We were led to believe hat nationalism has exhausted all of its promoting potentials in first half of twentieth century. We believed that nationalism, as such was discredited to theextent that it could never recuperate again.

At the end of the twentieth century, a different scenario plays out. Nationalism has returned in the main stream of events; and its potency was best demonstrated in the most destructive and most forceful manner in the countries of former Yugoslavia.
Ethnical violence and war are drastic example of the failure of an ideology to solve deeply entrenched problems. Our surrounding reflected our natural impulse to posses and in the interim we lost our ability of self-definition. As a society, we had enclosed ourselves in the armors of personal egotisms, while simultaneously, we were flooded with loneliness, fear, destruction, persecution and misery.

Although we were anxiously searching a ray of life warmness and life, we were, collectively, nevertheless deprived of our own personal identities and our own inner peace. The time between 1992-1995 was a gloomy period in our historical horizon; where the signs of separation, geographical and ethnical dividedness had replaced the instilment of cultural values. Most of Europe was left completely speechless when for the second time in the last sixty years of the twentieth century, people were persecuted from their homeland or killed. The persecution of people from the occupied areas was a means to obliterate all traces of one cultural heritage. As a result, the final balance of crimes is still unknown. The war crimes mosaic will take years to complete. We suppose that approximately 200 000 people were killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More than 2 millions of Bosnians of all ethnicities, had to live as refugees or persecuted people. Many of them are witnesses of genocide. More than 1 500 women disappeared and the exact number of the killed women to this day remains unknown. According to the current researches, there are 749 registered cases of rape, with approximately 2000 victims of estimated 20 000.

Under such circumstances, it was hard to contemplate peace building at a local and regional level. What does the peace building means in our different cultures? Are we a country of an unfinished past, where because of fear, every hope for life in a multicultural and pluralistic society is by default extinguished?

Love of old country and recent experiences in exile present slim hope for social recognition. We, unfortunately, live in a time of attacks and defenses, nationalist enthusiasm, discussions and hate.

We still see the “other” as our enemy, which in terms of cultural relations means that we refuse to see the “other” and to communicate openly with him/her. Has it matured in our consciousness that there is a need to acknowledge an objective necessity for life in coexistence? Is it still the case that conscience that prioritizes and focuses on nationalism is strengthened and entrenched as a result of our attitudes? Are we perpetuating the constant state of imprisonment between competing and escalating discontents among the different people of this region?

I know that past should not be repressed, but past cannot become the policy of present. I want to step out from fear. Encouraged and resolute, I think about women’s capacities of peace building that develop alternative approaches which can be used as basis for political training in program of negotiating and meditation.

Consciousness about gender and peace building in women’s way has spread models equally for women and men. Multidimensional approach for peace building has been created, and it reflects different histories, cultures and traditions and it also develops and is implemented in a manner to be suitable for the particular areas of our country.
Our goal is: free individuals.

We are building a society in which spiritual and individual dimension will prevail over the group identification. We are trying to step out of deep state of the ideology ridden society and almost religious devotion for patriarchal society in order to reach the level of equal respect for all persons, individuals – woman and man. A move from a mentality of conquest to recognition of spiritual values; from space of self-sufficiency to space of dialog. Point at issue is Bosnian, Serb, and Croatian identity create three interwoven segments: territorial, demographic and group and individual consciousness/historical awareness and a sense of belonging.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is difficult to say where particular cultural expressions begin and where do they end. Establishing of dialog is inseparably related with the constructive inheritance.

The program, TO BE PEACE, in my opinion, is a story about hard work and idealism. For me it represented an interrelated compound of psycho trauma, non-violent communication and reconciliation. That was the only possible model for people who suffer from causes of long-term trauma; they all have different needs and they all need help in different ways. In this case it is hard to separate problems of trauma, economy, reconstruction, democratization, and reconciliation.

Why it was necessary to have an integrated approach?

Because problems are closely related and because there is a lack of basic attitudes toward individual responsibility, responsibility for work (job), analytical thinking, self-confidence and initiative.

The loss is a dominant factor in our society: the loss of family, friends, the loved ones, house, heart and way of living. As a consequence there was a process through which a lot of people lost their own identities and the most often question asked is: WHO AM I?
We have a problem of interchanging and exchanging problems, like apathy, which is a cause of the lack of private and public responsibility. It has never been enough time for mourning, sorrow, anger and anxiety, which at the same time caused great problems in mental and psychological health. There are high rates of depression, anxiety, bad temper, and psychosis from violence in family. There are high rates of tobacco addiction, alcoholism and drug addiction. The first step toward addressing these disturbing problems is to commence by including people in their own future, respecting their needs, fears and wishes.

The people design plans for return and reconciliation together with local activists. During last ten years we have trained more then twenty multiethnic teams for community building and they work directly with people in field. They counsel, work on conflict resolution, help in social infrastructure and improve community development. The aim was to prepare communities and cultural groups for independence and self-support. Multiculturalism as a system alone is not enough; it is not come free of pain and conflict. The acceptance of cultural multidimensionalism alone is not a condition that needs to be fulfilled in order to overcome nationalism.

We have to be stronger than destiny; and if destiny is unfair, we have to be fair. That is the only way to feel relief, joy of tolerability and joy of future.

Focuses of working program in communities are:

·Reconciliation
·Peace promotion
·Skills of peace building/women educate men about necessity for peaceful coexistence
·Human relations and processes/sharing of narrative and creative expressions
·New methods in Conflict Resolution
·Women cross over ethnical borders for peace
·Peace programs
It is important to spot evil in time, regardless of whether evil is in us or in others.
It is important to know how to choose the best working ways of neutralizing and we have to do that only in cooperation with others.
By doing that, we make stronger relations with others and we strengthen a part in everyone of us, finally to arrive to a feeling of success and happiness with others instead of compromising those feelings in others.
Reconciliation, learning of coexistence in peace is an integral part of women’s grassroots organizations.
Women work on conflict humanization, placing the victim in the focus and seeking a common denominators among them. Without placing an emphasis on ethnical background or religious affiliation, we try to find solutions both for male and female violence.
Women peace activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina reject any and all nationalist ideology, they work across ethnical boarders and they protect different aspects of culture; aspects that are basis of methods for conflict resolution and peace building.
Talking about war, we meet with our pasts and we open the gate to hope through concrete actions and visible results.
Peace building in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being directed towards the revival of economy, monitoring of human rights, return of refugees and their re-integration in the society; re-establishment of civil society, recovery of the country and towards fundamental reforms of relations that are important for peace building and its sustainability.

If we want to obtain progress and build a more peaceful and just societies, then we have to understand a new political approach where words and deeds will not be separate; where the words will disclose the present state of affairs, and the deeds will establish relations and build new, better realities.

Working on peace building means to confront oneself, and to liberate oneself from the expectations and to include one in re-examining and correcting of state politics related to problems of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Path to truth is open for everyone, and ways of reaching truth are competition in good and knowledge, and not by ways of social interpretation of fear and threat.

Lets liberate ourselves from the habits of judging; lets step out from active isolation or passive assimilation.

Lets spare religious identity from the misuse and lets motivate people to fight for peace, justice and tolerance.

I reason with my own soul in frame of personal cognition about good and evil; I think I love and I feel.

I don’t want to be confined in the framework of a class, traditional, political, someone else, profit-oriented universe.