Preventing war from breaking out in local communities was a big deal, and those who built dialogue in the most difficult conditions are still not talked about enough, it was said at the Rijeka City Library at the presentation of the book by dr. Valentina Otmačić, author of the scientific work entitled “Resistance to Interethnic Violence: Approaches to Conflict Transformation within Local Communities in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
This work by a researcher with a PhD in peace studies who works in the areas of peace, conflict transformation and human rights is a document of the efforts of the residents of Gorski Kotar and Tuzla who preserved the state of peace during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, as well as a kind of recipe for how communities should behave in the event that they are threatened with something similar.
In a conversation moderated by dr. Nebojša Zelič, head of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Rijeka, dr. Otmačić emphasized that this topic is still an unexplored area, although wars and conflicts are often discussed, and noted that by comparing the aforementioned experiences, we can synthesize the threads of connection that are responsible for calming tensions at the local level.
– Even in peace studies, we mostly deal with war, conflict and violence, and we do not study peace. Although some experts say that much has been written about the violence in the Balkans, but not enough has been explained, it functioned according to principles that prevail all over the world, from Rwanda to Northern Ireland, and I was interested in seeing how some communities resisted this violence and went against the current that was pulling everything down.
A comparative analysis of two case studies from Gorski Kotar and Tuzla showed a lot in common and the truth of the claim that war comes from outside, and peace comes from within, dr. Valentina Otmačić said, highlighting how these multi-ethnic communities opposed ethnic divisions, a prerequisite for direct violence.
During the war, both communities built the society they wanted to live in and tried to maintain as normal a life as possible in abnormal circumstances.
Residents were accompanied by the awareness that it cannot be good for Croats if it is not good for Serbs and Muslims, and vice versa, and the refusal to impose ethnic identity as the only relevant collective determinant in wartime was accompanied by the rise of identification with the territorial community, that is, the identities of Gorans and Tuzlaks.
– Although there was a lot of pressure, there was resistance to the narrative about how the conflict was generated by an ethnic nature, and the interdependence of the community that has a positive common past was pointed out.
Both Gorski Kotar and Tuzla have shown that they appreciate the values of heterogeneity, rationality, normality and the value of human life, said the researcher, who bases her conclusions in the book on collected testimonies, as well as relevant media publications from the wartime.
During the book presentation, Nada Glad, a retired journalist from Radio Delnica who directly participated in communication with the Delnica garrison of the JNA and built consensus around a common desire to avoid wartime violence, also shared her experiences about the events some thirty years ago.
Also, Amela Hajvaz, a former journalist for TV Studio FS-3 and Radio Tuzla, emphasized that the sobriety of political and religious representatives, as well as Tuzla’s anti-fascist heritage that did not burden people with nationalism and religious affiliation, were key in implementing what we today call non-violent dialogue.
The panelists also remembered the founder of the School of Peace, Franjo Starčević, the commander of the Delnik barracks, Ljubomir Buljin, who refused to carry out orders from Belgrade, the president of the Delnik crisis headquarters, Josip Horvat, as well as the wartime mayor of Tuzla, Selim Bešlagić, the parish priest, Fr. Petar Matanović, and the effendi, Muhamed Lugavić, individuals who made a great contribution to preventing war from breaking out in their communities.