THE SOUL OF EUROPE
SEVEN YEARS
2000 – 2007
We are writing to the many friends and to those who support us and have encouraged us in our endeavours. We are grateful for your solidarity with us, more than we can say. Thank you!
Thisletter describes what we have done and what we are planning.
FAREWELL TO BOSNIA
Our projects in Bosnia are not complete, but our work there has come to an end.
For the last seven years the Soul of Europe has been an initiator and catalyst, a broker and mediator in many activities.
Now we are moving on.
THE FERHADIJA MOSQUE
In June 2000 we visited Mufti Camdzic, the mufti of Banja Luka. He told us about the destruction of all the mosques in the Republika Srpska (the Serbian entity of Bosnia) during the Bosnia War. He spoke specifically about the destruction of the Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka. It had been built by the great Ottoman architect Sinan and had been a significant example of our European cultural heritage. We said we would see the Ferhadija rebuilt. Now the old stones have been collected and the foundations laid. In April 2006 the government of the Republika Srpska gave £100,000 towards the reconstruction. This donation came after many conversations. All is ready for the next stage of the project, preparing the plans so that building may begin.
The Ferhadija will be rebuilt because there has to be a visible sign that justice is seen to be done and that those responsible for ethnic and cultural cleansing would not have the last word. Sometimes the imperatives of justice override religious considerations.
As Dr Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, said to us recently: ‘Without the Soul of Europe there would be no Ferhadija.’ And as this letter is being written, Oliver Brind, the Director of Development for the Prince of Wales’s Charity is in Bosnia to see how the project can be taken further.
THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
We have supported and continue to support all the religious communities in Bosnia, including the Orthodox Diocese of Banja Luka where we have good relations with Bishop Jefrem.
We give particular support to the Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka bringing the attention of its needs to the wider Catholic community, and on our visit to the Vatican persuaded the previous Pope to make a special visit to Banja Luka in 2003 when he apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church for crimes committed by Catholics against Orthodox Serbs and Muslims.
We managed to bring the religious leaders round the table to agree on how they could work together and help prevent future conflicts between the three communities in Bosnia. The Soul of Europe’s work with the religious leaders has been widely reported and recognized. When in the year 2000 we first visited Serbia and met Patriarch Pavle, he specifically advised us to go to Bosnia and help make peace between the religious communities there. This we tried to do to the best of our abilities. Most importantly we are known by all communities as friends; we pay attention to them equally and have credit with all. This means we can depend on their support in our projects. This part of our work cannot be emphasized enough. It puts the Soul of Europe in a unique position. No other group or organization, as far as we know, can claim this degree of support and friendship from all the religious communities equally in a country where religion played such a powerful and destructive role in the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnia War.
NETWORKS AND SCHOOL EXCHANGES
Over the last seven years we have built up a network of groups and individuals sharing the vision and methods of the Soul of Europe over Europe (particularly in Germany, France and Spain) also in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly in Qatar, Turkey, Libya and Tunisia. Conferences we organized in Brussels and Windsor established this extensive network to call on support and collaboration for future projects.
We have also arranged exchanges between schools. Last month the International League of Humanists presented an award to St Peter’s School in Exeter for the school’s work in promoting peace. The Soul of Europe brokered the first contacts between St Peter’s School and Banja Luka High School.
MEDIATION IN OMARSKA
Latterly we were appointed by Mittal Steel to bring together Serbs and the survivors of the Omarska killing camp to come to an agreement about a memorial. Omarska was an iron ore mine which Mittal Steel acquired. We managed to bring perpetrators and survivors around the table to begin talking and collaborating. Our mediation there was recognized and appreciated by all sides. Mittal Steel was grateful, but the project is not complete. The memorial has yet to be built. But the people themselves are taking the project forward.
If there is one image that illustrates the main strands of our work it is that of former enemies facing each other across a room, listening intently to one another, beginning to understand each other’s different stories. This image could be witnessed at the Coventry Consultation in 2001, in the establishing of the Civic Forum in Banja Luka in 2002 and at the December Consultation Remembering for Tomorrow in 2005 also in Banja Luka.
CHRONICLING THE WORK OF THE SOUL OF EUROPE
Because our work is difficult to quantify we have been rigorous in writing up our visits. In 2002 Peter Pelz’s A Tender Bridge, about our arrival in Bosnia, was published. Since then Peter has been chronicling in detail all our visits in The Ferhadija Mosque, about the Coventry Consultation and beyond. He is in the process of writing and editing this book. But in 2006 he completed the white house, an account of our mediation work with perpetrators and survivors in Omarska. This book is at present looking for a publisher.
Before sending it to publishers we sent it to friends and unsparing critics for a response. This is what one of them, Jeremy Seabrook, author of forty published books and tough commentator on world affairs wrote about the white house:
15.12.06
‘I am really speechless with admiration for what Peter Pelz has written. It is an extraordinary account of engagement with intractable and murderous hostilities, of the energy generated by hope. It doesn't require some ostentatiously 'successful' outcome: the practice speaks for itself. What the Soul of Europe has achieved in its sensitive intervention in Bosnia serves as a model of patience, tolerance and magnanimity - qualities without which reconciliation is a hollow aspiration. It is an extraordinary story, a thrilling narrative of those who learn to overcome the injuries done to them and those embittered beyond grief.
What I particularly like is the way in which the symbol of establishing a memorial itself became the catalyst for so much work of rapprochement and humanity - I think it is partly the way in which the material emblem of suffering was turned into a transformative experience that makes it so moving.’
These words describe precisely what the Soul of Europe has tried to do in Bosnia in all its various activities over the last seven years.
Our work is not glamorous or newsworthy. It rarely produces ‘concrete’ outcomes. The Omarska mediation began in mutual mistrust – it seemed at first impossible to bring both sides together – and ended in a handshake, a small gesture but when this happened we knew our work had been worth while.
So we thank everyone who has supported us throughout these seven years and kept an eye on us.
‘No Epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse.’
A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeare
THE NEXT SEVEN YEARS
The Soul of Europe is reaching the end of a period of reassessment. Since the end of the Mediation Project in Omarska we have been preparing projects in new directions.
Now the way ahead is becoming clear.
THE LEEDS FELLOWSHIP
Donald Reeves has been invited to be a Visiting Fellow to the George Mitchell Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Leeds Metropolitan University.
The Rev Dr Simon Robinson FRSA, Professor of Applied and Professional Ethics, School of Applied Global Ethics, part of the Leslie Silver International Faculty, writes:
'It is with great pleasure that we welcome Donald Reeves as a visiting fellow to Leeds Metropolitan University. Donald is a man of immense experience who successfully bridges the gap between values and practice in peace building. It is precisely this experience that will enable students to develop good reflective practice and enable the academics in the George Mitchell Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution to develop academic work that will make a difference in the real world. We look forward to developing several different projects with our new fellow.’
Donald brings the Soul of Europe with him to this post, its contacts and extensive networks.
We are considering three areas of work:
- To establish a post-graduate certificate in Peace Building and Conflict Transformation. We believe this initiative will be welcomed by many throughout the world who are living and working in situations where fighting has stopped but where there is still considerable instability. We aim to establish a five year project with twenty students a year. Most of the work will be done ‘on line’ but with two residential sessions.
- To explore how business (the private sector) can overcome its reluctance to be involved in peace building. Donald is well placed to undertake this pioneer work having been a consultant to Rio Tinto for several years and then consultant to Mittal Steel on the Omarska Mediation Project.
- Donald will give a series of public lectures and seminars for students on a range of issues on conflict resolution and conflict transformation.
These proposals will be refined over the coming months.
KOSOVO
Some months ago the International Crisis Group proposed that building on our experience in Bosnia we could be useful in Kosovo, bringing the monks and nuns of the Serbian Orthodox Church together with Muslim Kosovar Albanians particularly in those areas where the monasteries are surrounded by Kosovar Albanians. The Soul of Europe is beginning a search to establish a coalition of mediators and an ‘eminent person’ (a senior politician or diplomat from the EU who will act as a link with the Kosovo administration) who together with the Serbian Orthodox Church will invite the Soul of Europe to undertake this work. (A copy of an article written by Donald Reeves for the Church Times on this issue is enclosed with this letter.)
PREPARATION
The Soul of Europe is now beginning a period of intense activity.
1 For the Fellowship we will be ‘testing the market’ to find out what kind of student might be attracted to participate in the certificate program. We shall be having conversations with many organizations such as Human Rights Watch, International Alert, Conciliation Resources, Quaker Peace and Service, etc..
2 We shall begin conversations with global and multi national companies to see how the reluctance of big business working in post-conflict situations can be overcome with a view to a conference in Leeds in 18 months time.
3 The Soul of Europe now needs to lay the foundations for the Kosovo Project, discovering a team of mediators and an ‘eminent person’ leading to a 10 day visit to Kosovo for a mapping exercise.
FUNDING
1 LEEDS FELLOWSHIP. The Fellowship carries no stipend. The Soul of Europe together with the University will seek funding to establish the Fellowship on a permanent basis. The Fellowship will bear the name of whoever sponsors it. Meanwhile the Soul of Europe will have to prepare the work of the Fellowship.
2 KOSOVO The Soul of Europe will identify sources of funding, probably the Kosovo Administration via the European Union and/or a major foundation.
We are seeking bridging funds so that we can undertake the preparation for the Fellowship and for Kosovo.
We hope, if you have read this far, that you would be prepared to continue supporting us by contributing towards the next stage of our work.
We need £30,000 for to cover the costs of six months work as the Leeds Fellowship and the Kosovo projects are prepared.
Donations can be made directly to the Soul of Europe or to its charitable arm the Ferhadija Trust, one of whose aims is to promote good relationship between religions.
Thank you!
With best wishes
Donald Reeves
Peter Pelz
July 2007
The Soul of Europe,
The Coach House,
Church Street,
Crediton,
Devon EX17 2AQ
Tel: (+44) (0)1363 775 100 Fax: (+44) (0)1363 771 933
donalreeve@aol.competerpelz@aol.comwww.soulofeurope.org
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