Could millions make a change?

By

Sanja Vukovic	Nikolina Zrinscak	Vedran Zadanj

Beautiful houses, gardens and lawns, kindergartens, schools, well equipped youth clubs and sport halls, safe neighborhood, and clean environment. Sounds very tempting. Is the economical welfare an important factor for living in peace and harmony?

This is the picture of life of Danish minority community in Germany for which Danish government pays 50 million dollars per year for its development.

Destroyed houses and infrastructure, bricks and parts of furniture laying beside muddy village roads, demolished factories, children playing in unsecured areas.

Could these 50 million dollars make a difference in this picture that reflects a situation in the war stricken Croatia?

Slavonija and Baranja, Kordun, Lika, Banija and Dalmatia are the parts of country that were the most affected by the war. The highest price in this cataclysm was paid by eastern part of the country, which is on the border with Yugoslavia, where the largest part of Serbian and Hungarian minority in Croatia lives.

Destruction of companies and factories, among which Borovo and Vupik were the largest - around 15.000 employees, caused a high rate of unemployment (which goes up to app. 90% in Vukovar). Rebuilding of houses which goes very slowly, lack of investments in reconstruction and development of companies and factories influence arrival of returnees and stay of minorities in the region.

A fight for a job or eve just ones existence creates rivalry and increases already existing conflict and so far expressed tension. Correlation of economical situation and social aspect has an impact on efforts in establishment of "normal life" and better conditions in the future.

Because of the situation mentioned so far, not so many Croatian families decide to return into their homes and more Serbian families immigrates to seek for a job and secure future.

Before the war separated them, those families represented a community living together, side by side. In order to struggle with the difficulties that were caused by the war, people find an explanation in collective blame. Therefore, there is the revolt existing towards meeting neighbours from the "other side", fear, insecurity and distrust.

These are the reasons for limited (restricted) social and cultural development. People who decided to continue living in the war stricken areas now are facing a question: is it possible to live together again? Youth hesitate to communicate with others who do not belong to the same ethnical background. The fact is that returnees reject to do anything with those who stayed and communication is superficial. Terminology of certain linguistic expressions, and even personal names have different meanings in people's minds which are full of prejudices, so every misunderstanding is interpreted as an animosity. Religious motives are understood as a provocation from "the other side". The government is not encouraging the process of reconciliation. People are not trying to build up their consciousness of relation towards the other and respect of human identity.

In order to move on from this situation it is important to undertake certain steps. To begin with, an effort in satisfaction of elementary human needs should be made. The government policy has a large influence in resolving these problems. Its role should be to invest in reconstruction of companies and factories in order to decrease unemployment and provide income for satisfaction of primary needs.

Rebuilding of houses and infrastructure should be continued, because people from this area are still displaced and living in terrible conditions. Besides previously mentioned steps it would be a good idea to make an effort in establishment of coexistence in a community which is consisted of various ethnical backgrounds. This can be achieved by sustainable work on prejudice reduction in form of introducing and getting familiar with the other cultures.

In order to provide places where members of minorities should meet, cultural and social centres should be built. In these centres people would work on preservation of their national heritage and satisfaction of their cultural affiliation. NGO´s are the ones who have a great importance in achievement of these goals. It would be a good idea to support their programs that are primarily based on identification form of preserving cultural heritage, same as interaction with people from other cultural and ethnical backgrounds.

Both, the government and NGO´s should invest the time and money to support every other step towards reconciliation. Some of NGO´s, though, work very hard on this topic trying to get close to people, using different strategies. Many activities are being realised under the umbrella of PRONI Centre for Social Education. As part of their program they provide the Course for youth workers in co-operation with University of Jønkøping from Sweden. They work with youth in divided societies, therefore, they have offices both in Osijek and Vukovar. As a part of the Course they are passing through module of reconciliation supervised by tutors from Northern Ireland. For many of them that is the first contact with those from "the other side". That is also a chance to hear the stories from different perspective and a way to get rid of some of the prejudices created by ignorance.

Work of organisations like, for example, this one, should be recognised by government. They have to cooperate and create strategy for development of the region. Otherwise future in this community is unimaginable.

Danish and German neighbours living together on a Danish-German border respect each other, sharing daily routine. In everyday life it is difficult to see any difference between them. Does this mean that they like each other? No, but they live in peace and harmony, together in a community where they do not have to be afraid for their own existence.

Unsettled living conditions in Eastern Slavonija, a struggle for survival destruct establishment of democratic and harmonic co-existence. Even though it is clear that money cannot change mutual feelings, it could make a change in a relationships and sense of stability.
For the moment this would be enough.