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NGO Role in the Crisis in Macedonia

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Course of the crisis in Macedonia

MCIC and five other civic organizations announced their joint platform for non-violent solution of the conflicts

The crisis has started we the events in Tanusevci, which have been underestimated both by the politicians and the public and assessed as an isolated event. The events in Tetovo in March 2001 however, have brought a new development. Suddenly, confusing and shocking, on the surface came up the intolerance and the violence as a way of solving differences and problems. Events such as Lipkovo, Vejce, Bitola, Leshok, Aracinovo, Karpalak, Ljuboten began to take place. The violence, threats, expulsions, brutalities, anarchy were only strengthening the tensions between the communities and encouraged the mistrust, fear and hatred. In August 2001 we reached the level of mutual demonizing and dehumanizing. It was the threshold of civil war. The Ohrid Agreement happened in moments of quick crisis escalation. We can say that the Ohrid Agreement has marked the beginning of a reverse process that decreases the violence, but it is still too early to return the trust.

What was the NGO response?

Unfortunately, the escalation of violence in Macedonia has matched an event organized by NGOs, among which the Albanian Women Union in Macedonia (AWUM), Tetovo and the Human Rights Forum, Gostivar. Despite the AWUM denial, this raised many controversies and initial confusion. After that initial confusion, March was marked as “the month of peace messages”. The NGO reactions against violence have arrived from the Open Society Institute, from the Nansen Dialogue Center, the Union of Women Organizations in Macedonia, from El Hilal, from the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation. A great number of other civic associations have raised their voices and agreed that they stand for peace and non-violence, mutual respect and democratic solution of all problems. The spontaneous support from many organizations has been impressive. It came even from those with ethnic Albanian prefix. As the tensions grew, the NGO activities began to reduce. The further appeals, messages and declarations for peace have begun to lose their sense.

DOSTA E

The platform for civic action DOSTA E is a result of the effort to enable the civic sector and to the citizenship respond to the crisis that exploded last year in Macedonia. The mobilization started last year with the appeals “For Peace” and “Against the madness”. Then, two telephone lines were activated (in Macedonian and Albanian) where citizens were answering the question: What scares you most these days? The answers, which did not only refer to the military conflict, initiated he meeting of over 100 NGOs in June 2001, which resulted in the slogan and the campaign DOSTA E. Signing the Framework Agreement initiated the second meeting, which took place on 30 August in SKOPJE, when the second phase of the campaign DOSTA E was initiated. The brochure “Perspectives of the Framework Agreement – possible vision for the NGO action platform in the Republic of Macedonia” was published and distributed in the circulation of 100,000, including the integral text of the Framework agreement in Macedonian. Then, 50 grants for NGO activities were awarded (mostly outside Skopje) for bringing the Agreement closer to the citizens. The second phase of the campaign HOW GOOD A FRAME CAN BE DEPENDS ON US followed. All phases of the campaign were conducted in all six languages that are spoken in Macedonia.
FIOOM

If the activities against violence were evident, this could not be said for the NGO activities for interethnic cooperation. One of the rare evident campaigns, promoting the multi-culture in the past period has been “Neogranicen Mir” by “Civil” There have probably been other less evident activities.
In the second half of the year, the activities for civic participation started. There have been several significant activities, such as the campaign DOSTA E supported by a large citizen and NGO coalition and an important Open Society Institute Macedonian Foundation role.

The Coalition for Peace, too has organized a media campaign for the Ohrid Agreement support.

NGOs on the way of peace

The activities for support of the non-violence have been exhausted by appeals, messages and peace declarations. What could have been done on short terms- encourage the public performances of moderate leaders and famous people, encourage those who hold different opinions to stand against ethnic Albanian extremism and violence in public, where civic associations’ leaders should be guided by their personal example – had not been done. We could get the expression that the extremists managed to silence the moderate ones. There was not enough condemnation of the violence from its own group. And when somebody gained courage, such as the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, a fierce attack occurred, as an example for the rest.

The public impression might be worse than what has been done for supporting the multicultural cooperation. Even the NGO activists would say, “the NGOs did not do anything”. A national expert for civic society said, “the more projects for interethnic cooperation there are, the worse the relations become.”

This is perhaps one of the most incorrect conclusions. Why? The NGOs have done what they could. The NGOs are one of the rare segments in the society that maintained good relations regardless of the belonging. Evident activities are expected, however, those less evident on the level of communities are those that matter. And those are concrete activities where on the basis of mutual questions and problems we build our mutual understanding. No matter if those problems concern the infrastructure or the environment protection, or the family violence, or…Nevertheless, it is possible that the wrong impression has been built on the basis of “projects” that take for granted foreign models that need time to be adjusted and accepted.

Long-term strategies will make a difference

Brendan Mac Alistair from the Mediation Network of North Ireland, Belfast:

From our own experience we know that in the time of raised tensions there are various unrealistic expectation about what civic associations can do to alleviate the condition. Long-term strategies will make a difference and that demands appropriate resources and lots of patience.

The common citizens might have a feeling that they cannot influence the question of war or peace. The course of events only strengthens that feeling, and the Ohrid Agreement has confirmed that. That is when the classical set up of the “powerful” ones occurred. They have made the Ohrid Agreement without citizens’ participation, and they have located the responsibility for its implementation with the citizens (and their organizations). Of course, the international community, too, became involved in the support of the Agreement, in some cases, with a very clumsy and inappropriate media campaign, which had an opposite effect. Fortunately, not many national organizations have accepted the role of national supporters of these campaigns. On the other hand, although excluded from the decision-making processes, citizens (and their organizations) have organized relatively successful activities, such as the campaign DOSTA E, or some media-civic actions.

Although the results appear to be modes, they are in accordance with the possible and the reality. They are a solid foundation for future work. Perhaps the civic organizations will have the key role on the way of peace. The peace and stability, the prosperity and the democracy are a deed and responsibility of all citizens and their organizations. Thus, they will last longer.

Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Next: Controversial cases

 

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