BOSNIAN-INITIATIVE and COMMITTEE FOR BASIC RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY

Alexanderstr. 37, D-60489 Frankfurt

Aquinostr. 7-11, D-50670 Köln

Helga Dieter, Flussgasse 8, D-60489 Frankfurt,
P.# 49-69-7892525, F # 49 69 78803666, ubihedi@t-online.de 

The Vacation from War Campaign, Summer 2004

Steps toward the concrete utopia of a peaceful world 
with examples of the Balkan wars and the Middle East

Dear Benefactors and Friends,

15th Sept. 2004

Two weeks ago the summer-camps 2004 "Vacations from War" ended. The last groups went home to Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia (1140 children and youngsters) and Israel, Palestine (170 school-students and young adults).
As you can imagine to organize this huge project is a lot of work for the small voluntary team from Germany. Therefore we don't have reports yet. We'll send it before next years campaign. We are also working on a website. 
For now two short informations will do:
In the summer-camp of 1996 (1/2 a year after the war in Bosnia ended) I asked the children, who is able to tell his/hers "story" in a video-interview in order to inform the German public about the children's suffering. At that time this was a delicate question. Fatima was the first child who wanted to tell her fate, which really is horrible. Since she took part each summer as an assistant and the last two years as a coordinator for the groups from Bosnia.
Last year she met Gregor, a German student, who worked as a volunteer in the summer-camp. They fell in love. 
Because of EU restrictions it is nearly impossible for Bosnians to visit Germany. (German politicians expelled 250 000 refugees from Bosnia the last 5 years what causes a lot of economical and social problems in Bosnia now). 

Therefore it was very difficult for Fatima (20) and Gregor (21) to see each other -except they married. They did on 3rd of September in Tuzla. 
I took this opportunity to visit Bosnia after a longer time. I was shocked by the unholding poverty. The situation of the refugees (especially widows and their children) seems even worse than after the war, when many NGOs cared for food and basic needs. Many refugees were forced to return in their "homes", mostly ruins, in the Serbian part of Bosnia. The situation really is awful (we'll send a report later). Fatima's grandmother gets a monthly support from her daughter in the US, which enables her to rent a room and stay near to Tuzla. There the wedding took place. Brigitte, who also is in the board of the "Committee", is employed in a store for bride-dresses and could choose one for free. 
Now the young couple has to "prove" to the German state that this is not a fictitious marriage, -this means Fatima can come to Germany after some months. This is ridiculous but it is law! 

In Israel and Palestine many people, even the chairmen of the "Peace-Now" Movement, don't see a sense in dialogue-projects anymore. Gadi Batianski, director of the Geneva Initiative (a realistic compromise and plan for peace, worked out by intellectuals from Israel and Palestine), wrote to the coalition: "withdrawing the call to talk with the Palestinians is tantamount to surrendering to despair, because without talking we will never be able to resolve the conflict." (Akiba Eldar, "Ha'aretz. August 13, 2004).
This motivated me to ask the participants of the last groups on the end of the seminars to write down what impressions and experiences they made during the meeting. I'm working on a survey of 100 comments of our participants in order to send it to Israel and Palestine. Just for example:
· Before I came here I really was afraid that the connection between Arabs and Jews will be bad, and that -because of this anger- we won't be able to listen. My purpose when I came here was to meet the Israeli Arabs and the Palestinians from the Westbank in order to get to know them and hear what they have to say.
I'm an Israeli Jew and it was important for me to explain them, what I think and feel.
At the beginning it was very hard for me, I felt like they can't really understand my thoughts. But after a while I started to become a very good friend with most of the Arabs. The meetings were very interesting, I always felt like: I can say everything that I feel. The travelling to Bonn, Köln and Phantasialand were wonderful!
I'm leaving with great memories and with a lot of new friends: Israeli Arabs, Palestinians and Jews. Thank you for letting me be a part of this important project.
NN (16 y. female)
· I came here with a hope, a hope to make a change. And now, a day before going back home, I feel fulfilled this hope. This workshop taught me that nothing can be accomplished with violence. Other than that, the seminar showed that in every nation are good and bad people. Bad people are not born bad, they just need to see things as they really are and not as others want them to see. I now have a strong belief that with efforts and pacience both -Palestinians and Israelis can live together. We now have to work on the differences to come over them.
Finally I want to express my gratitude to the sponsors and all people who have made even the slightest effort to bring us together. Never give up on peace otherwise you give up on tomorrow.
I. (21 years, male, Palestine).
So far concerning the sense of dialogue-projects.

Thank you very much for your support. 
A special Thank to Katha Pollitt, who doesn't become tired to put a request for donations in her column in the "Nation" and collects the checks since 5 years. 
Best wishes
Helga Dieter

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Usually the participants write a thank-you-letter to a donator. Most of the children don't speak a foreign language and a volunteer translates the letters. Sometimes we don't have capacities for translation. Because most of the group-members from Israel and Palestine speak a rather good English, I gave the American adresses to them. In this moment I didn't think of the confusion it could cause that our American supporters make out a check to Bosnian-Initiative and get back a letter from a Palestinian or Israeli participant. Anyway, we regard the project "Vacations from War" as one unit and just an example for grassroots-peace-work and not as a solidarity-project for a special conflict-area or the victims on one side. All grants go in one pot. 
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Some of our foreign donators may be confused by all these German organisations. A short explanation may help. As some of you know from the letters in the past I'm a member in the "Bosnian Initiative Frankfurt" (which exists 10 years next spring and was founded by members of "Courage against Racism") and also a board-member of the "Committee for Basic Rights e.V." (which works on Human Rights issues inside Germany since 20 years). The "Vacations from War"Campaign is part of the peace-work of the Committee. (the last 11 years about 17 000 children and young people from war-zones and crisis-areas took part in the summer-camps) The Bosnian-Initiative finances a women's project in Tuzla for refugees from Eastern Bosnia (Srebrenica) and and also collects grants for the summer-camps.