contained only 5% of the munitions it once held. That was still enough to knock out all the windows in Delnice, but miraculously there was no loss of life in the attack.
Ms. Nada Glad, manager of the radio station played a key role by airing programs that supported peace in the region. She chose not to content mandated by the government that could have excited the people to violence. Ms. Glad was ultimately fired when it was discovered that she had been using the radio to preserve peace instead of airing the government’s pro-war, pro-ethnic violence programming.
Franjo Starcevc actually had the temerity to start a School of Peace in Gorski Kotar after the wars began. He ran his school of peace for 5 years during the wars, teaching non-violence and conflict resolution principles. Mr. Starcevc is a very humble and gentle soul. He belittled his own contribution, but I have heard from others that it was his gentle influence as a teacher over a period of years that may have had the greatest impact of all.
Despite their protestations to the contrary, I do believe that these otherwise ordinary people did do something extraordinary. At the risk of their jobs and even their lives they stood for what was right, good and decent. They refused to succumb to the hate talk and the manipulations of the natural patriotic fervor and religious commitment of the local citizens. Edmund Burke, 18th Century statesman and philosopher, once observed: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In Gorski Kotar, good men and women acted and evil was averted.
Let me share with you a personal dream. We should raise funding for the translation of “Oasis of Peace.” Then a group of young scholars or graduate students from multiple disciplines should be assembled in Gorski Kotar to learn more about how and why a critical mass of the people in this region chose peace over war. Then the results of that research should be published for the world to read. We spend so much of our time analyzing what went wrong. Let’s spend some time researching and then spreading the good news about what went right.
If you agree, I welcome your ideas about how best to make it happen.
posted by Randall E. Butler at 6:58 PM
1 Comments:
I simply enjoy reading your posts. I might comment shortly.
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