The first phase of the Project – Study Visit to Yugoslavia
Program report
According to the Contract on financing of the project no. 708 from 10th of April 2002, the Fund for Open Society (FOS) approved the financial support to implementation of the section of the project DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: Experience of Yugoslavia and Moldova.
Taking into account all circumstances and the situation in which this project had been implemented, at the meeting of the Balkan Youth Union on May 22 it was concluded that the project had been implemented successfully and all its goals had been completely fulfilled.
The group from Moldova, accompanied by the organizational team of BUM, had a chance to visit a number of Yugoslavian NGOs, government institutions, culture institutions and media.
During their visits we tried to introduce them as accurately as possible to our society taking into account the previous situation in the country during MIlosević’s regime and also the current situation after democratic changes.
Through lively and interesting dialogues, discussions and debates we intended to provide them with the information about the youth (student) movement, the resistance and student protests in Yugoslavia but also to find out more about the actual situation in Moldova, the country that we had not know much about.
Through a five-day visit our guests were introduced to:
• campaigns conducted by young people with the purpose of regime change (Exit 2000);
• creative workshops that had initiated those campaigns;
• election preparation and participation of youth in the elections (Campaign: Go out and vote);
• organizations that had represented youth initiative (OTPOR, Student Union of Serbia);
• medias (TV Studio B, Radio B92);
• alternative educational institutions (AAOM, BOŠ);
• European institutions in Serbia (European Movement in Serbia);
• organizations of peace initiatives (Center for anti-war campaign);
• student protests and student initiatives in previous decade;
• activities of youth organizations and other NGOs in Belgrade (BUM, Generation 21, CESID, Passport
for Youth)
PARTICIPANTS: Yugoslavia
– Generation 21 – Mihajlo Vasiljević
– European movement in Serbia – Vojislav Milošević
– Democratic party of Serbia – Nataša Zujović
– Student movement Resistance – Ivan Marović
– Social democracy – Božidar Dakić
– Civic alliance of Serbia
– Center for Anti-war Action – Jelena Savić
– Student union of Serbia – Dušan Raković, Martina Vukasović
– Association of disabled students of Yugoslavia – Aleksandar Janković
– Magazine “VREME” – Davor Konjikušić
– European Movement in Serbia – Zrenjanin – Aleksandar Piperski
– CeSID – Ivan Nikolić
– Balkan Youth Union – Katarina Nestorović
– Balkan Youth Union – Vladimir Stefanović
– Balkan Youth Union – Vladimir Đumić
– Marija Babić, psychologist
– Jelena Kikić, Radio B-92
– Mirjana Dimitrijević, CUPS
– Aleksandra Vermezović, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
– Other participants from media and NGOs
PARTICIPANTS: Moldova
– Radu GORINCIOI, President of the Association for Civic and Political Culture in Moldova (ACCEP), team leader
– Cornelia CAISIN, Vice-president, Association for Civic and Political Culture in Moldova
– Stefan GLIGOR, President, National Federation of Social-Liberal Students
– Diana MINDRESCU, President ad-interim, House of Europe-Moldova
– Igor BEIU, Head, Youth Department of the Regional Organization Chisinau of The Social-Liberal Party of Moldova
– Maxim BULAT, Leader, Youth Department of the District Soroca branch of The Social-Liberal Party of Moldova
– Marcel SPATARU, Reporter, Weekly newspaper “Democracy”
– Sergiu STRATULAT – Vice-president, youth organization of the Democratic Convent of Moldova
– Lucia APRODU – Leader, Student Group of Anticommunist protest “AGAINST”
– Vitalie PONOMARIOV – Youth Department of the District Cahul branch of The Social-Liberal Party of Moldova
BUM TEAM – Organization
Vladimir Đumić
Nebojša Pažun
Katarina Nestorović
Vladimir Ristić
Bojan Mušović
Marija Babić
Interpreter:
Zlatiborka Klasović-Bučevac
Andrija Klasović
The second phase of the project – Study visit to Moldova
Program report
Chisinau, June 3-7 2002
Implementation of the second part of the project DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: Experience of Yugoslavia and Moldova was organized by NGO Association for Civic and Political Culture in Moldova (ACCEP) from Chisinau.
JUNE 3
The group from Yugoslavia arrived to the airport in Chisinau at 5 PM and was held due to bureaucracy until 7 PM at the visas department.
After receiving of material and visit program, we were accommodated in the Tourist Hotel.
JUNE 4
The program started at 9 AM. We visited SOROS Foundation in Moldova where we were welcomed by Ms Coretchi who was the moderator of a short introduction to our project.
We started the discussion on possibilities of problem solutions in Moldova and Yugoslavia with about twenty NGO representatives, students and activists from Moldova.
Ms Lucia Aprodu presented a short summary report on a study visit of Moldova students to Belgrade.
Representatives of the SOROS Foundation, Victor Ursu and representatives of the National Youth Council of Moldova Igor Grosu and the Student League Ion Ceban introduced us to some general information on situation of NGO sector in Moldova.
The activities in the afternoon, right after the lunch at 3 PM, included a visit to the National Centre for Support to NGOs »Contact« and a visit to the Students’ Federation in the centre of Chisinau. We were welcomed there and we found out that we have many things in common with the leading team of this organization.
JUNE 5
Our second day in Chisinau started with the morning visit to the Department for Culture, Science, Youth and Sport of the City of Chisinau where we were welcomed by very kind Ms Valentina Cujba. We discussed problems of youth as well as particular measures that the city government and other state institutions undertake in order to resolve them.
We continued the day by paying visit to the similar department of the state government.
Before the visit to the European Movement in Moldova (the host: Oleg Serbian), where we spent a short time, we moved to another hotel (National) due to a lack of sanitary hot water in the previous one.
In the afternoon we met with youth departments of political parties in Moldova in the hall of the Free University of Moldova. The topic of the discussion was actual influence of young politicians in Moldova, mistakes made by young politicians in Serbia and the issues they had in common. The message that members of the Yugoslav group have sent to young Moldovan politicians was that the job in politics is very hard and serious and that the result of their work would not be visible unless they organized actions in cooperation between parties and join forces around a common goal. That kind of energy and approach should also be brought to rural parts of the country in order to inform and educate young people that live in cultural and informational blockade and isolation from the media.
JUNE 6
The third and the last day in Chisinau was also the most interesting for the group. It started with a round table in the Conference Hall of THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE of Moldova.
The organization is similar to AAOM in Belgrade; it is full of excellent students eager to learn.
Words of the Director of the College as well as of many other members as Valeriu Gheorghiu – Program Director, Ana Pascaru – Researcher of the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Igor Klipii – Executive Director of the European Education Centre and Cornelia Ciurea – Editor of the »Democratia« magazine, had hinted an interesting discussion afterwards.
The group from Yugoslavia learned a lot about some crucial problems of Moldavia – multiethnic relations, awaken but not defined national consciousness, regional problems in Gagauzia and Transnistria as well as economic and political weakness that makes Moldovan government powerless to resolve those issues.
The last day was finished with a press conference in the Press Center INFOTAG where the representatives of the Yugoslavian group had pointed out that shortness of their visit prevented them from making any elaborate conclusion about Moldova but that they were well aware of beauty and vast capacities of this country in people and nature that has barely been exploited. The group expressed their willingness for further cooperation and development of mutual projects as well as the initiative for establishment of a Yugoslavian-Moldovan society with headquarters in Belgrade and Chisinau. The idea was generally supported by both sides.
In Belgrade, 24 June 2002
