Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ok, this post isn't about what I did, but important and hopefully interesting information about why Bosnia and Herzegovina has such problems and why the college is there and why I was there.

What exactly was I doing in Mostar? Well, I was attending what UWC call a 'short course', which does exactly what it says on the tin. They are basically ways that UWC can spread the movement of UWC to more people and hopefully spread the values and ethos, of peace and a sustainable future. These short courses vary massivly in shape and size, this one I was doing was organised by the UWC College in Mostar, one of the newest (and most interesting in my opinion) colleges of UWC, with only 5 years of existence. It was originally founded as a five year NGO, an educational project in an ethnically divided, conflict-scarred zone, however due to its successes at helping to heal wounds (I will go into this in a bit) it has now been established as an official school. The school is the only UWC to be located in a proper urban area (my college in Duino is near Trieste but actually in a small village. There is also a new UWC in Maastricht in the Netherlands but this is not what I would consider to be a UWC, like the one in Singapore many of the students simply paid their way in, and this spoils the UWC experience for those that got in on merit... I digress) and as such reflects massively the culture and feel of Balkan and Bosnian life. There is a very high proportion of local (as in from BiH - Bosnia and Herzegovina) students, and I know that there can be problems of the locals just hanging out with each other since there are so many, but this is not all of them and the problem is decreasing and does not stop others from having an amazing experience. Fellow geordie Megan is my co-year there and she absolutely loves it.
Going back to short courses, as I was saying this one was organised by UWCiM and the Finnish Cultural Foundation, who paid our travel expenses and funded all the speakers and activities. It was on the subject of Peace and Conflict Resolution, bringing together UWC students and local high school students of Croat, Serb and Bosnian ethnicity to try and help us to learn about the subject in a very real situation. Other short courses are organised by UWC national committees (the bodies in each country responsible for making selections to send students to the various UWCs) or other colleges. Some have UWC students facilitating, taking part, or both, such as this one, and always include young people from the local area.

A bit about BiH. Located in the cradle of Croatia (our soon to be newest member to the club), with Serbia on its eastern border and Montenegro to the south. Following WWII, BiH was part of Yugoslavia. This was created by Josep Broz Tito, who led the resistance to Nazi occupation in WWII. Tito established Yugolsavia as a communist federation of 6 republics, formed because of historical (mainly mediaeval kingdoms)existences prior to occupation by the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and also the existence of ethnic identities linked to these often poorly defined mediaeval kingdoms (in that no one knew exactly where the borders were, what made people different etc). These republics were Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. Tito saw that to make a united, powerful Slavic state these ethnic tensions had to disappear. Although there had been problems between these ethnicities during the war, Tito and his regime brutally suppressed all talk or reference to any differences between peoples in Yugoslavia. Whilst most of the republics were quite ethnically homogeneous, BiH differed in that it had many Croats, Serbs and Muslims (Bosniaks).
Tito rejected Stalin and presided over the non-alignment movement during the cold war, consisting of nations that did not want to be part of either the west or the east. Being non aligned allowed Yugoslavia's economy to grow strong in the 60s and 70s and to promote socialism without being distracted by the cold war. The UWC of the Adriatic, the one I attend was founded in 1982, mainly because of its proximity to Yugoslavia, and the eastern bloc, in an attempt to bring young people together from a divided world. In the 1980s the economy began to stagnate as more and more money was spent on armaments and defence, for fear of either the west or east invading.
After Tito's death in 1980, and with the economy not so strong, Yugoslavia started its decline. Slobodan Milosevic, a senior communist was initially hailed as a saviour for Yugoslavia and became president of the federation in 1989. However, he basically pulled out the pin of the ethnic time bomb, when he made a speech saying that Serbs were being repressed by Albanians in the autonomous region (which acted effectively like a republic) of Kosovo, part of Serbia. This went against the taboo of not speaking of nationality or ethnicity in Yugoslavia, and effectively opened the floodgates to a tide of conflicts that had been building for quite some time, especially in recent years. Atrocities committed in WWII by various groups on others and ideas of glorious pasts, as well as fear spread nationalism and resulted in some hugely destructive ethnic wars during the 1990s.
BiH was where perhaps the worst atrocities were committed in the war between 1992 and 1995. This was caused by Serb political parties and Croat political parties declaring the relative independence from BiH, supported by the relative armies of Croatia and Yugoslavia (effectively Serbian). The democratically elected government of BiH did not accept these declarations of independence and so issued a referendum on secession as a WHOLE national sovereign state of BiH, including Serb and Croat peoples, from what remained of Yugoslavia. The people voted a majority in favour of secession, since a majority were Bosniak, or Muslim. Armies were mobilised by all sides and although Bosnian (I will use the term Bosnian, rather than ethnic term Bosniak, since there were both Serbs and Croats who fought for a united BiH) defence forces (who were poorly organised and badly equipped) in fact (according to the BBC) fired the first shots on some Serbian people, the Serbian army was the first to launch proper military action, moving to take control of all the areas of BiH where Serbs were the majority. Bosnian defences were really poor and effectively the government of BiH ceased to control the nation. Bosnian and Croat forces initially teamed up to fight against Serbia, however the Croatian army also turned against Bosnian forces as Croatia wanted land.
These conflicts, between all three groups, led to huge displacement of people (estimated at more than 2 million) and thousands of deaths, casualties and huge social scars which will lead the country divided for a long time. Perhaps the most (in)famous was the seige of the capital of BiH, Sarajevo. The city in fact had a very mixed population, with around 70% of mixed marriages between Serbs, Croats or Bosniaks. Serbian forces surrounded the city and under the command of Ratko Mladic, pummelled the city for three years. There was just one way in and out of the city, a small tunnel underneath the airport, which was UN controlled territory. This linked what remained of 'free' BiH to the city. Atrocities were committed by all sides. In 1995, the Dayton Peace accords were signed, mostly bringing the fighting to an end. This led BiH mostly as it is today, divided into two parts, Republika of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These operate as generally autonomous regions of one nation.

Next blog I will return to normal diary mode.