Postwar reconstruction and peace construction and/or preventive diplomacy: women and emotional

investment in concept of conflict transition

Transition of bosnian society from war to peace

Period from 1991 to 1995 is a dull period of our historical horizon in wich instead of cultural values were
glorified division, schism, and geographical and ethnical divisions.

War in BiH raged from april 1992 and I have to admit on some places earlier too, up to Dayton Peace
Agreement in autumn 1995.

War in Bosnia and herzegovina took place into the families and between neighbors. Here is a loss one
universal phenomenon. In chains of religious and national colectivities has dissapeared habit of
comunion, tolerance and respect of and Different. Deprived of our personal identities, waterlogged of
loneliness, fear and misery we closed into the groups of Serbians, Croatians and Bosniaks.

Captured between escalating dissatisfactions all these three nations living together on common space,
we forgot on our mulityplicity of customs, on a linguistic mesh of our languages and also on the fact that
it was never possible to determinate where start and where also finish bosnian, croatian or serbian
cultural expression. Instead of mesh of differences wich made an essence of our identities we accepted
division on the ethnical and religious principle.

It was hard to accept separation, because we all have here unless one relative from other ethnical
group. National bigotry marked our lives. Our ability to do harm and damage to other will stay long time
in the circulation also after cessation of war effects. It will become custom and the main sign of daily life
in our country.

Every person in my country before war enjoyed in the privilage of multiple afiliation. During the war that
privilage became a encumbrance. Afiliation in one body and one person mutually stirred and opposed,
forcing simple Bosnias men and Bosnian women on painful choises in serbianism, bosnianism and
croatianism.

In eyes of Europe we are Bosnians and Herzegovians but in our gender society we are Serbians, Croats
and Bosniaks. In one healthy intellect it could be reasonable to emphasize these ours multiciplities and
not giving up of our afiliation for the benefit of the other, but constitution and something what's more
important mindset of general values does not provide a harmony of complex bosnian society.

Women build a peace/commitment as identity and afiliation

Why women had a crucial key in the reconstruction of disturbed human relations

Peace agreement brought Bosnia knowledge about full human tragedy caused by war what include
death, destructions in huge proportions and persecution of almost half inhabitants. Persecution, killing,
raping and demolition are painful report of war whose consequences are still observing and recording.
Stacking of mosaic will last for years.It's assumed that a 100 000 people were killed, over a million of
citizens are relocated and more thousands persons – women, children and men are registrated with
experience one of the worst sights of mental and physical torture in concetrations camps. More than
10% of the total number of victims of the recently finished war are women. More than 10% of women
are missing, but the exact number of killed and raped persons is still unknown.

Civil society wasn't safe phrase for public critical engagment of women and men in peace construction.
In these early years, speaking in public about peace construction was possible only from women
discourse. Women were alternative and identity model of action, who resisted cultural and cognitive
cofiguration of understanding gender/sex, peace, safety, human rights and freedoms in BiH only under
the religious and national terms.

Engagment of women in peace initiatives political public didn't recognize and admit as a theoretical and-
conceptual value that ensures knowledge about what couls mean terms as a ''civil society'' ''politic of
peace'', or ''preventions of conflicts''. Women and their activities politicians recognized as the only
female communities whose in the line of their own understanding of peace and security enlightened
and empower, nonviolent and common methods of peaceful engagment in reaction on existing tensions
and crises in both entities with a support of international community.

Women were dedicated to the prevention of violent conflicts by peaceful way in the fullest possibel
extent since 1995. There was a litlle knowledge about basic techniques of nonviolent conflict resolution.
Foreign goverments, multilateral institutions and international NGO have assited in creating of space for
joints action of women peace initiatives from both entities in providing the funds for support program
and leading inclusion processes. The numer of women in peace initiative was siginificantly bigger than
number of man and somehow inverse of their participation in the political public.

People affected by a conflict haven't feel that led peace process belong to them, but that is imposed
from outside. All strategies and initiatives for preventions, management and resolution are mostly
generated by international organisations who supported them in the ares about wich they didn't know
enough and wich they leaving soon, not ever questioning the effects of their work. International
organisations were concetrated of programs of rehabilitation, reconstruction and what fully suited to
politicians.

Understanding of bosnian peace was discrepancy between the ideals of coexitences wich women
imagine and principales of collective ideology that men usually create. That discrepancy or
contradictions between revolutionary speech of politicians about peace and security and their refusing
to accept policy of peace beyond the vital national interests has lauched a group of female acitivists in
Women to Women to start with a local initiative in peace construction in communities where all ties
between people were broken and also neighorly connections.

We understood that reconstructions of houses, roads and bridges is not enough for reconstruction of
disturbed human relations and broken ties between people. We needed harmonized,complete and long
term integrative approach wich will constantly encourage individual pacification through re-integration
of cultures, religions and customs.
We needed local, domestic concept of peace construction with wich we can do in the same time on
trauma and traumatical experiences of individual men and women, disturbed human familiar relation or
community and also on the reconstructions of houses and infrastructures in a difficult social and
political enviroment. It wasn't possible to separate traumatic problem from economy, human rights,
recontruction, democratisation,justice, pacification and non-violent conflict resolution and confronting
with past.

Mediation in community is a precondition to sustainable coexitence, but very important dimension of

the same is finding a justice. On a practical level, freedom of charged persons for war crimes specially
for those on authority positions significantly aggraved and still it's making harder life - normalisation
and creating a atmophere wich could contribute to peace. Also, proceeding of war criminal and crimes
doesn't contribute to peace from simple reason because that fact is also one of facts for( non)mediation,
because some people consider that accusing falls only on members of one or second nation for benefit
of third one.

Concept of peace construction wich raise Women to Women and Women in Black direct to
establishment of human infrastructure that will support political agreements about peace policy with
social institution that will pilot them. Thanks to the local generating approach ''Prevention instead
reaction'' led by sides of local men and women, domestic concept BE Peace becoming more and more
influential in local communities of BiH, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo.

I'm talking about approach in wich dominates human dignity and where every personality has its own
freedom and right to think with his/her own head, to judge with his/her soul within his/her own
cognition about good and evil, to take responsability for things what he/she do, to talk about his/her
experience, to love and feel on his/her own discretion and review effects of his/her own action. There's
existing two basic reason why we plead for domestic concept of peace construction in BiH but also in
whole region.

The first reason was related to the need to define the program to all citizens / will accept because that
program meets a standards their specific features and deals with their experiences and needs.
Another reason was the desire to work for peace train local men and local women whose will daily share
their experience and knowledge within their families as well as local and regional environment.

Our intention was to spread out social network of initiatives for conflict preventions and peace
construction that will contribute realizing human rights in more dimensions including mediation,
distributions of help, gender and social justice. All these values are core of ethnical and political models
of peace activism that we undertook with our local partners in BiH, but also in region in the last decade.