1. Case-study No. & Title:
172. The Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Youth Center: a multi-ethnic organization providing classes and other services to people of all ethnicities in an ethnically divided town in central Bosnia (1996-indefinite future).

Keywords:

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Peter Lippman

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Peter Lippman is a staff researcher for The Advocacy Project, based in Washington D.C. (www.advocacynet.org). He can be contacted at peter@advocacynet.org

2.3 Date recorded:
28 December, 2000

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:

The Gornji Vakuf Youth Center provides a safe and positive atmosphere for children of different ethnicities to meet, learn together, and carry out trust-building programs in a town that was literally cut in half by war between its Muslim and Croat populations.

3.2 Location:
The Gornji Vakuf Youth Center is located in the middle of Gornji Vakuf, central Bosnia, on the former front line between the warring Croat and Muslim sides.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Target group: Croat and Muslim youth, approximately age 7 through 18, who live in the divided town of Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje in central Bosnia.

3.4 Major Actors Involved:

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors:
The Gornji Vakuf Youth Center operates on approximately 7,000 DM per month.

3.6 Timeframe
The Gornji Vakuf Youth Center was launched and put into practice in the spring of 1996. The staff hopes to continue conducting its programs indefinitely (as long as there is funding).

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy:
The practice of the Gornji Vakuf Youth Center is the result of neither local nor national governmental initiatives. The Center is a local non-governmental initiative and has functioned entirely without governmental support, and in many ways in spite of local politics that work against multi-culturalism.

4. Good Practice Description
Background
The 1992–1995 war in Bosnia was a multi-layered conflict. It is tempting to say that it looked like a free-for-all between ethnicities, but each locality had a specific story. While the conflict in the eastern part of the country was primarily between Serbs and Croats, in many parts of central Bosnia the smaller Serb population was sidelined as the Croats and Muslims fought. During the war, the major towns were for the most part taken over by one ethnicity or the other. But in many cases the smaller towns were divided, with either the Croats or Muslims moving to a nearby peripheral area.

In 1993, Gornji Vakuf was split down the middle between Croats and Muslims, and it remains divided to this day. Preliminary fighting between the Croats and Muslims began in January of 1993 and lasted about a month. Then there was a peaceful period until July of that year, when the fighting started up again. By that time the city had already been divided. The conflict lasted until March, 1994, when the Washington Agreement brought an uneasy peace between the Croats and Muslims.

A visitor to Gornji Vakuf today sees a high mountain valley surrounded by precipitous hills. From the hills surrounding the upper part of town, the HVO (the Croat separatist army) bombed and sniped at the Muslim section. By the end of the war the city was quite destroyed, especially the Muslim part.

Both halves of Gornji Vakuf were ethnically homogenized by the end of the war. By the end of the war the only non-Croats in the Croat-controlled section were several Serb women who were married to Croats. Similarly, in the Muslim-controlled section few non-Muslims remained, although several Croats and mixed families chose to stay.

In the Croat-controlled lower part of Gornji Vakuf, institutions corresponding to those in the breakaway statelet of Herceg-Bosna were created. The ruling Croat nationalist party, which had led the Croats during the war, renamed the lower half of town Uskoplje. In the upper section, the Muslim nationalist SDA continued to govern, as it does to this day. Neither party, after leading a separatist war, has shown any interest in reunification or reconciliation.

However, The Gornji Vakuf Youth Center, a local non-governmental initiative, was formed soon after the war to bridge the gap between ethnicities. This organization works to bring young people together in an atmosphere where they can overcome the rift caused by the war, and learn to work together.

Present-day Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje
The pre-war population of Gornji Vakuf municipality was approximately 20,000, counting the surrounding villages. The ethnic breakdown was probably around 55 per cent Muslim, the rest Croat. Five years after the war, the population breakdown is not known. Many people of both ethnicities have left, and people are still going abroad in search of economic security.

Before the war, Gornji Vakuf’s economy functioned well enough to provide the municipality with a decent standard of living. Metal, textile, and furniture industries operated there, but now none of them are working.

Arriving in Gornji Vakuf, I met director of the Youth Center Jasminka Drino-Kirlic and we walked through the town together, both the Muslim and the Croat part. An unobtrusive road runs across the very center of the long town at a narrow spot, and this was the dividing line during the war. Today, everything on one side is controlled by the Muslims, and on the other side, by the Croats. Jasminka, a Muslim, showed me the wrecked high school in the Croat section. She used to teach there before the war, when it was everyone’s high school.

We sat and talked at a kafana (coffee house/bar) in the Muslim section. The kafanas are not mixed. Jasminka explained, ‘I can go to the other side of town, because people know me from school. My husband and I walk through both sides of town and there’s never a problem. People mix, but it’s not like it was before the war. I go across with teenagers sometimes. Since the war there have been no incidents. People had enough—everyone needed there to be peace’.

Today, Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje has two separate city structures: two city councils, two mayors, two post offices, two school systems, and two separate health centers. Only the police force is mixed, because that was compelled by the international community. But Jasminka says that this has not solved many problems.

However, there is one bus station and one public market. The market is on the Muslim side, and people come from both sides of town to shop on Wednesdays. This keeps the two populations from being completely sealed off from each other. Jasminka said, ‘Some of our old friendships still exist. People get together. Sometimes we go together to attend funerals. People are slowly returning to their pre-war homes’. Return to apartments in the town is difficult, as apartments abandoned during the war have been taken over by newcomers, but people are going back to the villages.

The Muslim high school is located in a former hotel. Jasminka says that conditions there are poor. There are benches instead of desks, no books for some subjects, and the computers are several years old. In the elementary school on the Muslim side, one Serb woman and two Croats work there. Only Muslims work in the high school. On the Croat side, all the staff are Croats.

The main street that runs lengthwise down the middle of town, through both sections, has two names. On the Muslim side, it is named for Mehmed Beg Stocanin, a Muslim hero. On the Croat side, right across the central dividing street, it is named for Kralj Tomislav, after a medieval Croatian king.

One block over, the main street leading out of town used to be named ‘Bratstvo i Jedinstvo’, (Brotherhood and Unity). Now, the Croat part is named ‘Branilaca Domovina’ (Defenders of the Homeland), and the Muslim side is named for the 117^th Slavna Brdska Brigada, the Glorious Hill Brigade. But the staff of the Center still stubbornly give their address as Bratstvo i Jedinstvo, and their mail still arrives.

Very near the dividing line on this street stands the Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Youth Center, with a cheerful sunshine logo on its facade.

Formation of the Youth Center
The Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Youth Center was founded in 1996, soon after the signing of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war, as a joint UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and UNDP (U.N. Development Project) endeavor, together with local people. From the beginning, the Center offered computer and English classes, and there was a photography course. International volunteers came from Great Britain, and local volunteers including teachers and parents came from both sides of town.

One of the main goals of the Center is to encourage youth to take major roles in peace building. Because the school systems of the town had been divided, there was not a single space in all of Gornji Vakuf where young people, their parents, and teachers could meet. The Youth Center, while organized around the needs of the young people who participate in its programs, naturally draws in parents and teachers from both sides of town, giving them a safe place to interact.

In the first months of the Center, Croat teachers worked only with Croat children, and Muslims teachers with Muslim children. This lasted until September of 1996, and then children began on their own to go into the other classes. The separation in the Youth Center broke down, and all the classes became mixed. In 1997 the UNDP withdrew from this project, and the Youth Center became a local NGO.

Programs of the Youth Center
Around 500 Croat and Muslim children, age seven to 18, participate in the Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Youth Center’s educational and creative programs. The Center conducts a truly impressive array of classes, training programs, workshops, camps, and collaborative projects with other domestic and international NGOs. The center is small, but it is open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., packing in a tight schedule of activities. This report will only be able to describe them in a limited way.

The basic goal of the Youth Center is to provide the children of Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje a common space where they can interact, and thus learn an alternative to separatism, polarization, and the politicization that their elders have forced upon them. As Jasminka Drino-Kirlic notes, the children understand each other well, and the tensions between their parents do not infect the atmosphere of the Center. Thus, the peaceful alternative of non-violent conflict resolution permeates the Center’s programs.

An excellent example of this is the Center’s drama section, which in 2000 performed a play at the spring festival in nearby Bugojno, and won first prize for creativity and innovation. The story for the play, which the Croat and Muslim children developed on their own, was taken from a fairy tale. ‘White World, Colorful World’ portrayed a monotonous world that becomes transformed into a very colorful world. Two hundred children from Gornji Vakuf went to Bugojno to attend this performance.

The Youth Center regularly holds workshops on conflict resolution and non-violent communication. In 2000 over 200 children participated in training sessions on non-violent communication, civil initiatives, and human rights. For example, in October 15 teenagers attended a five-day seminar organized by UMCOR. The main topic was how to write project proposals. Lectures were given on leadership and conflict resolution. Participants were assigned tasks to put their knowledge into practice, by implementing projects of their own.

UMCOR also supported, through the Youth Center, a training program in 2000 for twenty teachers, on teaching non-violent communication in the schools. All of these programs are multi-ethnic.

Jasminka says, ‘We are trying to get people to develop a feeling for volunteer work, because that is the future of NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. People must learn to devote time to volunteer work. This kind of work will have to be done in people’s free time, because international support for NGOs is decreasing. We are very lucky to have a group of young people who volunteer’.

In addition to the socially-oriented training programs and workshops, the Youth Center offers a variety of educational programs and services:

Computer Training: The Center’s computer lab provides four computer classes to students aged 10 to 17. Beginners started out using DOS, and more advanced students learn Windows, Word, Excel, and graphic design. They also learn how to use the Internet and to make web sites. Students, volunteers, and staff of the Center have access to e-mail.

There are about 200 computer students, taught by five teachers. The director of the lab has connected the computers with an internal network system. Together with a scanner, this makes it possible for the students to use the computers to create a newsletter about the Center.

Language Courses: Both English and German classes are provided. Children are taught to read, write, and speak. Songs and games are employed. Some of the students become translators for foreign volunteers and visitors.

Library: The Center boasts a library with approximately 1300 Bosnian books, and another 4000 English and German titles. Because the city library was destroyed in the war, this is the only library in town and it is open to the public. There are books of all kinds, both for adults and children.

Camps: Each year the center sends 200 children (100 Croats and 100 Muslims) to the sea near Makarska, in Dalmatia (Croatia), together with teachers from both sides of town. This is supported by the German Committee for Human Rights And Democracy. Children also attend camps in different parts of Bosnia. They meet with children from Tuzla and Banja Luka, in the Serb entity. In collaboration with Mladi Most, a multi-ethnic NGO from Mostar, the Youth Center also holds an environmental workshop and wilderness survival workshops on Vranica mountain on the outskirts of Gornji Vakuf.

Survey: In 2000 year members of the Center took a survey of 300 young people about drugs, alcohol, and the use of free time. The conclusions, according to Jasminka, were quite negative. ‘We learned that many young people smoke, use various kind of drugs including intravenous drugs, and spend their free time in bars, often drinking alcohol. There are probably around 200 drug addicts here, and no one is doing anything about these problems. This is a problem both among Croats and Muslims—here, they are united. Around the end of this year we are planning to hold a panel discussion about this. We are going to invite parents, teachers, the police, NGOs, and officials from the Ministry for Social Welfare. We want to work on these problems with parents, schools, and the religious institutions’.

Other activities: The Youth Center also provides dance, music, and art courses. The walls of the entrance/sitting room of the Center are covered with colorful artwork created by the children.

Problems of the Youth Center
’We take a step forward, and then politics sets us back again. This is very difficult work, but the children associate together’. Jasminka asserts that the main obstruction to reconciliation between the ethnicities in Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje is at the political level. She blames the nationalist parties on both sides for keeping people apart: ‘The Croat and Muslim parties want separate municipalities. When we try to make something happen between the two communities, it’s very hard. Our best success is when people go out of town to seminars—especially for women’s projects and youth projects. The basic thing restraining reconciliation is politics. The politicians can’t agree, nor do they want to. Now, people feel the safest with others of their own ethnicity. The politicians make use of that feeling, and we all lose.’

The Youth Center receives no support from the local governments. ‘I think it is because they don’t like that we are showing that people can get along. With our projects, we are destroying their concept of national homogenization’, says Jasminka. ‘We have invited the city officials from both sides to meetings and performances, but they do not attend. We do have support from the religious institutions, but not from the politicians. However, the politicians’ children participate in our programs. On the other hand, we get positive feedback from the community. The children are more open to each other and ready for dialogue than are the adults. They understand each other’.

Funders
The Youth Center has a paid staff of around a dozen, and about 15 volunteers. The monthly budget of the Center runs upwards of 7,000 DM each month.

Organizations that support the Center include:
Catholic Relief Services
Christian Aid
GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit)
International Rescue Committee
QPS (Quaker Peace Service)
Schuler Helfen Leben
SKN (Stichting Kinderpostzegels Nederland)
the Dutch Organization for Children
the European Commission
the General Board of Global Ministries
the German Committee for Human Rights and Democracy
The United Methodist Church
UMCOR
UNDP

Partners:
The Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Youth Center’s partners include:
Mladi Most (Mostar)
The Anti-War Campaign (Zagreb)
"Savjetovaliste," or "Counselling Center" (for returning displaced persons)
Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje Forum of NGOs

The Future
Jasminka reports that young members of the Youth Center, as of early 2001, are organizing a project to raise money to fix a public fountain that was destroyed during the war. "This fountain is on the dividing line between the two parts of town, so it is symbolic," she says. "Now the children have to go get permission from two city councils and two mayors. I think they will get it."
Some of the Youth Center’s projects are funded until the middle of 2001, and Jasminka is optimistic that funding will be available through the end of the year. The Open Society Institute has promised funding for a training program for youth in development of civil society. In addition, CARE and the IRC are also expected to fund training programs.

Contact Information:
Gornji Vakuf Youth Center
Director, Jasminka Drino-Kirlic
Omladinski Centar
Bratstvo i Jedinstvo 10
70240 Gornji Vakuf

Tel.: +387 (0)30 265 594
E-mail: ocgv.gmx.net
URL: http://www.vakuf.notrix.de