J *HELLO PEOPLE!*J 



Welcome to MM's MARCH 2000 Newsletter!





This month the sun provided some examples of her capabilities with the first

sun burns showing up at Judes nose. However, this was encountered by a short

symbolic fall-in of snow flakes. Thus, Mostar again became victim of

extremist weather factions, struggling between warm days and cold nights .





SITUATION IN MOSTAR AND BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA



The beginning of March in the political arena was marked by the uproar around

The Hague's sentence of 45 years given to the Bosnian-Croatian General and

supposed war criminal Tihomir Blaskic. Since war-time he is held as one of

the most popular heros among the Croatian population as he fought for

so-called Herzeg-Bosnia, the proclaimed Croatian para-state on Bosnian

territory. Thousands went on the streets on Zagreb to protest against the

Blaskic verdict. A similar demonstration of some 1,500 people was held by war

veterans in Mostar. Here, international institutions were blasted and the new

Croatian government mocked. Many shops in the Western part of Mostar closed

during the meeting, be it a sign of public support or political pressure.

Graffitti showed up in Mostar's central places, featuring nationalist

slogans. However, there has not been open hostility towards international

organizations or individuals so far. 



Also, the newly elected Croatian government and politicians joined criticism

against the sentence. However, they played aptly and announced the revelation

of documents proving that Blaskic was sacrified by the former Croatian HDZ

government in order to protect war criminals among Tudjmans protegees.

Obviously, the new politicians attempted to hijack public sympathy for their

ends and tried to oust their political rival HDZ. 



Meanwhile, the political situation in Bosnia is determined by the upcoming

municipal elections on April 8th. Some 21,000 people representing 67 parties

are running for posts in 146 municipalities, and about 2.5 million people are

expected to vote. The head of the OSCE -- ironically the Austrian Foreign

Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner -- urged citizens of Bosnia to vote for

change in the 8 April local elections. The call echos the OSCE's

controversial slogan for the ballot, "Vote for Change." However, the UN's

chief envoy Jacques Klein warned against election optimism and said that

nationalist parties are likely to win the majority of votes. 



A positive sign, on the other hand, was the two-day visit of the newly

elected Croatian President Stipe Mesic to Sarajevo on 23 March. It was his

first official trip to another country as Croatia's leader. He stated that

his country will no longer interfere in Bosnia's internal affairs or finance

'Herceg-Bosnia'. He argued that the para-state must be dissolved, calling it

a throwback to the days when Croatia's previous leadership sought to

partition Bosnia. The president pledged that he will restore full legal

status as recognized national minorities to Croatia's Slovenes and Bosnian

Muslims, which the previous leadership abolished. Earlier Mesic had declared

he wants to air secret military documents showing Tudjman's role in the

partitioning of Bosnia. The revelation of a direct Tudjman-Milosevic

telephone line may be thus only a first step of more to come. In Sarajevo,

crowds of thousands enthusiastically welcomed Mesic who enjoys an enormous

reputation especially among young Bosnians. 



Finally, a two-day donors' conference took place in Brussels on 29 March as

part of the EU's Balkan Stability Pact. Among projects devoted to economic

development, some $2.7 billion will be needed for infrastructure alone.

Critics note that the pact has awakened more hopes within the Balkans than it

can possible fulfill. And, Mladi Most finds itself among those waiting for

the promises to be kept. 



RFE/RL newsline and local observation by MMM staff.





, f FOTO PROJECTf , 



Funding for the Young Photographers' Media Network (YPMN) does not look too

good. In March the Photo Group still could not get any positive reply on

funding requests. Due to this reason the first photography seminar, planned

at the End of March, had to be postponed to the future, after funding would

be guaranteed. This effects the plans of the whole YPMN, as the one year

program should have started in March.





The Photo Group applied to participate (with 4 people out of the whole group)

in the "Forbidden Fruits of Civil Society" arts Festival in Mala

Loka/Slovenia in the Beginning of June and received an inviataion from the

organisers. The Group will bring with them "Portrait of Mostar" exhibition

and also intends to have photographic events going on during the festival. 





March 16th the "Portrait of Mostar" exhibition was shown at a fundraising

event in Washington DC, organsied by the documentary film team "Crucible of

War". Pictures from this event can be seen on the webpage:

www.crucibleofwar.org. The "Crucible of War" team is also working on

organising another exhibition event for the ""Portrait of Mostar" project in

an art gallery in Baltimore. 





Uli, coordinator of the MM Photo Section





, f YOUNG WOMEN'S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING NETWORKf , 





Young Women's Project held three Creative workshops in MM Mostar in March.

Two of these workshops focused on collage, drawing and usage of colors.

Participants from Capljina were involved in these workshops too. No theatre

workshops were held this month.



The Rea Silvia performance "Six Parts of Me" was held on March 8th , the

International Women's Day, in UNHCR in Geneva. The photos from Young Women's

MM Photo Workshops were exhibited in Geneva as well, as a part of a bigger

exhibition which was set up for this occasion, presenting images of women

from different parts of the world. Rea Silvia was in Geneva from March 2nd

until March 9th 2000. 



Two Outreach Workshops were held in March. Both were held in Blagaj led by a

YWELN staff member. These workshops besides the regular writing part, also

consisted of collage and drawing as new ways to tickle the Blagaj girl's

imagination.



Seminar "Youth In Elections" originally planned for the end of March was held

on the 1st and 2nd of April in MM. The seminar was led by Ramiza Zukanovic,

NGO "Prijateljice" from Kostajnica. It involved participants from Mostar and

Kostajnica, the participants from Kostajnica all being refugees either from

Capljina or Mostar. Apart from the lecture which was held as the inevitable

part of any seminar, there was the fun part for the participants in which

role-plays were organized and "political party" campaignes made. The last

part of the seminar were the "elections", in which Ramiza guided the

participants through the election process in the set up polling station.

According to the evaluation results, the topic as well as the entire course

of the seminar were very good, challenging in sense of provoking them to

think more and ask right questions. There were also some suggestions to make

the similar sttructure of the seminar but on a different topic the next time.



Arijana, MM women's group



, f NINPO and FAR EASTERN PHILOSOPHIESf , 



The Ninpo Group continued with the weekly workshops. Hala and Haris are

advancing quite fast and after passing the requirements for the first level

they are working more on their own to develop and use both the physical and

philosophical aspects of the art. 



Unfortunately Frank re-injured his knee quite seriously this time, but Hala

and Haris are far enough along in the program where he does not have to

physically demonstrate the techniques to them. Our focus this month was to

find what physical techniques we have difficulties with and search for the

deeper physiological/philosophical meaning in the technique to see if it

applies to our mental state of mind. As it turned out it does. Haris

physically has problems with Kami's(mental attitudes with a specific stance)

but he is very good at seeing an advanced physical technique remembering the

specific details involved. Hala on the other hand is very strong in the

Kami's and needs more time to figure out the advanced techniques. The

interesting point here is that Kami's are only confident attitudes we take

on. Haris tends to have trouble with being heard, but is extremely organized

in his life. Hala has no problem with his level of confidence or being heard

but has a lot of trouble organizing his time. Through the physical techniques

we can find the fitting mental aspects and begin to transfer them into the

areas of our lives where we need improvement. In the process the first thing

we do is identify our weaknesses so we can begin to address them and improve

our lives to fit our own needs.



There has been no outreach activity due to the lack of funding and hopefully

we will have a decision from the Canadian Embassy in mid-April. 



Hala has officially taken on the role of Assistant Ninpo Co-ordinator and

receives payment for the work he does on the project. 



Frank, coordinator Ninpo project



, f MM IN GENERALf , 



Still up to date since February: Fundraising continues as ever but with more

frustration funders in BiH are more and more reluctant to commit themselves

to funds for this year. This waiting game seemed to begin in November when

donors were awaiting the new financial year in January, now it's the new

financial year in April they are waiting for - there is also a possibility

that they are waiting for the results and plans of the Stability Pact before

commiting their own funds. This is not only frustrating but also difficult to

deal with in terms of our future planning - we have so many ideas but so

often it depends on money. . in the meantime funding for the women's group's

staff ran out, the end of contracts for Dzemal and Bartol are near, but the

projects are working on and try to cover budgetary gaps by harder work and

less expenses. However, a great help in this dire financial situation was the

generous donation by students and Jost Handtrack from Landsberg/ Germany.





Middle of March the annual membership assembly of MM took place. Instead of

the expected routine process of exchanging candidates for the MM organs, we

found ourselves in a lively and fruitful democratic decision-making process.

Some 25 members elected new MM representatives. As Velibor Sudar and Orha

Maslo joined, we have now a seven-strong Supervisory Board comprising the

most capable NGO-activists of Mostar! Adisa and Timm were elected to become

Management Board members, whereas Arijana and Timm will represent MM in the

every-day bureaucratic jungle. 





However, another experience in democratic decision-making was our day-long

staff meeting at the Croatian coast. The main topic were plans for the new MM

premises. And after an efficient discussion - greatly facilitated by Jude -

we came up with a decision: Beginning of May, MM is moving to a new office

only some 200 m from the old house, at the East bank of Neretva. These neat

and new premises offer a large activity room, two teraces towards the river

and are still cheaper than the present MM headquarter. However, the short

distance from the old MM might nevertheless put to test the mobility of our

visitors from the Western parts of Mostar. But, after all, MM is continuing

its commitment to work with youth from all over the town. 





Timm, MM administration





We hope this letter finds you all well - thank you for your support and 



DON'T FORGET OUR NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES: mladi-mo@bih.net.ba



mmzena@bih.net.ba



Uli, Dzemal, Frank, Adisa, Amna, Arijana, Bartol, Timm and puppy.

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From: "Mladi Most Mostar" <Mladi-mo@bih.net.ba>

To: "Lukasz Szopy" <l.szopa@gmx.net>, "luke jerram"

	<luke@jerram.swinternet.co.uk>, "Mark Shepard, OSCE"

	<Marks@Oscebih.Org>, "Mauz" <mauz74@hotmail.com>, "MC and Tamiko"

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	"MM(Berlin)" <mladi-mo@ipn.de>, "Natasha Brown"

	<Tattyb@Excite.Com>, "Oci u Oci, Sarajevo" <Ociuoci@bih.net.ba>,

	"Omladinski Centar GV/Uskoplje" <ocgv@gmx.net>, "Paula Webster"

	<Fico11@aol.com>, "Proni Travnik" <proni.tr@bih.net.ba>

Subject: Mladi Most Newsletter March 2000

Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 14:02:00 +0200

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