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Partners at Work
At a time when ‘ethnic cleansing’ was normal practice elsewhere in Bosnia, in the city of Tuzla residents and local government succeeded in preserving much of their community’s multicultural character. In explaining this extraordinary achievement Tuzla’s mayor, Selim Beslagic, points to the city’s tradition of mutual tolerance: ‘We have always been a melting pot and have had the possibility to stay like that during the terrible war. That’s why the nationalist forces could not manifest themselves here, though they have tried it.’
Another prominent inhabitant of Tuzla, Vehid Sehic (President of the Forum of Tuzla Citizens) complements: ‘During the ages Tuzla has always been an open city with a strong solidarity among its people. Being an industrial city Tuzla harboured some 27 nationalities.’
‘Tuzla has always been different. It was the city that started first to resist the Ottoman occupation. Then Tuzla resisted the Austrian-Hungarian forces. After the first World War it started the first big labour protests and during Second World War it fought against the nazi’s.’
Tuzla, the forth biggest city in Bosnia Herzegovina and the economic and cultural centre of north-east Bosnia, initially was spared during the war. But when the Yugoslavian People’s Army withdrew from the city in 1992 Tuzla was shelled every day by the Serbs. On the 25th of May 1995 a grenade hit the central square killing 71 civilians and wounding more than hundred.
The Forum of Tuzla Citizen was founded in 1993 by a group of people that wanted to fight the ‘nationalistic forces’. Despite threats thousands of people joined the organisation. Now it has members from many political and religious movements. The Forum backed Mayor Selim Beslagic in his striving for maintaining a multi-ethnic society.
Six years later, Forum-President Vehid Sehic looks at the effects of war: ‘In Bosnia nothing is the same as before. Also in Tuzla nothing is the same any more. Tuzla is less multi-cultural as a result of the war. That’s logical. But it is the city that succeeded best in preserving its character. Also Tuzla is the city that is most dedicated to the return of refugees and displaced persons.’
Teaching in the bathroom, Tuzla. Photo Linda Graham
It was the hopeful conditions in Tuzla that inspired Dutch organisations and municipalities to create the Assistance to Bosnian Communities Foundation (ABC) in order to support the social and physical reconstruction of the region.
Ralph Pans, former ABC-chair and mayor of the Dutch city of Almere, underlines the positive aspects of Tuzla. ‘In Tuzla there still are mosques, Catholic churches and Serbian-orthodox churches. It is the only city that did not choose for one religion and one nationality while destroying the other.’ At present it is the only municipality in Bosnia ruled by a coalition of non-nationalist political parties.
To support this ‘struggle against nationalism and to give a chance to the processes of democratisation and reconciliation’ two Dutch NGOs -the Network for Municipal Peace Policy (PGV) and the Inter Church Peace Council (IKV)- decided to set up the ABC-programme, which started in June 1996 in Tuzla. On the Dutch side, some 30 NGOs and schools, and nearly 20 municipalities are active in ABC. They cooperate with 25 partner-organisations in Tuzla.
ABC is unique because the partnership is formed by citizens organisations. The Dutch ABC-headquarters stresses that the programme ‘is not a classical humanitarian aid-programme’. Along with the supply of the necessary aid goods and the transfer of knowledge, it is trying to create lasting relations between organisations and communities in Bosnia and the Netherlands. ‘It is a real exchange of ideas among citizens,’ comments Sehic.
The Dutch and Bosnian organisations work together in formulating, preparing, implementing and evaluating projects. Before activities can go ahead the mayor of Tuzla and local leaders of the ‘sounding board’ are consulted. According to Igor Rajner, formerly the local ABC-director, external assistance to local problems can only be effective if ‘the decision making involves the community. And this is easier through decentralised cooperation, which, by its very nature, is closer to local power structures and civil society.’
Nevertheless the partnership does not imply complete equality between the teams. ‘This is normal,’ explains Sehic, ‘Bosnia just came out of the war. That legacy is also reflected in the partnership. The Dutch have a stronger democracy and economy and have more knowledge, ideas and money.’
The ABC-programme covers a patchwork of small projects ranging from infrastructure, education, culture, child care, work with youth and the elderly, trauma treatment, medical support and help for displaced persons. In 1998 nearly US$ 1.5 million were invested. (The programme was made possible through a Dutch Government donation). Sehic: ‘I think at the moment these smaller projects at the citizen level are better than economic aid or large projects. With smaller projects there is a larger trickle-down effect and they are easier to control, preventing mishandling of funds.’
One of the larger ABC-projects was the renovation of apartment buildings. About sixty percent of the inhabitants of Tuzla live in high-rise apartment blocks with 14 to 17 floors. Because of the war, water pipes, electricity, cables and elevators no longer functioned. Many inhabitants had to carry buckets of water upstairs. Sometimes rain water would trickle down the walls rendering those apartments which still had electricity extremely dangerous.
A Change in Ethnic Composition
Whereas Tuzla had a population of 130,000 before the war, by the
time the war was over the number of inhabitants had dropped to
105,000. Some 25,000 people had fled abroad while 900 soldiers
and 300 civilians from Tuzla had died in the fighting. In the
meantime many refugees had sought safety in the shelter of the
city. In 1998 it was home to 41,000 displaced people who had fled
from other parts of the country, while another 4,000 refugees
were living in camps in the vicinity.
Despite the efforts to preserve the ‘multi-cultural character’
of Tuzla the war has changed the ethnic composition of the city.
Before the conflict 48 percent of the population were Bosnian,
16 percent Serb, 15 percent Croat and 21 percent were described
as ‘others’. In 1998 the Bosnians made up 63 percent of the population,
Serbs 9 percent, ‘others’ 14 percent while only the percentage
of Croats had remained the same.
Three Dutch construction companies decided to contribute to the renovation of five buildings in Krecanska street, which had been selected for the project. The job was carried out mainly by the municipality of Tuzla and local constructors. During the renovation the elevators in the buildings were repaired, electricity was installed and new hydrofor pumps ensured that the water supply reached even the uppermost floors. The project not only provided comfortable apartments for 1,400 people, it also offered badly needed job opportunities to experienced construction workers. After the war, unemployment in Tuzla -which had previously been relatively affluent- reached eighty percent.
| ‘One of the most important things that happened to Tuzla was the international help we received. This broke our isolation: people from the normal world came to our world.’ |
The ABC-programme also targeted other aspects of social life by addressing the tangible reminders of the war at the street level. In Simin Han, a village on the outskirts of Tuzla, many street lights were not functioning. In the morning and evening people had to rush to and from school and work in darkness. Bad visibility had already resulted in a number of accidents. With a donation of some US$ 4,000, electricity and streetlamps were provided. The community of Simin Han supplied the wooden poles.
‘It’s a small example of how collaboration can achieve quick results,’ concluded United Nations agencies in the Atlas of Decentralised Cooperation for Human Development report. ‘It is a project that literally ‘sheds light’ on the real meaning of cooperation.’ ABC-coordinator Martin Aalders explained: ‘We are involved in a partnership. And this doesn’t mean importing ready-made solutions from abroad but stimulating the direct involvement of the institutions and the civil society of Tuzla.’
With the help of the Dutch partners other streets in Tuzla itself, such as Oktobarska street, were also illuminated, which not only helped prevent sprained ankles but also created a greater feeling of safety. Garbage collection became another priority. During the war garbage collecting vehicles broke down and refuse was often simply left on the streets. The Dutch municipality of Delft decided to donate a few hundreds of containers and some garbage collecting vehicles to Tuzla. This donation meant that large areas of the city could be cleaned-up.
The problems of Tuzla’s thousands of refugees are also high on the list of priorities. Many of these refugees who had fled Srebrenica were housed in the nearby Mihatovici settlement. Here, a number of Dutch municipalities provided support for the construction of a day care centre for children. The Netherlands has a special relationship with the enclave that was supposed to have been protected by Dutch soldiers against Serbian aggression.
That the programme went beyond providing ‘hardware’ is illustrated by the cultural exchanges. When actress Baisa Baki from Tuzla visited the Netherlands she noticed: ‘Theatre has another meaning for us. It is not a luxury any more, but a necessity. During the war it was the only way to give shape to our thoughts, our pain, the nightmare. That doesn’t mean we only played tragedies. On the contrary, there was a great need for comedies. To be free from suffering for a moment. Now we are trying to reconstruct our identity by looking for plays by Bosnian dramatists. We will fill the holes in our culture.’
Feedback please to
j.verhoeven@euconflict.org