£NVC Library 6th
The disputes in the former Yugoslavia which started in Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 spread over Bosnia- Herzegovina in the spring of 1992. As a result, flood of refugees fleeing from the disasters of war arrived at 2,400,000 people at the biggest. Out of them, 200,000 people were either killed or missing. Nevertheless, there was no sign of the end of the disputes. In Sarajevo surrounded by Serbia force, 10,000 out of 200,000 citizens were shot and killed. During the period between 1993 and 1994, the disputes in Bosnia-Herzegovina had reached the climax.
Ms. Jadaranka, who sang a theme song for the winter Olympic game in Sarajevo, had given her performance in Japan, before the disputes took place. She felt sorry for the horrible situation at her home country. Setting her lyrics to music, she was appealing her hope for peace through singing her lyrics in Japan.
One member of NVC made a suggestion that we might be able to do something for refugees in the former Yugoslavia. The suggestion led us to wrestle with urgent assistance for the refugees. This is the first urgent assistance by NVC. We considered it would be most desirable if Ms. Jadaranka could sing at our charity concert and she agreed with our proposal willingly. Thus, in September 1994, the charity concert for refugees in the former Yugoslavia came true at the Terusa in Niigata city. Moreover, Niigata Symphony Orchestra jointed the concert, giving its willing consent to our project.
Before NVC held the concert, we had visited one of the refugee camps in Croatia. Our purpose was to examine how we should have used proceeds. We found that the medicines were in great demand. At soon, we decided to donate a half of the proceeds to the UNHCR and the rest of them to MSF. We made a definite promise with MSF to use the proceeds as urgent medical treatment for the refugees and displaced people in Croatia.
The concert was very touching. It had three parts; 1) a solo by Ms.Jadaranka, 2) a performance by Niigata Symphony Orchestra and 3) a collaboration with Jadaranka and Niigata Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Jadaranka arranged her latest song for the concert and sang it accompanied by the Orchestra. As their performance was popular among the audience, her CDs were sold out at a stall set up near the hall. We gained earnings of 800,000 yen and donated 400,000 yen each to the UNHCR and MSF. As you might know, MSF was given a Nobel peace prize in 1999.
NVC organized a study tour subsidized by The Japan Foundation and visited Croatia from April to May in 1995, which is the next year when we gave the charity concert. Just in 1995, the situation of the disputes changed dramatically. When our members of the study tour visited the Center for Women War Victims (CWWV), one of NGOs in Croatia, Croatian army started fighting fiercely against the Bosnian Serbs. The fighting was took place at an area in the Croatian territory, where Bosnian Serbs ruled. In May and August in the same year, the Croatians could erecapturef most of their territory from the Bosnian Serbs with massive military actions. However, in the Ukraine district of Croatia, 200,000 Serbs were forced to leave their homes for a week, as a result of the Croatian military actions. This was the biggest number of the refugees in the former Yugoslavia, until a dispute occurred in Kosovo in 1999.
In May 1995, the Serbs military power gained control of the area protected by the United Nations such as Srebrenica in Bosnia. This caused the worst outcome that thousands of Muslim Croat were missed. Responding to those military forces of the Serbs, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decided to resort to arms force, and bombed the area which was ruled by Serbia, with Tomahawk missiles and so on. In December 1995, the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia peace was concluded, and the Bosnia disputes could come to a close. This also meant that eethnic cleansingf evoked a catalogue of horrors in the battles between nationalistic antagonists, came to an end.
In the society where military affaires took precedence over people, the war victims were hurt physically and mentally, and had hatred against different racial people. A lot of soldiers, who had battled in the disputes, have not been able to adapt to the society, and committed such crimes as murder and violence on women. However, in the former Yugoslavia, many NGOs including CWWV we visited in 1995, are working devotedly to arrive at the peaceful society so that different racial people are reconciled and can live together with one another.
During five years after the end of the disputes, it was the biggest problem to grope how refugees and displaced people could go home safely. Perhaps their houses were torn down or different racial people had already inhabited in their houses. Even if they could return their own villages, they mightnft have a job, because there were not many jobs to earn living expenses in devastated villages. Furthermore, the different racial people who drove those refugees out of their villages did not stop threatening and using violence against them. Many refugees gave up returning home and have migrated to the third country, for example, the United States of America, Australia, and so on. However, recently the number of the refugees who could come back home has been growing slowly.
Through an NGO, we bought some pieces of fancywork, which the refugee women who could come back their villages made them to earn living expenses. In 1996, we sold them at our NVC Charity Bazaar, called gNVC Love Bridge Bazaar.h At the charity event, we also could display some pictures drawn by children in the former Yugoslavia, who had experienced the war. It is one of the basic psychotherapy for children of deeply wounded heart to face up to the reality and overcome their mental pain by drawing pictures of the war. Some NGOs have adopted this method.
After that, many political leaders who had stirred up the hatred among people of different races and driven them to the disputes lost their powers one after another. After the Croatian President, Tudjman died in 1999, Croatia underwent rapid democratization. The Serbian President, Milosevic lost his power in 2000, and was taken into a custody and handed over to a war criminal tribunal in The Hague. He is on trial now. These political changes play significant parts in reconstruction in the former Yugoslavia.
However, the former Yugoslavia has still many problems. In 1998, the Kosovo Liberation Army organized by Albanians in Kosovo clashed with the Serbian authorities and the conflict between two powers continued to get worse. This developed the Kosovo dispute in spring in 1999. The dispute lasted for three months and 1,000,000 Albanians out of 2,200,000 residents in Kosovo became refugees and displaced people, and 10,000 Albanians out of them were either killed or lost. Also in NATOfs air strikes against Serbia, many civilians became war victims. After NATOfs air strike, the Serbians pulled out of Kosovo, and most of the Albanian refugees could return their native places. On the other hand, 200,000 Serbian who feared Albaniansf revenge became refugees.
Although the dispute in Kosovo had been suppressed once at least, the Albanian force, which gathered in the south part of Serbia, started being resorted to their arm forces. They tried to be independent from Serbia and found a unified nation with Kosovo. The international society has succeeded to act as an intermediate for this conflict, and their military operations has been settled for the present. However, problems that may cause any disputes are still smoldering (November, 2001).