prijava
MOSTAR, November 13 (FENA) - The East West Bridge (EWB) BiH, in partnership with the US Embassy, organized today a workshop "Using the Power of Cooperation" at the Faculty of Humanities, Džemal Bijedić University in Mostar.
A number of students from Mostar higher education institutions from both banks of the Neretva River and the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton had the opportunity to attend the lecture and actively participate in the workshop on the topic of negotiation and compromise.
The workshop was led and lectured by experts and professors reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the organizers said.
It is good that after so much lost time, after 12 years, the elections will finally be held in Mostar. Change in Mostar as well as in the whole of BiH is necessary and inevitable, and the participants of these workshops are trying to answer many of those questions, by consensus.
The lecturers were Professor Lamija Tanović, Professor Zlatko Hadžidedić, Professor Dražen Barbarić, member of the EWB International Advisory Board Slavenko Grgurević, and project coordinator and moderator Robert Jovanović.
Lamija Tanović said that young people are confused, often follow the line of least resistance and that a large percentage of young people do not vote.
"Young people need to get involved and this is one of the ways to encourage them to start thinking for themselves and about what awaits them. They need to create their own and their children's future," Tanović said.
Zlatko Hadžidedić emphasized that the Dayton Constitution represents just a formal verification of the international plan on the ethnic division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the creation of ethnically exclusive territories on its soil.
"The Dayton Agreement was an act that formally ended the war, but the Dayton Constitution incorporated the principle of ethnic separation and the creation of ethnically exclusive territories, and the mere introduction of that principle at the Lisbon Conference was the reason for starting the war as the only possible means to create such territories on the BiH soil.
As long as this principle is present in the post-Dayton BiH, the war goals of ethnically separating and encircling ethnically exclusive territories in BiH continue to be achieved through non-war, but also violent, pseudo-political means," noted Hadžidedić.
Without abandoning this principle as the constitutional foundation in BiH, lasting peace cannot be established, Hadžidedić believes.
"Bosnia and Herzegovina, as plural and multiethnic society, is essentially made up of several peoples. Respecting all those peoples through reconfiguring the electoral system that will enable their democratic representation, increase inter-ethnic trust and reduce the need for veto mechanisms, would inevitably lead to a functioning state," said Dražen Barbarić.
Slavenko Grgurević said that the East West Bridge project is of exceptional importance not only for BiH, but for the entire region.
"Through the cooperation of all of us in the region, this project leads to the development and advancement of fundamental civilization, European values, humanity, solidarity, free choice, integration of cultural diversity, economic and social stability," Grgurević said.
Robert Jovanović, the project coordinator and moderator of these workshops noted that they are all proud to have gathered on this occasion, students from both banks of the Neretva River or the entire city of Mostar and the canton, but also their professors and lecturers who have not visited each other at the universities in Mostar.
"We thank them all for cooperation. The message from the workshop in Mostar is: Changes in Mostar are necessary and inevitable! It is good that after so much lost time, after 12 years, the elections will be held in Mostar, and we should invite all voters to use their right to vote and choose such a public administration of the City of Mostar that will be a quality service to the citizens! Young students want a better environment for living together in Mostar, as it is the case in other modern societies, but they need the help of the system that has failed them,", Jovanović underlined.
The United States Embassy in Sarajevo, which is also the official partner in this project, confirmed that the US Ambassador Eric Nelson, who has previously said that the Dayton Constitution needs reform in order for the citizens to finally move forward, will address the upcoming workshop in Jajce via video link, stated the East West Bridge BiH.
(FENA) S. R.
