By Clémentine Momas
This past month was
very intense and I learned a lot: I started from knowing nothing about Kosovo
to being able to have a discussion with friends and family about it and follow
the news about what is happening in the Balkans. The fact that we did not get
the chance to go to Kosovo physically was still really disappointing: we did
not get the chance to meet people from there and get immersed in the culture.
Despite the excitement and the interesting meetings, it was hard for me to
focus on my computer all day long. I hope that I will be able to go to Kosovo
soon to discover the country and visit the organizations that we met with!
Despite all of that, I am very grateful for Anne de Graaf and Nini Pieters for putting
so much effort into organizing this virtual trip and booking meetings with so
many different organizations and people. I was pleasantly surprised that
Kosovo’s former Prime Minister agreed to meet with us. This meeting was very
inspirational and I loved hearing about his perspectives and his own
experience.
Through this course, I
also got the chance to create a podcast about feminism and women’s rights in
Kosovo. It made me rethink the privileges I have had while growing up in Western
Europe and to think about feminism differently. I also came across very touching
stories and realized that feminism can be used as a peacebuilding tool.
This course also taught
me that there is no such thing as a single solution regarding peacebuilding:
each approach should be tailored to the country and the situation where
peacebuilding is taking place. Achieving peace in a post-conflict area such as
Kosovo is a tough and long process. The tensions between Kosovo and Serbia are
surely not as easily solvable as President Trump’s actions currently suggest.
Furthermore, I was exposed to many Serbian minority organizations and people
through this course, and I could see that both sides fear the other: in
Mitrovica, the Serbs were scared to go to the South and the Albanians were
afraid of going to the North. Both have misconceptions and are influenced by
their heavy historical background. Even today, the young people we met are
still prejudiced against the other ethnicity in some way, even though they may have
friends from both sides. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised to see that
many NGOs are working hard to tackle the division between the two communities.
This quote that I got
from our lecturer Anne de Graaf is very relevant to the situation in Kosovo
and any peacebuilding attempt in general: "You shouldn’t try to put yourself
in someone else’s shoes but instead, try to see them in yourself." This quote really stuck
with me and made me also think about the way I interact with others, especially
with people from a culture or a situation that is different than mine.
To conclude, despite
being online, this Peace Lab course taught me a lot about the situation and
history of the Balkans and peacebuilding. It was one of the most rewarding
courses that I took during my AUC journey and I would recommend it to anyone
interested in Human Rights and in learning about peacebuilding!