Balkan Peace Team

Nonviolent Intervention in the Conflicts of Former Yugoslavia

From 1994 to 2001 the Balkan Peace Team worked for the peaceful resolution of conflict by involving international volunteers in work with local peace and human rights groups. BPT was a cooperative effort of several international grassroots peace organizations that worked at the request of local peace workers. The Project closed in March 2001, because an evaluation of its resources and organization concluded that continuing a good standard of work was no longer possible.

Closure announcement (April 2001)

What the Project Did

• Nonviolent Conflict Resolution, assisting dialogue and community conflict resolution projects.
• Civil Society Development, co-operating with and encouraging development of NGOs.
• Human Rights Advocacy, supporting local activists and providing an international presence where needed.

The project:

• supported local initiatives, so that development was sustainable.
• was non-partisan, acting in support, not solidarity, and not identifying with one particular group or ideology.

The work included accompaniment of peace and human rights activists, presence at apartment evictions and court trials, making official contacts, visiting refugee camps, and networking with local people.

• We offered anti-war groups in both Kosovo/a and Serbia the additional strength that comes from outside support (the Serbian spelling is Kosovo and the Albanian Kosova. We use Kosovo/a to maintain non-partisanship).
• We encouraged dialogue by acting as a bridge between peace-minded individuals and groups in Serbia and Kosovo/a.
• We helped information flow both within and outside the region.

When students in Southern Serbia wanted to do something about the growing tensions in Kosovo/a, they approached BPT to help make connections with Kosovo/a Albanians. BPT arranged a prejudice-reduction workshop for the group, then some of the Serb students accompanied BPT on a visit to Kosovo/a, where we introduced them to an Albanian youth group. As the Kosovo/a crisis increased, the students attended a nonviolent march in Kosovo/a as observers. They were able to report back to their community on the Serbian police’s violent attacks on the peaceful protesters.

How it Started

In 1993 a number of organizations, including International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), Peace Brigades International (PBI), and War Resisters International (WRI), received requests from Croatia and Kosovo for an international presence. A joint project was formed, the Balkan Peace Team, which now has 11 member organizations.

The first team arrived in Croatia in February 1994, using the local name Otvorene Oci - Open Eyes - with volunteers both in northern Croatia (Karlovac) and in Split. The presence in Croatia ended when the team closed in December 1999.

Since 1994, the Balkan Peace Team in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (BPT-FRY) has focused on supporting dialogue between Serbs and Albanians which strengthens civil society within Yugoslavia. In the past, BPT centered its efforts in the region on networking - visiting regularly with local NGOs, learning about their needs, offering information on international resources, and always listening carefully for opportunities to build links across ethnic lines.

In March 1999, when NATO planes began to bomb Serbian targets, and Yugoslav soldiers forced masses of Kosovo Albanians out of their homes, a number of people asked whether the BPT- FRY project would end its operations. Since BPT's mandate focused on promoting Serbian-Albanian dialogue, many naturally wondered if BPT might be another casualty of the war.

In May 1999, the team embarked on a 2 1/2 week exploratory trip to Macedonia and Hungary, with a goal of bringing back news of civil society initiatives which continue among Albanians and Serbs. The team was particularly interested to find out if there were groups and individuals who were still interested in future Serb-Albanian dialogues. The BPT-FRY team concluded that future dialogue between the disparate groups was not only possible, but essential. BPT was given strong encouragement to continue filling its unique role as networkers at the grassroots level.

Perhaps the best evaluation of Balkan Peace Team's work comes from the Albanian and Serbian activists in the region. As Ymer Jaka, a leader of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, based in Prishtina, stated in a speech in Paris: "If reconciliation is going to happen, the work of the Balkan Peace Team must continue and be strengthened."