The Mitrovica Forum welcomes you to the Inaugural Conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition The Mitrovica Forum is the steering committee for the Inaugural Conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition. Its members were electedataconferenceinStruga,Macedonia,inJune2009,organisedby theMinistryofLocalGovernmentAdministrationandwiththesupportof the Centre for Civil Society Development and CommunityBuilding Mitrovica,andthroughsubsequentagreementstoserveintheForumby the citizens of Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica. The members consist of representativesoflocalauthorities,NGOs,mediaandbusiness. The election of members to the Mitrovica’s Forum completed Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica’s requirements to become a member in good standing of the Forum for Cities in Transition, of which Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica is a founding city member following its participation in the founding conference at the University of MassachusettsBoston,MassachusettsinApril2009. The Mitrovica Forum members have committed to the following principles: Wewillatalltimesshowrespectforeachotherandformembers ofthemembercities; Wewillatalltimesactingoodfaithtowardseachotherandour colleaguesfrommembercities; Wewillshareinformationwhereappropriatewitheachother; Wewillmakedecisionsbytwothirdsmajority(i.e.sixoutofnine members’votes); Wewillworkforthewellbeingofthecitizensof Mitrovicë/KosovskaMitrovica. ChairoftheMitrovicaForum MinisterSadriFerati TechnicalCoordinatorsoftheMitrovicaForum MomiloArlov,CentreforCivilSocietyDevelopment ValdeteIdrizi,CommunityBuildingMitrovica 1
Principles of working of the Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica Delegation to the
Inaugural Conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition
The members of the Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica (from hereon in “our city”) Delegation are organizing the Inaugural annual Conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition, which will take place in our city, in Kosovo from 24-28 May 2010, and agree the following statement: The delegates signed below agree between themselves to co-operate and commit to respecting all ethnic communities living together along the following principles:
1) Undertaking activities in a spirit of good will to regain normality in the interest of all the citizens of our city.
2) Rebuilding trust between us and cooperation between democratically elected local
authorities, to secure efficient leadership and provision of public services, and taking care of the environment for all communities.
3) Promoting successful return of internally displaced persons in all areas of our city, no matter what ethnicity, according to principles in the manual of regulations for returns.
4) Creating conditions for free movement of people, values and services in all areas of our city.
5) Building communication links and raising multiethnic dialogue, through organizing multiethnic activities with all stakeholders and emphasizing the participation of young women and business groups from all communities.
6) Promoting economic development and reducing unemployment for all citizens of our city.
7) Advocating for economic development and the revitalization of our city through cooperation between representatives all communities, industries and other relevant actors.
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Padraig O’Malley Director University of Massachusetts Boston 617 291 1845 [email protected]
Forum for Cities in Transition The Forum for Cities in Transition is an initiative of the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston. It was founded at a conference in Boston 16 to 19 April 2009. The founding cities are Derry/Londonderry, Nicosia (the Greek Cypriot community and the Turkish Cypriot community), Kirkuk, and Mitrovica. They signed a founding document, the Call to Action. Director, Professor Padraig O’Malley ([email protected]) www.mccormack.umb.edu/chair/chair.php. Cosecretariat, Allan Leonard, Director Northern Ireland Foundation ([email protected]) Nancy Riordan and Pat Peterson, Moakley Staff ([email protected], [email protected])
Padraig O’Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation, McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of several books on divided societies. O’Malley directs the Forum for Cities in Transition.
Allan Leonard is director of the Northern Ireland Bureau. He heads up the Cosecretariat for the Forum for Cities in Transition designed and runs the Forum’s Web site at www.citiesintransition.net
Nancy Riordan heads up the UMass Secretariat of the Iraq-Helsinki Project, is a staff member of the Moakley Professorship, and a member of the cosecretariat for the FCT at UMass.
Patricia Peterson is a member of the Iraq-Helsinki Project, staff member of the Moakley Professorship, and a member of the cosecretariat for the FCT at UMass.
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MONDAY, 24 MAY 2010
Breakfast in Hotel Palace, Hotel Lux, and Hotel North City:
0700-0830 Wake-up calls and breakfast
0900-1045 Opening Plenary (Cultural Center)
Co-chairs: Ms. Valdete Idrizi Mr. Momcilo Arlov
Welcome by Mitrovica Forum representatives: Mr. Avni Kastrati Mr. Dragan Spasojevic Mr. Sadri Ferati Mr. Oliver Ivanovic Mr. Bajram Rexhepi Special Guests:
Ms. Ulrike Lunacek, EU Rapporteur rep for Kosovo by video Ms. Osnat Lubrani, Resident Representative for the United Nations Development
Programme and the United Nations Development Co-ordinator
Conference agenda, goals and aims (FCT): Professor Padraig O’Malley, Director of the Forum for Cities in Transition
Introduction of delegates: Valdete Idrizi and Momcilo Arlov
1045-1100 COFFEE BREAK AND TRAVEL TO SITE
1115-1300 Site Visit 1: Water Infrastructure
Delegates organized into two groups, to inspect water pipeline infrastructure, from both north and south (Each group appoints a reporter)
Two local speakers familiar with the site will give same presentation to each group
1315-1400 Lunch
1400-1430 Site Discussion
Delegates break away in city specific groups to discuss lessons from site visit
1430-1500 Plenary site discussion with reports from visits (Chair: Professor Emanuela Del Re)
1500-1545 Coffee break
1545-1645 Panel: Municipal Services “Delivering public services in transitional societies”
A panel discussion on the challenges that various municipalities face in their duties to deliver public services in an environment of societal divisions
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Chair Richard Kobayashi (Edward J. Collins Centre, University of Massachusetts Boston)
Panelists Rasim Veseli, Director of Infrastructure and Development, Mitrovica Municipality Dragan Spasojevic, Director of Urban Development, UNMIK Administration, Mitrovica Bernd Burwitz, OSCE Regional Head, Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica
1700-1715 Coffee Break
1715-1800 Concurrent Sessions
City Presentations: Nicosia, Haifa 45 min each
1900-2100 Dinner
Banjska Monastery, tour and meal
The Mitrovica Forum reps and FCT reps and City reps meet each evening to review the day and see what changes they would like to see in the program the next day.
TUESDAY, 25 MAY 2010
Breakfast in Hotel Palace, Hotel Lux, and Hotel North City
0700-0815 Breakfast
0845-0900 Travel to site
0900-1045 Site Visit 2: Schools
Small groups of delegates will visit schools to interact with pupils, as well as to learn how the school system works in both the north and the south.
1100-1115 Coffee Break
1115-1145 Site Discussion
Delegates break away in groups to discuss lessons from site visit
1145-1215 Plenary site discussion with reports from visits (Chair: Professor Emanuela Del Re)
0900-1200 Business Round Table
By invitation, the Mitrovica Forum is hosting a business roundtable discussion at the Palace Hotel, Chaired by Yannick Du Pont, SPARK. Presentation by Andre Stein, Monitor Group.
0900-1200 A side meeting will also take place in the north where Mark Hamilton and Chris Yates will meet with members of the local police force.
1215-1300 Lunch at Hotel North City
1300-1445 Concurrent Sessions
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1300-1445 City Presentations: Kirkuk, Kaduna 45 min each, with coffee break
1300-1445 Mariska Kappmeier, University of Hamburg, “More than Words: How to Establish Sustainability Out of Group Discussions”
1445-1500 Coffee Break
1500-1730 Panel: Housing “Property rights and housing in urban environments”
Chair Adrian Ouvry, Danish Refugee Council
Panelists Scott Bowen, Executive Director, Kosovo Property Agency Michael Giffoni, Italian Ambassador to Kosovo and EU Coordinator for North Kosovo Jennifer Hawthorne, Northern Ireland Housing Executive Neophytos Loizides, Queen’s University Belfast
1800-1900 Reception: SPARK “Hard Hat” Cocktail
Keynote speech, Yannick Du Pont (Director, SPARK) and brief remarks by Emanuela Del Re Venue: Site foundation of SPARK’s new international business school Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica in the Bosniak Mahala neighborhood
1900-2100 Dinner
Hotel North City: Song Club at same venue
The Mitrovica Forum reps and FCT reps and City reps meet each evening to review the day and see what changes they would like to see in the program the next day.
WEDNESDAY, 26 MAY 2010
0700- 815 Breakfast, participants in North travel to South
1000-1100 Website Tutorial Allan Leonard, FCT Website Video conferencing and website tutorial
A side meeting will also take place in the south, where Mark Hamilton and Chris Yates will meet with members of the local police force.
1100-1300 Site Visit 3: CRYM Coalition of NGOs by Momcilo Arlov & Valdete Idrizi
Visit to the headquarters of the coalition of civil society and organisations based in north Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1430 Site Discussion
Delegates break away in groups to discuss lessons from site visit
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1430-1500 Plenary site discussion with reports from visits (Chair: Professor Emanuela Del Re)
1500-1515 Coffee Break
1515-1700 Panel: Sustainable Development & Civic Engagement “Civic Leadership & Community Development”
Chair Vukosava Crnjanski, President, LINET
Panelists Momcilo Arlov, Programme Director of the Center for Civil Society Development Valdete Idrizi, Executive Director of Community-Building Mitrovica Bert Koenders, Former Minister of International Development Co-operation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Haki Abazi, Western Balkans Director, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
1700-1715 Coffee Break
1715-1800 Concurrent Sessions
City Presentations: Derry/Londonderry, Mostar 45 mins each
1800-1900 Reception Hotel Palace
Cocktails
1930-2200 Formal Dinner at Palace Hotel
Facilitated by Momcilo Arlov & Valdete Idrizi
Special guests will address the audience
Jazz accompaniment from North City Jazz Festival
The Mitrovica Forum reps and FCT reps and City reps meet each evening to review the day and see what changes they would like to see in the program the next day.
THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010
0700- 0815 Breakfast in Hotel Palace, Hotel Lux, and Hotel North City
0815-0900 Travel to site
0900-1100 Site Visit 4: Business Advisory Centres (BAC)
Delegates organized into three groups visit one of three business advisory centers, north and south
1100-1115 Coffee Break
1115-1145 Site Discussion
Delegates break away in groups to discuss lessons from site visit
Parallel sessions with Mariska Kappmeier, Peace Psychologist
1145-1215 Plenary site discussion with reports from visits (Chair: Professor Emanuela Del Re)
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1215-1400 Lunch
Picnic lunch along the River Ibër/Ibar
Walking tours accompanied by conference youth volunteer team
1400-16400 Panel: Policing “Maintaining cohesion with community-based policing”
A panel discussion on development of Kosovo Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
Chair Quintin Oliver, International Political Strategist, Stratagem
Panelists Lt. Colonel Ergin Medic, Deputy Regional Director of Operations of Kosovo Police Lt. Colonel Naim Rexha, Director of Department for Public Security, Kosovo Police Captain Milija Milosevic, Station Commander, Mitrovica North, Kosovo Police Captain Bashkim Spahiu, Station Commander, Mitrovica South, Kosovo Police Chris Yates, PSNI, Foyle District Mark Hamilton, PSNI, North & West Belfast David Hamilton, Resident Twinning Advisor, Twinning Project–Kosovo Police
1600-1615 Coffee Break
1615-1745 Concurrent Sessions: City Project Workshops
Delegates break away in own city groups, to discuss and agree a city-based project to be delivered by next year’s annual Forum conference.
Session with non-member cities (Beirut, Belfast, Haifa, Jerusalem, Mostar) on future participation in the FCT (Chair: Professor Padraig O’Malley and Secretariat of FCT)
1815-2015 Dinner and then TALENT SHOW at Cultural Center
BBQ/grill dinner at Hotel Palace
The Mitrovica Forum reps and FCT reps and City reps meet each evening to review the day and see what changes they would like to see in the program the next day.
FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2010
0700-0815 Breakfast in Hotel Palace, Hotel Lux, and Hotel North City
0900-1100 Mitrovica Forum Plenary
Chair Andre Stein
Presentation of local business development plan for Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica
Jeton Ujkani, Business Forum Representative from Mitrovica Forum Zoran Golubovic, Business Forum Representative from Mitrovica Forum
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Response by Derry/Londonderry, Nicosia, and Kirkuk, including discussion of job creation at the municipal level
1100-1115 Coffee Break
1115-1400 Plenary: Conference Outcomes Chairs: Momcilo Arlov and Valdete Idrizi
> City declarations of specific, small-scale projects to be delivered for the Forum Annual Conference 2011 (each city nominates one delegate to make declaration)
> Selection of host city for the Forum Annual Conference 2011
> Discussion of a peer-monitoring system by each city
> Other outcomes
Savoury snacks served during break
1400-1430 Concluding Comments: Valdete Idrizi, Momcilo Arlov, Professor Padraig O’Malley
1430-1830 Lunch & Walkabout
Informal lunch in city of Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica, sightseeing in both communities – optional tours (such as to the Crystal Museum, guided walk to Zve�an/Zveqan fortress, 14th century Roman Catholic Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Zallie Mosque-Xhamia e Zallit), free time
1515-1600 Concurrent Session: Jerusalem City Presentation & Walkabout
1700-1800 FCT Business Meeting
Applicable delegates and Forum staff meeting, to discuss next actions
1830-2030 Dinner
Koshtova/Košutovo (Qetësia restaurant)
2100-2200 Concert
Mitrovica Rock School provides concert to Forum delegates and guests
SATURDAY, 29 MAY 2010
International delegates depart via Pristina Airport
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The Forum for Cities in Transition (FCT)
Mission Statement The John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies University of Massachusetts Boston
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
— Albert Einstein Since WW II, most wars have been intrastate wars, wars within a country where one or more groups have fought others who control the levers of power, either to overthrow them and establish their own hegemony or to force them into some governance arrangement under which they, the out-groups would have a share of power or even equal power. The distribution of that power would be reflected not only in the new forms of government agreed on, but in all sectors of society in terms of allocating resources, redressing imbalances of the past, providing equality under the law, assuring equal opportunity for employment, abolishing past discriminatory practices, recognizing cultural parity, and in some cases where the out-groups professed allegiance to a different national identity, giving parity of recognition to all identities. Invariably, these conflicts involved issues of religion, ethnicity, race, culture, language, and national identity. Countries in which this occurs are labeled “divided societies.” Among some of the countries torn apart by cleavages that have resulted in widespread and indiscriminate violence, as different factions sought to advance their claims by forming paramilitary organizations (or the armed forces of a neighboring country proclaiming the right to protect an ethnically related minority) are Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, the Balkans (when Yugoslavia imploded after the collapse of Communism), Iraq (where the Kurds carved out their own enclave, Kurdistan, under American protection after the first Gulf War), and Nigeria. In most of these countries, violence has now ceased or been brought to manageable levels and forms of governance have been adopted that sufficiently address the out-groups’ grievances (thus ensuring their participation in government), paramilitary groups have either disbanded or gone silent and in some cases (most notably Northern Ireland), a process called “decommissioning of arms” has culminated in the verifiable destruction of most paramilitary arms caches. Each of these societies is in a different stage of transition to “normalcy,” although it might be better to think of them as societies in “recovery.” If they do not continually address the causes of the conflict, if the grievances of war remain unaddressed or inadequately addressed, if processes to nurture reconciliation are not promoted (especially at community level), if disparities in wealth and income continue to grow among competing groups despite legislation aimed at closing such gaps, if an agreed history of the past cannot be reconciled, if the root causes of what resulted in the conflict cannot be acknowledged by all, then the residual causes of conflict and perceived grievance linger and fester and risk the slow accumulation to a critical mass that sees the outbreak of conflict again. Thus, there is a need to put in place mechanisms that minimize this risk.
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The premise that underlies the work described hereunder is simple: people from divided societies are in the best position to help people in other divided societies; that former protagonists, often former purveyors of violence and death who abandoned violence to resolve their differences, are best equipped to share their often tentative and difficult journeys to recognizing the necessity to abandon violence as the instrument to achieve their political aims and open the gateways to recovery, reconstruction, and reconciliation; that peoples from divided societies share behavioral, political, social, and psychological traits, not seen in people in more “normal” societies, traits that predispose them to see things through a prism that is different than the prism through which you and I would perceive the same events. Among them:
• Uniqueness: beliefs that “our” conflict is “special.” • “We all used to live peacefully together before all this.” • “There has never been a conflict like ours.” • “No one but ourselves can ever understand it.” • Minority/majority dichotomies: either a majority holds all the instruments of power
and is unwilling to share with a “different” minority, a minority that does not share similar religion / nationality / ethnicity / culture / race / language etc.
• “Othering” — to deny attributes or characteristics generally shared by human beings in order to suggest that the individual or group is another kind, an “other.”
• More than / less than syndrome; the belief that no matter what change is made or formula is put forward to lessen divisions, inbred psychological predispositions trigger thinking on the part of one group that any change will always benefit the other party to the conflict and leave it worse off. “The narcissism of small differences” — the more objectively alike opposing groups are, the more they magnify their pseudo-differences.
• Zero sum analytical frames: if you appear to win, even if there is no overt evidence of it, I must be losing.
• A recurring dynamic: doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome; i.e., believing no matter what happens that ”we are going to win”; repeating acts of violence and expecting a different result.
• Holding tight to perceived grievances / resentments, being unable to let go. • Kin is everything i.e., close communal and family ties. • Never letting go of the past; “Never! No surrender! Not an inch! ” • Every side sees events through different perceptual prisms. • Every side has different historical starting points, narratives, and interpretations of
the same events. • Any small incident can escalate into a major eruption; a killing, even an accidental
one, can result in widespread violence. • Anything can become the spark that suddenly awakens dormant grievances or
ignites festering grievances. This thesis does not suggest that all intrastate conflicts in divided societies are the same; it does posit, however, that there are sufficient points of possible identification — a convergence in the behaviors of groups that engage in such conflicts — to merit examination. There is much to be gained by everyone: groups from the countries who hear the narratives of conflict and emergence from conflict — shakily in some, more firmly rooted in others — and the groups from narrating countries.
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All gain from such interactions, but especially those groups who are still in conflict who have reached a point where they are searching for a way out of what has seemed to them an intractable conflict. The fact that groups now in transition to shared governance would describe their conflicts as once appearing to be intractable to groups still convinced that theirs are intractable creates bonding between the two in ways not quite explicable to societies that never had to undergo similar experiences. While divided societies may indeed be dissimilar, they are quite the same in many respects. The Forum for Cities in Transition (FCT) is premised on a similarly based thesis. Just as divided societies are in the best position to assist other divided societies in a way more “normal” societies or international institutions can’t, so too are cities that are or were at the epicenter of the conflicts in their countries in a special position to assist each other because they harbor the same behavioral characteristics. They are also divided along racial, ethnic, nationalist, religious, cultural, or linguistic lines with enclaves of different population groups “guarded” by their indigenous militias or serving as the breeding ground for militias that launch attacks on members of other enclaves. They are often the micro-representation of their society’s fault lines, the focus of forms of “ethnic cleansing,” that is, violence that ensures that within an enclave, the minority belonging to the “other” who do not share the majority’s political dispositions, are methodically targeted for murder or driven by fear from their homes. Cities are compact, and in the period before some spark became the transformative agent of violence, places where it was not unusual for members of both out-groups and in-groups to live as minorities in each other’s enclaves. Nevertheless, the onset of conflict invariably becomes an instrument of “othering.” The next door neighbor is no longer a neighbor with whom you had shared many ordinary day-to-day living experiences, but an “enemy,” someone to be expelled as a threat to security or suddenly “different.” Concepts of humanness are malleable; they transmute with perceived threat. Retaliation killings become routine; kidnapping and disappearances random, torture often precedes murder, mutilation often follows; the compulsion to dehumanize the “other” becomes pervasive; cemeteries are transformed into recruitment centers for mobilizing against the “other.” Cities become citadels of danger. The state’s security forces are predominantly based in cities. Governments are invariably on the side of the in-groups, their armory is directed at the enclaves of the out-groups, ostensibly at their militias, but indiscriminately enough to ensure that civilians are those mainly affected. Militias target each other’s populations but rarely each other. Cities witness carnage and mayhem in disproportionate measure. Members of one group never enter the territory of the other; as the layers of perceived responsibility are unfolded with each group accusing the other. Members of all groups become increasingly sensitive to the idiosyncrasies and subtle variations in gesture, pitch of voice or laughter — variations entirely imperceptible to an outsider — that appear to distinguish them but become instead tools in their survival kits. The “mixed” areas that remain after population movements (either to the safer haven of their own communities, displacement, or abandonment) and areas where enclaves that abut each other become the interstices that continue to remind all groups that sometimes raw emotions, often expressed in hideous ways, obfuscate the causes of the conflict itself. Checkpoints become normal; intricate patterns of movement and transportation are deployed in whatever remains of central business areas; stores check handbags and
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briefcases; body checks are normal and parking is prohibited. Arbitrary detention without trial becomes standard judicial practice; security forces close off streets as they go door-to-door searching houses for weapons, aggravating grievances into rage and rage into closer relationships with and support of paramilitaries. Demonstrations within boundaries of secure enclaves evolve into outlets for the expression of fear, paranoia, and regurgitation of alleged atrocities against members of their group in other enclaves; memory becomes the repository for as much that is false as is true; people pray for peace but rarely condemn the violence of their own. This sweeping panorama of cities that are the centrifuges of the larger conflict that engulfs them is painted on a broad canvas with careful strokes, artfully depicting the neighborhoods and streets where maximum destruction can be accomplished. Targets here are easiest to find, clandestine connections can be made and youth recruited to paramilitary structures; here informants are most productive and infiltration easiest; here poverty is most acute and class differences most glaring. By pitting the working class of the in-group against that of the out-group, the former asserts its marginal advantage through its affinity with the in-group and willingness to fight and kill and be killed to preserve a perceived superiority. And, of course, cities are most often the places in which the media (local, national and international) can converge; they usually have some or all of the infrastructure the media needs: hotels, Internet, fax machines, land lines and cell phones, drivers for hire — all the paraphernalia that the television requires to record the footage that maintains viewers’ interest in the conflict. Interest, however, is predicated on footage of gruesome violence: refugees fleeing their homes, abandoning their possessions, frightened children and raped women. The electronic media, by the act of recording, alter the form of the events they cover and thus the content of what they transmit. In-groups, out-groups and their affiliated military arms become extremely adept at using the media to advance their agendas. It is for this reason, for example, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) prevented the global media from access to Gaza in January 2008, since the imagery of its assault would undoubtedly have redounded to its disadvantage. In April 2009, five cities — Derry/Londonderry, Belfast, Nicosia (Greek Cypriot community and Turkish Cypriot community), Kirkuk, and Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica — were invited to a conference at the University of Massachusetts, hosted by the Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation. The purpose of the conference was to have the cities explore, after listening to the narratives of each other’s conflict, whether they had sufficient common attributes, experiences and collective identification that they should form a collaborative where they would share their differences and similarities in a more formal and ongoing way, in the hope that learning from each other would strengthen the social/political fabric of their respective cities. They drew up a founding document, “A Call to Action” and became the founding cities of the Forum for Cities in Transition. These founding cities had experienced many of the characteristics — human toll, burnt or bombed out neighborhoods, devastated housing damage, destruction of infrastructure, demographic reconfigurations, proliferation of militias, laboratory-like experiments by the security forces to control the flow of people and vehicles, entry to, passage through and exit of particular areas, policing that is abhorrent to out-groups, and gross violation of human rights, etc. But even at the depth of their conflicts, these cities managed to provide a modicum of basic services; although in some, adequate services had never been available to members of the
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out�groups. The sense of territorial entrapment can also generate a concomitant sense of communal pride — unwillingness on the part of groups to let things fall apart in their own communities and a pride that sustains loss. Thus, perceptions of poverty, access to amenities such as electricity and drinking water, and water itself, schooling, housing, health, transportation, and most important, perceptions of policing — unwelcome intrusions to one group, and a welcome presence to the other — are seen through different prisms that refract the distortions of how people cope with war rather than reflecting the metrics of relative deprivation. Our concern is with the city of the “other,” especially with the “othering” that is pervasive in the societies of which these cities are part — the cities that are at the epicenter of divided societies, the cities that define and epitomize the nature of the societal divisions and cleavages that are the pervasive and permanent characteristics of some nation�states or regions. These are the cities of the “old” terrorisms.
The cities invited to the Boston conference shared a set of internal and external characteristics. The internal characteristics related to the routes they took to arrive at internal power-sharing or consensual governance protocols; the external characteristics related to members of some groups professing different loyalties, oppositional senses of belonging and affirmations of antithetical identities. Some cities are situated in a country within the territorial boundaries of the state specific to one group, and some straddle the boundaries of nation-states where the boundaries themselves are the issue. Thus in Derry/Londonderry — referred to by many residents as simply Stroke City — perhaps up to 70 percent of the population, who regard themselves as being Irish, aspire to becoming part of a united Ireland, and the 30 percent who regard themselves as being British want to remain part of the United Kingdom. In Belfast a similar division pertains, although the percentages are probably 50/50. In Mitrovica, the declaration of independence by Kosovo in February 2008 that was recognized by the United States and twenty-two of twenty-seven European Union members was not recognized by Serbia or the UN and was vehemently rejected by Serbs on the northern side of the Ibar River. Here, Serbs maintain allegiance to the Serbian government in Belgrade. Serbia does not accept the partition of Serbia that created the state of Kosovo. Kosovar Albanians on the southern bank of the Ibar River (Mitrovicë) recognize the Kosovar government in Pristina and the Kosovo government regards the northern municipality of Kosovska Mitrovica as illegitimate: Mitrovica on the north side of the Ibar River is claimed as part of the Kosovo state. In Kirkuk, Kurds want Kirkuk to be become part of Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq, while Turkmen, Arabs, and Assyrians strenuously object to such an arrangement. They want to remain under the control of the central government in Baghdad, to remain in “Arab” Iraq. A referendum that supposedly would have resolved the issue should have taken place by 31 December 2007 but was postponed until it can be determined who is a legitimate resident of Kirkuk. Since Saddam’s ousting, some 400,000 Kurds have made their way to Kirkuk. Many have legitimate claims on properties. Some don’t. Determining which Kurds are legitimate residents of Kirkuk is a matter on which Arabs and Turkmen will give little ground to the Kurds. In Nicosia, the two-thirds of the population who are Greek Cypriots generally want the unification of the Island into a federal state emphasizing the unity and continuity of the
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state. The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the EU. Its boundaries encompass the whole of the island of Cyprus. The one-third of the population that is Turkish Cypriot generally prefers a loose federal system within a new state and a closer relationship to Turkey. The self-acclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is only recognized by Turkey and otherwise has no international legal standing. Nicosia is divided: Greek Cypriots on one side of the UN buffer zone; Turkish Cypriots on the other. To enter the Turkish Cypriot sector of Nicosia, one has to go through the buffer zone and police controls at the Turkish boundary. In three — Kirkuk, Nicosia, and Mitrovica — there are property rights issues: in each, population movements took place as groups sought the refuge of their own, and moved to secure enclaves, leaving behind their homes and possessions. These movements flowed in both directions. In Mitrovica, Serbs live in properties to which Kosovar Albanians have legal title, and Kosovars live in properties to which Serbs have legal claim; and in Kirkuk, as part of his policy to bring the Kurds under his dominion, Saddam Hussein removed tens of thousands of Kurds from Kirkuk, dispersed them throughout the rest of Iraq, and moved Sunni Arabs into their homes. The Iraqi government is now trying to placate returning Kurds who want to live in their old homes. Arabs in possession of these properties refuse to simply hand them over. Derry/Londonderry has undergone a different kind of migration. Almost all the Protestants (in favor of continuing the union with Britain) who once lived in Cityside (which has a predominance of Catholic residents) have left, reducing their presence to the mere hundreds. In three cities, rivers are natural dividers. In Mitrovica, Serbs live on the northern side of the Ibar, Albanian Kosovars on the southern side; in Derry/Londonderry, Catholics live on the western side of the Foyle, Protestants on the eastern side; in Belfast, Catholics live on the western side of the Lagan, Protestants on the eastern side. The centerpiece of the Forum’s activities is an annual conference where each city, in turn, invites its sister cities to a conference on its home turf. Such conferences include municipal representatives, NGOs that have earned the trust of the political players over the years, grassroots community organizations, and academic institutions from across the divides, to engage in a process that exposes them to each other through sharing their respective narratives of conflict and post conflict transitions. The aim of these conferences is not to provide an opportunity to talk shop. These conferences are action oriented. They engage practitioners with the on-the-ground experiences of delivery of basic services that are efficient, encompass the entire municipality, are equitable in the sense that one community does not feel that it is getting less than a fair share of the city’s resources. They explore how relationships are negotiated and maintained between and among communities, how to set standards of transparency that will increase their populations’ trust in their efficacy, and how to undertake “city projects,” collectively or individually, which the participating cities will design during the conference and complete before the following year’s host conference. The cities themselves will act as monitors of these projects, and if possibilities present themselves, cities can engage in joint projects or collective ones.
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It is the hope of the FCT that cities at the conferences will learn from each other and create among themselves the dynamics that become a catalyst for change, that by sharing the travails of sorting out complex, intricate, and very complicated problems at the local level, from the grass roots up, rather than the other way around, they will discover and test new ways of dealing with old problems, that their collective voices can gain them access to international and national donor meetings in order to impress upon them that the collectivity of the cities’ engagement transcends individual needs, that all looking out for each other means that increasing prosperity in one becomes the lynchpin for increasing prosperity in all. Sharing the experiences of “on-the-ground” engagements will expose participants to ways of dealing with similar, although different, problems the specific details of which will create an expanding pool of knowledge and support from which all can draw. Mitrovicë/ Kosovska Mitrovica is hosting the inaugural conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition. It is their conference, a reflection of how the two communities, Albanian and Serb, have risen above the differences that provide the context for their conflict and created a vibrant program that will open to participating cities to the day-to-day experiences of Mitrovicans on both sides of the Ibar River — how they have found ways to transcend the multiple issues that drive division, the solutions to which are in the hands of their respective governments and the international community. The failure to resolve has a direct impact on their daily lives. In the end, no matter how their conflict is resolved, they are the people who have to live with its consequences. The Forum for Cities in Transition is an initiative of the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Secretariat is shared by the Northern Ireland Foundation and the Moakley Chair. The purpose of the Secretariat is to provide and carry out the administrative tasks associated with conferences of increasing magnitude and to provide assistance to the cities or the committee organizing a conference on behalf of the host city. The Forum’s Web site is maintained by the Northern Ireland Foundation and can be found at www.citiesintransition.net The ownership of the Forum belongs to the cities themselves and they collectively are the decision makers. Padraig O’Malley Director
16
Forum for Cities in Transition CALL TO ACTION
April 14 – 16th, 2009
The Forum for Cities in Transition – whose members comprise four Cities (Derry / Londonderry, Kirkuk, Kosovska Mitrovica and Mitrovica (south), Nicosia) – meeting in Boston, 14-16 April 2009, affirmed its commitment to promoting understanding between member cities with the aim of encouraging mutual learning, dialogue and the resolution of conflict through non-violent methods.
Even though we face different problems, challenges, and contexts, cities in transition can both learn from, and offer lessons to, each other. We believe that this learning should be shared, so that cities in transition can use the resources and knowledge of others to address these challenges.
People from societies in transition are in the best position to help people in other societies in transition
Basic Principles The Forum identified basic principles upon which such positive outcomes can be achieved. We call on leaders to uphold and apply these principles in policymaking and service delivery, and to measure progress against them.
1) Respect for the dignity of every individual 2) Respect for the value of leadership in building trust and confidence across and
within communities 3) Respect for human rights, equality, fairness and adherence to the rule of law,
including fair treatment of minorities 4) Respect for the value of dialogue between conflicting parties according to context
AgreementThe participating cities affirmed:
1) That City to City workshops of this sort are effective, productive and valuable 2) That learning from each other’s successes and challenges is immensely
empowering 3) That some external actors can act as an obstacle and a barrier to promoting joint
working and problem solving 4) That they create a Forum for Cities in Transition, with those present becoming
founding members 5) That the Forum’s purpose shall be to address common problems through
expanding the pool of knowledge from which to draw practical lessons 6) To develop and maintain an active network of individuals and cities present for
mutual benefit 7) To deepen and broaden the network by taking ownership of the Forum’s future,
the individuals signing here agree to take steps to explore how each of the cities involved can plan to host future Forum annual events in their own territories in conjunction with civil society and educational institutions
8) That the Secretariat for the Forum shall initially be provided by the Moakley Chair and the Northern Ireland Foundation.
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Delegates by City
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Forum for Cities in Transition
Delegates by City Beirut (Purple) 1. Samer Abdallah, General Coordinator of Nahwa Al Muwatiniya 2. Zeina Mezher, Women’s Rights Activist who has worked with Lebanese women on the
Foreground in times of war. Belfast (Grey) 3. Mark Hamilton, District Commander of North & West Belfast, Police Service of Northern
Ireland 4. Jennifer Hawthorne, Head of Community Cohesion Unit, Housing Executive, Northern Ireland 5. Neophytos Loizides, Lecturer, International Politics and Ethnic Conflict, Queen's University
Belfast Derry/Londonderry (Light Blue) 6. Angela Teresa Askin, Community Relations Officer, Derry/Londonderry City Council 7. Gerard Diver, Derry/Londonderry City Council 8. Michael Doherty, Director, Peace & Reconciliation Group 9. Brian Dougherty, Director, St. Columbs Park House 10. Willie Lamrock, General Secretary YMCA Londonderry 11. Maeve McLaughlin, Councillor (Sinn Fein), Derry/Londonderry City Council 12. Jim Roddy, City Centre Initiatives, Derry/Londonderry 13. Chris Yates, Police Service of Northern Ireland, Foyle Haifa (Brown) 14. Stav Chaim Avraham, Chief Operational Officer of Mey Carmel, Ltd. 15. Rula Deeb, Executive Director of Kayan 16. Fathi Marshood, Director of Shatil Haifa office, New Israel Fund’s 17. Ariella Vraneski, Research Associate at the Center of Urban and Regional Studies at the
Technion , Israeli Institute of Technology 18. Edna Zaretzky-Toledano, Counselor and Social Worker Jerusalem (Orange) 19. Fuad Abu-Hamed, Businessman, Social and Civil Rights Activist 20. Aharon Ben-Noun, Director, Public Building Department, Municipality of Jerusalem 21. Bony Goldberg, Director, Community Services Administration, Municipality of Jerusalem 22. Elias Daoud Khoury, Real-estate and Planning Law Expert 23. Tal Kligman, Group Facilitator and Program Manager Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center Kaduna (Red) 24. Adam Lawal, Member of the National Assembly, Kaduna 25. John Joseph Hayab, State Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria 26. Ahmed Makarfi, Senator of Kaduna North 27. Tahir Umar Tahir, Special Advisor to the Governor of Kaduna on Pilgrims and Islamic Affairs 28. John Woje Bagu, Director, Private Schools Board
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Kirkuk (Yellow) 29. Awad Mohamad Ameen, Member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, Kurdistan Toilers Party 30. Abdullah Sami Assi, Member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, Independent 31. Mohammad Kudur Kharab, Member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, Independent 32. Sherzad Adil Khorsheed, Member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, Kurdistan Democratic Party
of Iraq 33. Silvana Boya Nasir, Member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, Assyrian National Party 34. Hasan Turan Bahaulddin Saeed, Deputy Chairman of Al-Adalah Turkemani Party and
Member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council 35. Tahsin Mohammed Ali Wali, Member of Kirkuk City Council Mitrovica (Green) 36. Arban Abrashi, Support to the Ministry of Local Government Administration, Republic of
Kosovo 37. Mom�ilo Arlov, Programme Director, Center for Civil Society Development 38. Sadri Ferati, Minster of Local Government Administration, Government of Kosovo 39. Valdete Idrizi, Director, Community Building Mitrovica 40. Oliver Ivanovi�, State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, Government of the
Republic of Serbia. 41. Ljubi�a Petrovi�, Deputy President of the Kosovska Mitrovica Municipal Assembly 42. Bajram Rexhepi, Minister of Internal Affairs, Government of Kosovo ��� Dragan Spasojevi�, President, Citizens Movement for Kosovska Mitrovicë�
�Mostar (Beige) 44. Anja Bogojevi�, Project Coordinator and Curator for Abart, Abra�evi� Youth Cultural Center 45. Senita �olakovi� , Advisor to Business Education, Department for Social Affairs of the
Secretariat for Education, Education, Youth and Sports, Mostar City Administration 46. Sabina Memi�, Senior Independent Officer for the Cooperation with NGO’s and Religious
Communities, Mostar City Administration 47. Anita �imunovi�, Higher Professional Assistant for the Non-Governmental and Youth
Organizations, Mostar City Administration 48. Mela Zuljevi�, Project Coordinator and Designer for Abart, Abra�evi� Youth Cultural Center Nicosia (Olive) 49. Mustafa Akinci, Former Mayor, Turkish Municipality of Nicosia 50. Tolga Cagakan, Councillor, Turkish Municipality of Nicosia 51. Lellos Demetriades, Former Mayor, Nicosia Municipality 52. Mehmet Harmanci, Project Coordinator, The Management Centre of the Mediterranean 53. Panos Hartsiotis, Board Member, NGO Support Centre 54. Kostas Mavrides, Councillor, Leader of the Democratic Party Nicosia City Council Team 55. Katerina Papadopoulou, Researcher, Cyprus 2015
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Delegate Biographies
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Forum for Cities in Transition
Delegate Biographies
Beirut
Samer ABDALLAH Sir Samer H. Abdallah is the General Coordinator of Nahwa Al Muwatiniya, a nonprofit organization that promotes citizenship education, citizen participation, and policy reform. He has also served as projects officer and logistics officer of the Danish refugee Council, an international NGO that has been operating in Lebanon since 2004. He received a B.A. degree in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut and is studying for a B.S. degree in Information Technology and Computing at the Arab Open University.
Zeina MEZHER Zeina Mezher is an activist for women’s rights. She has experience working in the community and she has participated in many projects. She worked with Lebanese Women on the Foreground in Times of War. Women played a key role in the crisis management and during the reconstruction phase, either directly or through their participation with NGOs. Apart from this experience, the women from South Beirut and from Beirut’s suburbs were, and still are, left outside of the decision-making process — as are all Lebanese women.
Belfast Mark HAMILTON
Mark Hamilton joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1994 where he developed extensive experience in policing serious public disorder. As Senior Public Order Commander for Belfast, he took active command at public order incidents across the city. In March of 2009, he became Chief Superintendent and took over the role of District Commander, “A” District, North and West Belfast. He is responsible for leading approximately 700
staff, including sworn officers and civilian employees. He has a B.A. (Hons) degree in French; an M.A. in Social Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice; an M.A. in Science in Police Leadership and Management; and an M.A. in Human Rights Law.
Jennifer HAWTHORNE
Jennifer Hawthorne is the Head of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's Community Cohesion Unit and is responsible for the delivery of the Housing Executive's Good Relations Strategy, which incorporates shared housing, race relations, interfaces and flags, emblems, and sectional symbols. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is one of the largest social housing landlords in Europe, with over 100,000 properties and 600
estates across Northern Ireland. Prior to this, Jennifer managed the Housing Executive’s Public Relations Department in Belfast.
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Neophytos LOIZIDES Neophytos Loizides received his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Toronto in May 2005. He is currently a lecturer in International Politics and Ethnic Conflict at Queen’s University Belfast. He has previously been a research fellow at the Belfer Center at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and he has taught at Princeton University. He studies negotiations and conflict resolution in deeply divided societies, and he is
currently completing a British Academy funded project titled “Doves against hawks in the framing of peace policies and nationalist mobilization.” His research projects focus on human rights and conflict resolution models for conflicts between “settler” vs. “indigenous” people as well as strategies of using direct democracy (referendums) in peace processes. He has published in Journal of Peace Research, Parliamentary Affairs, Electoral Studies and Parliamentary Affairs.
Derry/Londonderry Angela ASKIN
Angela Askin is a Community Relations Officer with Derry City Council and one of three Community Relations Officers responsible for the implementation and delivery of the Council’s Good Relations Strategy, which incorporates Good Relations training, identity and inclusion, youth, ethnic minorities/anti-racism, shared space, and hard issues. The Good Relations program in Derry City Council is funded through the Community
Relations Unit in the Office of First Minister and deputy First Minister. Angela and her colleagues work with a range of statutory, community, and voluntary sector organizations to address community relations issues through projects, education programs, publicity and publications, and advisory assistance. Gerard DIVER
Gerard Diver is a history and politics graduate of the University of Ulster. He is the former mayor of the Derry City Council (SDLP) and was first elected to the Council in June 2001. He is also a member of Waterside Neighborhood Partnership Board. Aside from politics, he has worked in the community and volunteer sector. His most recent position has been in the area of community relations with St Columb’s Park House Centre for
Reconciliation. He is a member of the Honourable, the Irish Society Advisory Committee. Michael DOHERTY
Michael Doherty initiated the first ever Community Relations Action Learning Programme in the early 1990s and has designed Open College Network Programmes on exploring Diversity — Facilitating Community Relations Work; Group Work and Facilitation Skills as well as Introduction to Conflict Resolution and Mediation Skills. Michael’s development of specialized training programs in Community Relations and Conflict
Resolution work has enabled the Peace and Reconciliation Group, of which Michael is the director, to maintain its ability to successfully work in the field of Community Relations.
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Brian DOUGHERTY Brian Dougherty is director of St Columb’s Park House in L’Derry. He is also currently Chairperson of the Waterside Area Partnership and Trustee member of the Community Foundation Northern Ireland and North and West Housing. He is a former Independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and community development representative on the Northern Ireland Civic Forum. In January 2007, he was awarded an MBE
for services to the community in Northern Ireland. He holds an MBE Bsc (Hons) and has M.A. in Town Planning.
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Willie LAMROCK
Willie Lamrock is General Secretary of the YMCA Londonderry, which works with disadvantaged and/or disaffected young people. The Londonderry YMCA is lead partner in an important project to encourage the participation of the Protestant community by promoting a shared sense of belonging, addressing issues of marginalisation and tackling attitudes to racism and sectarianism. Willie serves on many boards and spends his
spare time organising the YMCA rugby
Maeve MCLAUGHLIN Maeve McLaughlin represents the Northlands ward in the city, where she works as Manager of Glen Development Initiative (GDI) — a community development organization. First elected to Derry City Council in 2001, Maeve is the Sinn Féin party leader on the council. Maeve became involved in Republican politics at an early age and received a B.A. honours degree in Sociology, History, and Politics and was active in politics during her time
at University College Galway. Maeve has recently been appointed Sinn Féin spokesperson for Tourism and has been nominated to the Derry District Policing Partnership. She is lespokesperson on North West Region Cross Border Group. Jim RODDY
Jim Roddy is Chief Executive of City Centre Initiatives (CCI) Derry. The CCI Board is made up of senior representatives from Derry City Council,the Department for Social Development, Ilex, and other private-seccompanies. Jim grew up in Derry in the 1960s and 1970s, left the city at age seventeen because of the Troubles, but soon returned, becoming a fire fighter in 1979, serving for nearly twenty years. Jim got involved with the
Derry City Football Club in 1993, where he also served in positions of Chief Executive and Chairman.
Chris YATES
Chris Yates joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1991 and spent twelve years policing London, where he served as a Response InspeHaringey DCU (Tottenham), a busy London Borough with its fair share of gun crime, vice, and drug problems. In June 2002, he transferred to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He became Chief Inspector in 2006 and was posted to Foyle. Chris is responsible for the day-to-day
policing of the City of Derry/Londonderry. Since taking the post he has led the engagement process with both Loyalist and Republican communities, previously hostile to police. This
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process has brought communities and the police closer together. Chris also sits on a number of strategic partnerships that are working for change in the City of Derry/Londonderry.
Haifa Stav Chaim AVRAHAM Stav Avraham is the Chief Operational Officer of Mey Carmel Ltd. From 2006 to 2009, he was head of the water, sewage, and draining division of the Haifa Municipality and previously served as head of the Industrial Engineering and Energy Division of Tahal Consulting Engineers Ltd. He received a B.Sc. in Water and Soil Engineering from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. He teaches the Local Authorities Directors Course at the University of Haifa. Rula DEEB Rula Deeb is Executive Director of Kayan, a feminist organization working in the Arab Israeli community. Kayan, which means “Being” in Arabic, was established by and for Arab women living in Israel. The founders of Kayan came together through their shared experience as women who are minority citizens of Israel and members of an often patriarchal Arab society. Kayan works on two levels — reaching out to individuals to change attitudes about women and intervening at the community and institutional levels to change conditions for Palestinian women and girls. Fathi MARSHOOD
Fathi Marshood is Director of Shatil Haifa, New Israel Fund’s capacity-building arm. He specializes in organizational consultation in general and Israeli Palestinian affairs in particular. The New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel was established in 1982 to provide NGOs with consulting and training in organizational development, advocacy, media and public
relations, coalition building, and resource development. With headquarters in Jerusalem and branches in Beer Sheva, Haifa, and the Triangle, Shatil promotes community organizing as a primary strategy for social change. Ariella VRANESKI Ariella Vraneski is a research associate at the Center of Urban and Regional Studies at the Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology. Her research interests include alternative dispute resolution, citizen participation, and environmental planning. She wrote the thesis, “Public Participation and the Israeli Planning and Building Law” in 1985 with A. Churchman as co-supervisor. She received the Mifal HaPaiis grant. Edna ZARETZKY-TOLEDANO
Edna Zeretsky-Toledano, a Jewish counselor and social worker in Haifa, has made Arab-Jewish relations her career. She has been working for over twenty years as a consultant on intragroup relations, including work with such groups such as Beit HaGeffen: The Jewish-Arab Cultural Center in Haifa. Zeretsky-Toledano holds an M.A. in Sociology from Haifa University and a B.A. in Education, Sociology, and Anthropology. She
teaches on issues of multiculturalism, Jewish–Arab relations, and gender equality. As an
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active feminist she developed empowerment programs for women and has served as Chair of Isha L'isha-Feminist Center of Haifa. Since 2003 she has been a member of Haifa City Council.
Jerusalem Fuad ABU-HAMED
Fuad Abu-Hamed, a resident of Tsur Baher, is the chairperson of the Alquds Dialog Center and a businessman and a social activist. The Dialog Center Jerusalem (a nongovernmental and nonprofit association) is a Palestinian Jerusalem-based organization that works to persuade the establishment that collaborative efforts with the residents will assist the provision of services. On the other hand, for the residents, they help clarify
the distinction between collaborative efforts and accepting the occupation and cooperwith its me
ating
ssages. Aharon BEN-NOUN
Aharon Ben-Noun is the Director of the Municipality of Jerusalem's Public Building Department and one of the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center's founders. Aharon holds a B.A. in Education and Geography. He is married and the father of three.
Bony GOLDBERG Bony Goldberg has served as the director of the Community Services Administration of Jerusalem since January 2005. Prior to the formation of the CSA, she served as the director of the Social Services Department. There are about 900 workers in the four departments providing a wide range of services to some 57,000 families. Mrs. Goldberg oversees an annual budget of 570 million Israeli Shekels (~$152 million). Given the unique characteristics of Jerusalem, the CSA actively works to provide appropriate services to all the various cultural and religious populations in the city and to improve their standard of living. She holds a MSW degree from Hebrew University, a Masters degree in Criminology from Hebrew University, a B.A. in French and Sociology, and a teaching certificate in French from Ben Gurion University.
Elias Daoud KHOURY
Elias Daoud Khoury is a Jerusalem-based Arab-Israeli lawyer. He specializes in real property law. Elias made appeals several times to the Supreme Court of Israel and has had Palestinian politicians among his clients in Israeli courts. He is the father and son of terrorism victims. Elias gained fame in the 1970s when he led a legal battle against the Israeli settlers of Sebastia and Elon Moreh. Elias Khoury was born in the Galilee.
His father lost the family land to Israel in the 1948 war, took citizenship in Israel, and believed he could work patiently through Israeli law to get the land back. Elias studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lived in the Beit Hanina and Shuafat neighborhoods of Jerusalem. He has a practice in Jerusalem.
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Tal KLIGMAN Tal Kligman is a group facilitator and a project office director. She specializes in the fields of dialogue, multi-cultural communication, participatory democracy, coalition building, and conflict management. She runs workshops and training in East and West Jerusalem for professionals and residents from diverse sociological and cultural backgrounds. She is working in the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center, Merchavim –The Institute
for Advancement and Shared Citizenship and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Tal has a degree in Special Education and Education Policy and Management from the Hebrew University and a group facilitator diploma from the Zippori Center in Jerusalem.
Kaduna Adam LAWAL Imam Adam Lawal was born Adam Abubakar Lawal in 1958 at the town of Soba in Zaria of Kaduna State, Nigeria. A devout Muslim, he started his Islamic school at the age of five and after graduation, commenced primary school education at the age of fifteen. Imam Adam Lawal is a civil servant and a political office holder on secondment with the state. He is Hausa by tribe and speaks English. Imam Lawal is married with children. His hobbies include hunting and swimming. John Joseph HAYAB
Reverend John Joseph Hayab is the State Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria. He played a critical role in the resolution of the ethno-religious crisis experienced in the past in the state. He is also currently the Chief Executive Officer of Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN).
Ahmed MAKARFI
His Excellency Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi was elected governor of Kaduna State in 1999 and won a second four-year term in 2003. He is currently a Senator in the Nigerian Senate representing Kaduna North Senatorial District. He became a member of the Board of Trustees at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Abuja as well as its Director of Finance and Administration. He is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Makarfi started his working career at the Nigeria
Universal Bank, where he rose to the rank of Assistant General Manager. In 1994, he was appointed to the Kaduna State Executive Council as Honorable Commissioner of Financand Economic Planning before returning to the
e
er of five children.
private sector. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting and an M.S. degree in Accounting and Finance from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. Makarfi is married and the fath
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Umar Tahir TAHIR Tahir Umar Tahir, born 1970, hails from Zaria L.G. of Kaduna State, Nigeria. He graduated from Barewa College Zariain and obtained a diploma in Sharia and Civil Law and an advanced diploma in Business Management and a B.A. with the Houdegbe North American UniversityBenin. He is currently undertaking a Law degree with ABU Zaria. Tahserved as Special Assistant (2003-04) and Senior Special Assistant (2004-to the Executive Governor of Kaduna State. He is presently a special adviser to the Governor of Kaduna State on Pilgrims and Islamic Matters. Tahir has
served in various capacities on Hajj Operation and Islamic Committees at the local and statelevels (1996-2010). He has earned several national and international awards and
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currently holds the office of National President of the Catholic Laity ouncil of Nigeria.
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organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation held Amman, Jordan, December 2008.
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kuk organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation eld in Amman, Jordan, in December 2008.
c John Woje BA U
Sir John Woje Bagu, born in 1953 in Kaduna State, is married with six children and is a Catholic Christian by faith. He holds a B.A. in Education and an M.A. in Education in Administration and Planning. He has been aeducationist with the State as teacher, senior master, vice principal, and principal. He was posted to the Zonal Headquarters in 1992 and held the positions of assistant director, deputy director, and zonal director. In 2006he became pioneer Director/Chief Executive of the State Private Schoo
Board. In May 2009, he was appointed Permanent Secretary. Sir John is a Knight of the Catholic Church andC
Kirkuk
Awad Moham d Mohamad AMEEN
Awad M. Mohamad Ameen was born in Kirkuk in 1962. He is a memberthe leadership committee of the Kurdistan Toilers Party, and his current position is as a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council. He has a B.A. inEnglish and his languages are Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, and English. His activities include: Conference of Iraqi Local Leadership organized by the UN in Turkey in 2005; training courses on strategic planning organize
the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in 2007; workshop on the Kirkuk dispute held in Amman in May 2008 organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation; workshop on governance arrangements in Kirkuk in
ASSI Abdullah Sami Assi was born in Kirkuk in 1964. He was educated at a military science college. His language is Arabic. His political affiliation is independent. His current position is as a member of the Kirkuk ProvCouncil. His activities include: conference of Iraqi Local Leadership organized by UN in Turkey in 2005; workshop on governance arrangements in Kir
Abdullah Sam
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Mohammed Ku
ion nd Higher Education Committee. His political party is Independent.
K
s; rrigation. His political party is KDP.
a
on strategic planning organized by Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in
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Naumann Foundation; workshop on Governance arrangements in Kirkuk also organized by Friedrich Naumann
, Jordan December 2008.
md is
cial He serves on the Hiring and DeBaathification committee. His
l affiliation is with the Islamic Union for Iraqi Turkmen.
dur KHARAB Mohammed Kudur Kharab graduated with a B.A. degree in Military Science. He is a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, KPC Block. He serves on the Hiring and De-Baathification Committee and the Educata
HORSHEED Sherzad Adil Khorsheed graduated from the Teachers Institute. He is a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, KPC Block. He serves on the following committees: Article 58 and the Victims of Policies and Processe
Sherzad Adil
Ethnic Cleansing; Agriculture and I
Silvana Boya NASIR
Silvana Boya Nasir was born in Kirkuk in 1968. She graduated from the College of Economy and Administration of the University of Baghdad in 1988. Her languages are Chaldean, Assyrian, Arabic, and English. She ismember of the Assyrian National Party and her current position is as a member of Kirkuk Provincial Council. Activities include training courses
2007. Hasan Turan Bahaulddin SAEED
Hasan Turan Bahaulddin Saeed was born in Kirkuk in 1962. He attended the College of Agriculture. His languages are Turkmani, Arabic, and Kurdish. He is deputy chairman of Al-Adalah Turkmani Party, and he holds a position as a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council. His activities include: Conference of Iraqi Local Leadership organized by UN iTurkey in 2005; Kirkuk conference in Turkey in 2007; workshop on Kirkuk
dispute held in Amman in May 2008 organized by Friedrich
Foundation held in the Dead Sea
Tahsin Moha med Ali WALI Tahsin Mohammed Ali Wali has a diploma in Electrical Engineering ancurrently a student of Law. He is a member of the Kirkuk ProvinCouncil. politica
o at the rative literature and History of Art. Anja grew up in Mostar.
V
,
aculty of Economics in Mostar in 1984. �olakovi� is a
M
r for the Cooperation with NGO’s and Religious Communities of the
e received her degree from the Faculty of Journalism at the University
E
Fine arajevo in 2010, Department of Product Design, where she won two awards. Mela is
a native of Mostar.
JEVI� Anja Bogojevi� is a project manager and curartor for the Abart art productionthat functions within the Abraševi� Youth Cultural Center. The main project that they are currently working on is called “Art in Divided Cities,“ and it is implemented in cooperation with organizations Studio Beirut from Beirut and Community Development Centre from Kosovska Mitrovica. She recently finished her studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajev
Anja BOG
Departments of Compa
I� Senita �olakovi� is employed by the Mostar City Administration in the Department for Social Affairs of the Secretariat for Education, EducationYouth, and Sports as an advisor to business education. She received her
egree from the F
Senita �OLAKO
dnative of Mostar
I�
Professor Sabina Memi� has been an employee of the Mostar City Administration since 1996. She holds the position of Senior Independent
ffice
Sabina ME
OMostar City.
Anita ŠIMUNOVI� Anita Šimunovi� is employed by the Mostar City Administration. She holds the position of Higher Professional Assistant for the Non-Governmental and Youth Organizations issues ofhe city of Mostar. Sht
of Mostar in 2001. Mela ZULJ VI�
Mela Zuljevi� is a co-founder of the Abart art production that functions within the Abraševi� Youth Cultural Center. Mela works as the project coordinator and designer for the program. The main project that they are currently workingon is called “Art in Divided Cities,“ which involves theoretical research on the phenomenon of divided city and the production of artistic practices that deal with divisions in urban public space. This project is carried out in cooperation with partner organizations from Kosovska Mitrovica and Beirut, as well as
with a group of artists and activists from Berlin. She graduated from the Academy of Arts in S
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Nicosia Mustafa AKINCI
Mustafa Ak�nc� was born in Limassol, Cyprus, in 1947. He is an architect by profession. At the age of twenty-four he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Turkish Cypriots, which was established after the events of 1974. At twenty-eight, he was elected Mayor of Nicosia (North) by the Turkish Cypriot residents of the northern half of Nicosia. He was reelected twice and served for fourteen years. Between 1999 and 2001 he was Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism in the Turkish Cypriot Government. He has been a member of the Turkish Cypriot Parliament for the last fifteen years. Tolga CAGAKAN
Tolga Cagakan is Municipal Councilor of Nicosia Turkish Municipality and is also the Assistant General Manager of Cyprus Vak�f Bank Ltd. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Cyprus Turkish Banks Association (2006-2008) and a member of Board of Directors of TMSF (FDIC of N. Cyprus) from 2006 to 2008. Cagakan was born in Nicosia in 1967. He holds an M.A. in Business Administration.
nd
d was an
Lellos DEMETRIADES
Lellos Demetriades was the Mayor of Nicosia for thirty years from 1971 to 2001. From 1960 to 1970 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus and served as Clerk of the House and chairman of a number of committees. From 1966 to 1970 he was the floor leader (in the House) of the Government majority party — the Patriotic Front — aserved as the Greek Cypriot member in the Joint Committee. During 1961
and 1963 he participated in the sessions of the Consultative Assembly. Up to 2001, he was a member of the Permanent Conference (now called the Congress) of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and served as the Chairman of its Cultural Committee for four years; he is now an honorary member of the Congress. Mehmet HARMANCI
Mehmet Harmanc� is the co-Project Manager of Engage–Do Your Part for Peace project at the Management Centre in North Cyprus. He is responsible for directing all internal control reviews and special projects in the civil society and reconciliation program. He works closely with UNDP advisors and writes weekly columns as part of the project for the Halkin Sesi newspaper. Harmanc� graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2001 with an M.A. in
European Studies and Politics. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party anUndersecretary General of the party from 2008-2010 and is currently president of the Nicosia district. Panos HARTSIOTIS Panos Hartsiotis has been a board member of the NGO Support Center since its creation in 1999. He has a B.A. general degree and a Masters in Public Service Management. He is trained in conflict resolution techniques and transformative
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mediation. He is a retired civil servant having reached the position of Senior Customs and Excise Officer. Kostas MAVRIDES Kostas Mavrides was born and raised in Nicosia. Mavrides studied accounting and worked as an accountant in big firms in Cyprus for ten years until he established his own trading company. During that time he was involved in Cyprus Politics. After the Turkish Invasion in Cyprus in 1974, he was even more actively involved in the politics of his country as one of the senior officers of the governing party in Cyprus at that time (Democratic Party). Since 1996 he has served in the City Council of Nicosia. This is his third consecutive term as a city councilor and as the leader of the Democratic Party’s Nicosia Council Team. Katerina PAPADOPOULOU Katerina Papadopoulou is a Researcher for Cyprus 2015, a dialogue and public opinion research initiative implemented by the Joint Programme Unit for United Nations – Interpeace Initiatives (JPU), and supported by UNDP-Action for Cooperation and Trust and the European Commission Representation in Cyprus. Katerina has facilitated meetings with Greek Cypriot displaced persons, which discussed issues of property restitution and return. She has also co-facilitated bi-communal stakeholder panels, promoting dialogue between stakeholders from both communities about their views on solving security, governance, and property issues. She also worked for Politis, a Greek language newspaper in Cyprus. She grew up in Nicosia.
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City Profiles
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City Profile
BELFAST Belfast is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland, with a population of about 267,500. Belfast is a center for industry, the arts, higher education, business, and law in Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of disruption, conflict, and destruction called the Troubles, but more recently has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth.
The colonization of Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, began in the 1640s when Anglo-Protestants and Scotch Presbyterians began to settle in what is today much of Northern Ireland. Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century during the time of the Plantation of Ulster.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Belfast was one of the cities at the coalface of the Industrial Revolution and emerged as Ireland’s preeminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering, and shipbuilding, and at the end of the 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland.
The Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912 at the Harland and Wolff shipyards, which became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers in its heyday. But employment was highly discriminatory, with few Catholics employed in the industrial sector. After World War II, Shorts airplane manufacturer set up a plant in Belfast, adjacent to the shipyards and the same discriminatory practices prevailed.
Belfast is a city in which segregation of Catholics, who mostly aspire to become part of a united Ireland, and Protestants, who mostly want to stay in the United Kingdom (UK), became the determining factor in the city’s social, geographical, and political landscape — all reasons contributing to Belfast’s long history of sectarian rioting.
After Ireland was partitioned in 1921, Belfast became the capital of Northern Ireland, a self-governing province of the UK. Communal differences became more exacerbated, and bouts of sectarian violence more frequent. Catholics were discriminated against in various sectors of employment and in housing and were denied opportunities for advancement in both the public and private sectors, as they were considered disloyal to Northern Ireland and loyal to the Irish state on its southern borders.
Between 1921 and 1969, all organs of government and policing remained firmly within the control of the Protestant Unionist majority. Former Northern Ireland prime minister Sir James Craig famously called it “a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant state” (in response to Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera describing Ireland as a Catholic nation).
Some unionists argue that discrimination was not just caused by religious or political bigotry, but also was the result of more complex socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and geographical factors. Whatever the cause, the existence of pervasive discrimination and the manner in which the resultant nationalist anger was handled were major contributing factors to the Troubles. In the latter part of the 1960s, Catholics, under the umbrella of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), organized mass demonstrations demanding their full rights as citizens of the UK. These demonstrations became the trigger that unleashed violent political unrest, which was at its worst between 1968 and 1994.
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In the 1970s, Belfast was the scene of bombings at public places, and bore the brunt of the killings in the following decades. In mixed areas, Catholics fled from those predominantly Protestant-populated, and Protestants from those predominantly Catholic-populated. At the time, it amounted to the largest internal displacement of a civilian population since World War II. At present, West Belfast is almost entirely Catholic; East Belfast, adjacent to the industrial centers, is almost entirely Protestant; North Belfast remains mixed.
In 1969, when communal violence was at its worst, the British government sent in the army ostensibly to “save” Catholics from what appeared an imminent Protestant perpetrated pogrom. A “peace wall” was erected by the British Army, cutting streets in two and stretching across fourteen neighborhoods.
Besides physical separation, the two communities continue to be divided by separate school systems, sports, languages, cultures, and national aspirations.
Paramilitary groups also proliferated. On the republican side, the presence of the British Army resuscitated a nascent Irish Republican Army (IRA). On the Unionist/Loyalist side, the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) were formed or revived to “protect” Protestant communities from the IRA.
The IRA and Loyalist paramilitary ceasefires of 1994, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement of 1998, and the St. Andrews Agreement of 2006 all brought a form of peace to Northern Ireland, a devolved Northern Ireland Assembly with 108 members, and a cross-party Executive. Both Irish and British identities are accorded parity of esteem: citizens may choose their national identity. Binding decisions require concurrent majorities of Unionists and Nationalists. Cross-border bodies handle issues common to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Human rights and equality are underpinned by robust legislation and strong agencies.
Thus, the minority Catholic population gained a share of political power in Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland gained a voice in Northern Irish affairs. In return, Catholics agreed that a united Ireland would require that a majority of Northern Ireland voters give their consent. In a dual referendum held on 22 May 1998, Northern Ireland approved the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement by a vote of 71 percent to 29 percent, and the Irish Republic by a vote of 94 percent. Since then, Northern Ireland has experienced a period of sustained economic growth and large-scale redevelopment of the city center and the waterfront.
Northern Ireland has a population of 1.75 million people. In the late 1960s, the Protestant proportion was 60 percent and the Catholic proportion 40 percent, but in a 2001 census, the Protestant proportion was 53.1 percent and the Catholic proportion was 43.8 percent.
Belfast has witnessed a similar hemorrhaging of Protestants. The city of Belfast has a population of 276,459 and lies at the heart of metropolitan Belfast, which has a population of approximately 800,000. In 1961, the Protestant population of Belfast was 63 percent; it has fallen in every census since. The Catholic community now makes up the majority of Belfast's population, with many Protestants having moved away.
In 1997, Unionists lost overall control of the Belfast City Council for the first time, with the balance of power held by cross-community Alliance Party ever since. There have been four Nationalist Lord Mayors of Belfast, two from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and two from Sinn Féin. Alex Maskey, an avowed Republican and senior member of Sinn Féin —- then regarded as being the political arm of the IRA — was elected Lord Mayor
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in 2002. He was the first Catholic elected to the office. The political tumult that it incited took several years of collective political psychotherapy to arrest.
After ten years of peace, Belfast is more segregated than ever. Since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, more peace walls have been erected, now numbering 82 across the city. None are coming down. Much hatred remains.
In January 2010, the Consultative Group on the Past, a commission set up in 2007, published the Eames Bradley Report on best ways of dealing with the past. Among its recommendations is a Legacy Commission, which would sit for five years and be headed by an international commissioner. Its remit would cover (a) helping society toward a shared and reconciled future through a process of engagement with community issues arising from the conflict through the Reconciliation Forum; (b) reviewing and investigating historical cases; (c) conducting a process of information recovery; and (d) examining cases linked to or thematic cases emerging from the conflict. On 12 April 2010, the Westminster government formally devolved policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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City Profile
BEIRUT Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. The population of Beirut holds 75 percent of the urban population of Lebanon. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean Sea, Beirut serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which consists of the city and its suburbs. The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters, dating to the 14th century BCE, and the city has been continuously inhabited since.
There are wide-ranging estimates of Beirut's population from as low as 938,940 people to as high as 2,012,000. No population census has been taken in Lebanon since 1932. Best estimates on religious groups suggest: Muslim 59.7 percent (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 39 percent (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, Protestant); other 10.3 percent.
Beirut is the most religiously diverse city of the Middle East with Christians, and Muslims both having a significant presence. Lebanon’s President is always a Christian (Maronite Christian), the Prime Minister is always a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of the Parliament is always a Shiite Muslim. Family matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance are still handled by the religious authorities representing a person's faith. Calls for civil marriage are unanimously rejected by the religious authorities but civil marriages held in another country are recognized by Lebanese civil authorities. Until the mid-20th century, Beirut was also home to a Jewish community, in the Wadi Abu Jamil neighborhood.
Before the civil war broke out in 1975, neighborhoods of Beirut were fairly heterogeneous, but they have become largely segregated by religion since the conflict. East Beirut is characterized by a largely Christian population with a small Sunni Muslim minority. Meanwhile, West Beirut is categorized by a Muslim majority, primarily Sunni, with small communities of Shiites, Druze, and Christians. Since the end of the civil war in 1990, East and West Beirut have begun to see an increase in Sunni Muslims and Christians moving into each half. Beirut's southern suburbs are largely populated by Shiite Muslims, while Beirut's Eastern suburbs are largely Christian. Northern Beirut has had and continues to have a large Lebanese Protestant community since the 19th century.
Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy with its city center-, Hamra-, Verdun-, and Ashrafieh-based corporate firms and banks. The city is the focal point of the region's cultural life, renowned for its press, theatres, cultural activities, and nightlife.
By the second half of the 19th century, Beirut was in the process of developing close commercial and political ties with European imperial powers, France in particular. European interests in Lebanese silk and other export products transformed the city into a major port and commercial center. Meanwhile, Ottoman power in the region continued to decline. Sectarian and religious conflicts, power vacuums, and changes in the political dynamics of the region culminated in the 1860 Lebanon conflict. Beirut became a destination for Maronite Christian refugees fleeing from the worst areas of the fighting on Mount Lebanon and in Damascus. This influx altered the ethnic composition of Beirut, sowing the
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seeds of future ethnic and religious troubles there and in greater Lebanon. Beirut was able to prosper as a result of European intervention and a general realization among the city's residents that commerce, trade, and prosperity depended on domestic stability.
In 1888, Beirut was made capital of a vilayet, or “province,” in Syria. By this time, Beirut had grown to be a cosmopolitan city with close links to Europe and the United States. Beirut also became a center of missionary activity that spawned impressive educational institutions, such as the American University of Beirut. French influence in the area soon exceeded that of any other European power. In 1911, the population mix was reported in the Encyclopedia Britannica as Muslims, 36,000; Christians, 77,000; Jews, 2,500; Druze, 400; foreigners, 4,100.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Beirut, along with the rest of Lebanon, was placed under the French Mandate. After Lebanon achieved independence in 1943, Beirut became its capital city. It remained an intellectual capital of the Arab world and quickly became a financial center for much of the Arab world and a major tourist destination.
This era of relative prosperity ended in 1975 when the Lebanese Civil War broke out. During most of the war, Beirut was divided between the Muslim west and the Christian east. The downtown area, previously the home of much of the city's commercial and cultural activities, became a no-man's land known as the “Green Line.” Many inhabitants fled to other countries. Thousands of others were killed throughout the war, and much of the city was devastated. A particularly destructive period was the 1982 Israeli invasion, during which most of West Beirut was under siege by Israeli troops. Subsequently, southern Lebanon was occupied by the Israeli Defense Force until 2000 when Israel unilaterally withdrew. Simultaneously, Syria maintained a military force of 3,000 troops.
Since the end of the war in 1990, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut. During the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war, southern Beirut, home to most of the city’s Shia population, came under heavy bombardment, and much of Beirut’s infrastructure was destroyed. Reconstruction of downtown Beirut has been largely driven by Solidere, a development company established in 1994 by the late Rafik Hariri.
The 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri near the Saint George Bay in Beirut shook the entire country. A month after the death of Hariri, approximately one million people gathered in Beirut for an opposition rally against Syrian presence that came to be known as the Cedar Revolution — the largest rally in Lebanon’s history at that time. The last Syrian troops withdrew from Beirut on 26 April 2005. The two countries established diplomatic relations on 15 October 2008.
In June 2009, Lebanon held national elections for Parliament and in November, it formed a national unity government. The new government includes Hezbollah, which heads the March 8 Alliance. The March 14 Alliance’s leader, Saad Hariri is Prime Minister, and the Independent candidate Michel Suleiman is President.
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City Profile
DERRY/LONDONDERRY Derry/Londonderry is a city in the northwest part of the province of Northern Ireland that is divided by the River Foyle. The west bank Cityside is majority Catholic and the east bank Waterside is majority Protestant. The population of the city was 83,652 in the 2001 census and was majority Catholic. It is the second largest city in Northern Ireland.
The name of the city is itself a source of division among its inhabitants. The name Derry is derived from a Gaelic word doíre, which means “oak grove;” an oak leaf is incorporated in the city's official emblem. In 1613, Derry was lengthened to Londonderry due to the role that the Corporation of London had in the Protestant settlement of the city. In 1984, Nationalists in the city council voted successfully to change their body’s official name from Londonderry City Council to Derry City Council. Unionists were infuriated and insisted on Londonderry as the prefix to the council’s name. Despite the actions of the Nationalists, Londonderry is the city’s and county’s official and legal name. It would require an Act of Parliament at Westminster to change either.
On radio and TV, to avoid offence, the term “Derry-stroke-Londonderry” is commonly used. This is sometimes shortened to “Stroke City.” Road signs in the Republic of Ireland use the name Derry. Londonderry is used on road signs in Northern Ireland; however, the “London” part of the word is often defaced. Alternatively, you will see the term “L'Derry” used on Northern Ireland road signs.
Derry/Londonderry is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Ireland. The earliest historical references date to the sixth century, when a monastery was founded there by Saint Columba.
Planters, or settlers, who were mostly Scotch Presbyterians and Anglican or English Protestants arrived in the 1600s as part of the plantation of Ulster. They built the walled city of Londonderry to settle Ulster with a population supportive of the Crown. Derry/Londonderry is the last remaining city in the British Isles to be surrounded by defensive walls and has the most complete series of city walls in the islands.
In December 1688, the gates of the city were shut against the advancing Catholic army of King James II. This was the beginning of the Siege of Derry. In April 1689, King James came to the city and called upon it to surrender. The King was rebuffed and the siege lasted until the end of July 1689. Ever since, this episode has been used by Protestants as a historical threat that the people might again be incorporated into a Catholic Ireland.
In 1921, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the partition of Ireland, Londonderry became a border city. Even though Catholics were a majority of the population, politicians and business people employed systemic gerrymandering of electoral boundaries and business voting rights in local elections, which enabled the Protestants to retain control of the city council and local administration.
This was a major cause of Catholic grievances and went unaddressed for several decades. Catholics were discriminated against throughout Northern Ireland, with Derry/Londonderry becoming a flashpoint of disputes.
Civil rights campaigns began in the mid-1960s as an attempt to draw attention to grievances felt by Catholics across Northern Ireland. This became a mass movement when public
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demonstrations were organized by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). Initial demonstrations happened without violence, but were opposed by Protestant loyalists who felt the campaign was a cover for Irish republicans who wanted to integrate the Northern Ireland state into the Republic of Ireland rather than to reform it. Nonviolent protest was met with opposition that was increasingly violent.
A march organized for 5 October 1968 was banned in advance. When 400 people tried to proceed in defiance of the ban, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the overwhelmingly Protestant police force, used batons to break up the march. The scenes were recorded by television cameras, and the subsequent news coverage sparked rioting in the city. Many people consider this event as the starting date of the Northern Ireland conflict: the “Troubles.”
From 1–4 January 1969, a group called People's Democracy marched from Belfast to Derry/Londonderry. On each day of the march, loyalists confronted, jostled, and physically attacked the marchers. The RUC made no effort to prevent the attacks, one of which occurred in the Waterside area of Derry/Londonderry. Later that evening, members of the RUC attacked people and property in the Catholic nationalist Bogside area of the city, which sparked several days of serious rioting.
The way in which the police handled the march confirmed the opinion of many Catholics that the RUC could not be trusted to provide impartial policing in Northern Ireland and further alienated Catholics from the Northern Ireland state itself.
Civil unrest reached a peak in the summer of 1969. The annual loyalist marching season sparked riots in Derry/Londonderry, but the worst rioting occurred in August, following an Apprentice Boys parade commemorating the Siege of Derry. After three days of Catholic rioting against the police, which became known as the Battle of the Bogside, the British Government at Westminster agreed that British Army troops would be deployed on the streets in Northern Ireland.
Many Catholic nationalists initially welcomed the British Army troops as a safeguard against their fears of Protestant pogroms. Meanwhile, many Unionist politicians resented the interference by the British Government in the affairs of Northern Ireland. Indeed, the introduction of British troops proved to be a significant development towards the establishment of direct rule of Northern Ireland by Westminster.
Internment without trial of people suspected of being members of illegal paramilitary groups was reintroduced to Northern Ireland in August 1971. From 1971 to 1975, a total of 1,981 people were detained: 1,874 were Catholic/Republican, while 107 were Protestant/Loyalist. Internment united Catholics in their opposition to the presence of British Army troops and paved the way for resurgence of support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Until then, the IRA had been mostly dormant since the 1920s, with little popular support.
Bloody Sunday refers to events that took place on Sunday, 30 January 1972. A march was organized by NICRA to protest the policy of internment. Approximately 15,000 people took part in the march. British Army troops prevented the march from moving into the city center. The main body of the march then moved to “Free Derry Corner” in the Bogside for a rally. Some young men began throwing stones at soldiers nearby. Soldiers moved in to make arrests, and in thirty minutes thirteen men had been shot dead and another died of his injuries.
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The events of Bloody Sunday caused much shock and revulsion internationally. They also resulted in a further dramatic increase in support for the IRA. The IRA was very much in the ascent in some Catholic communities, particularly in Derry/Londonderry, Belfast, and border counties adjacent to the Republic of Ireland.
There was a formal inquiry by the British Government immediately after the killings. This Widgery Tribunal found no fault on the part of the soldiers, but stated that there was a “strong suspicion” that some of those killed “had been firing weapons or handling bombs.” Those involved in the march provided evidence to the contrary.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry established in 1998 began hearings in 2000 and did not conclude until 2005. It is one of the longest and most expensive inquiries in British legal history. The inquiry's final report was scheduled for a 22 March 2010 date of release, but currently remains in government hands for revisions.
Recently, concerns have been raised by Protestants about the city's divisions. Between 1971 and 1991 within the Derry District Council Area, the Protestant population declined by 31 percent, while the Catholic population increased by 36 percent. Fewer than 500 Protestants now live in the Cityside, compared to 18,000 in 1969. The demographics suggest that the city is well on its way to becoming permanently divided.
But concerted efforts are being made by local community, church, and political leaders from both traditions to redress the problem. There is a consensus that much work remains.
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City Profile
HAIFA Located in northwestern Israel along the Bay of Haifa, the city of Haifa is situated between the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Carmel. It is 95 kilometers from Tel Aviv and 126 kilometers from Beirut, Lebanon. Haifa is the third largest city in Israel and is the country’s main port. Although Judaism is by far the majority religion in Haifa (80 percent), the city’s population of 267,000 is also made up of Palestinian Muslims (approximately 4 percent), Palestinian Christians (approximately 6 percent), with other faiths including Druze and Baha’i and with individuals who categorize themselves as nonreligious making up the other 10 percent of the population.
Haifa’s history dates back to pre-Greek and pre-Roman times, with archaeological evidence indicating that a thriving port city existed in the area perhaps as early as the 6th century BCE. Biblical and Talmudic references are made to the site. Because of its strategic importance as a port city, the city was subjected to a series of conquests by the Byzantine Empire, Arab-Muslims, European Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottoman Turks, and Mandate-era British. Haifa’s development depended on the strategic goals imposed by these successive rulers. The 7th century Arab-Muslim conquest of the Byzantines brought a wave of development to Haifa. The 9th century saw the expansion of the shipyards and the establishment of sea trade with Egypt. By the 10th and 11th centuries, the area experienced both economic and cultural growth. At this time, both Arab Muslims and Jews contributed to the growing prosperity, with Jews involved in trade, commercial enterprises, and running the shipyards and Muslims managing the government and administration of the city.
This era of prosperity and co-existence ended in 1100 when the Crusades brought destruction to Palestine. The city's inhabitants fought the invaders, but the shipyards were destroyed, and the citizens massacred. The Crusades returned Haifa to its earlier status as a tiny fishing and farming village. Although Crusaders eventually allowed Haifa to re-establish itself as a secondary port to Acre, in 1265, the Mamluks conquered Haifa and destroyed the port city to protect against future Crusader conquest. It was not until 1516, when the Ottomans defeated the Mamluks that Haifa began to reemerge as the center of shipping in the region.
During the four hundred years of Ottoman rule, religious tolerance was practiced in Haifa. A Christian group known as the Carmelites built a monastery, possibly during the 12th century, on Mount Carmel. Their influence was great, particularly in the area of medicine and education. Bedouins and Egyptians as well as Napoleon had, at various times, political influence over Haifa during the Ottoman Era, and all allowed non-Muslim to settle in the region. By the 1860s, Haifa had reemerged as a center for commerce, and the German Templars immigrated to Haifa and established a colony at the base of Mount Carmel. Like the Carmelites, the Templars had a large impact on the port city. They advanced transportation and encouraged a thriving business community. Additionally, the influence of the Baha’i helped forge modern Haifa. The Baha’i religion emphasizes tolerance and peace. Today, Haifa remains the center of the Baha’i faith. The last major contribution of the Ottoman era was the building of a major railway and modernized dock. This set the stage for Haifa to emerge as a technological and industrial center in the 20th century. Ottoman rule ended with the defeat of the empire by allied forces in World War One, at which time the British Mandate period began.
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Under the British, Haifa’s economy flourished as the port was expanded and oil refineries were built. The existence of the new port encouraged mass migration of both Palestinians and Jews to the city. Prior to World War I, the city’s population was predominately Muslim and Christian Arabs, with only 15 percent being Jewish. By 1944, as World War II drew to a close, the Jewish population had steadily increased to 52 percent of a population that now numbered 128,000. Initially, Haifa’s economic interests had an insulating effect, protecting the city from the growing tensions taking place throughout the rest of Palestine This effect did not last, however, as Haifa’s Jewish population became increasingly politically active. Residential neighborhoods became more segregated, with the Arabs being crowded into the poorer areas of the city. With this segregation, acts of violence escalated and eventually turned into outright warfare between Palestinians and Jews.
The United Nations passed the Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, and in the war that erupted following this decision, the Jewish Haganah defeated the Arab forces and took control of Haifa in April 1948. When the fighting was over, only 5,000 of the 75,000 Palestinians who lived in the city prior to the war were left in Haifa. The rest had become refugees, fleeing the area (according to the formal Israeli version) or being deported (according to the Palestinian version). Haifa's old city was destroyed in an effort to prevent the return of its Arab residents, and most of the Palestinian properties were confiscated by the state. In the aftermath of the war, the State of Israel was born, and much of Haifa’s land that was owned by the Arabs who had fled or been deported was redistributed by the state to an influx of new Jewish immigrants.
Of the five mixed cities in Israel today, Haifa is the most cohesive. While most residential neighborhoods are segregated between Arabs and Jews, some apartment buildings are shared between the two groups. Arab businesses are patronized by Israeli Jews, and social interaction between the two groups appears to be improving. For instance, in December, the city hosts the “Festival of Festivals,” which celebrates Hanukkah, Christmas, and Ramadan. During this festival, thousands of people travel to Haifa to participate in the celebration and walk along the “Co-existence Walk,” which passes through the city’s old neighborhoods.
In spite of this foundation of good will, numerous issues remain today. Jewish and Arab schools in Haifa are largely segregated, and Christians have a separate private school system with higher educational achievement levels than Arab public schools. Because of this, Jews and Christians have higher student populations at the university level. Where the Palestinian Christian population has been able to achieve a broad representation in the middle class, Palestinian Muslims are mostly limited to the working class. In general, Palestinians live in poorer neighborhoods and have limited access to upward mobility.
Although Haifa enjoys greater internal stability than other mixed cities, it falls short of providing equality amongst the factions that call the city their home. Palestinians are socially and economically disadvantaged in comparison to their Jewish counterparts. Few own their own land, and although the city’s diverse economy has provided ample jobs, the cost of living is high and makes prosperity an illusive dream for the vast majority of the Arab population.
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City Profile JERUSALEM Jerusalem, according to the Torah/Old Testament, was the capital of Israel some 3,000 years ago. Jerusalem is a city steeped in antiquity, having been destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions. Conquered and re-conquered many times, Pompey’s conquest in 63 BCE ushered in the period of Roman and Byzantine rule that lasted until the Muslim conquest in 636–638 CE. In the 16th century, Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. During the last decades of the 19th century, the demographics of Palestine began to change. The first clashes between Arab Muslims and Jews occurred after an increase in Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigration to Palestine that began in the 1880s. After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, the British were given a mandate over Palestine in 1922. The Mandate Era applied the principles of the Balfour Declaration, which promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine while maintaining the rights of non-Jewish communities. At the time of the Mandate, the population of Palestine consisted of 590,890 Muslims, 83,794 Jews, and 82,498 Christians, while the population of Jerusalem consisted of 10,600 Muslims, 31,000 Jews, and 11,663 Christians.
In 1947, the UN proposed a partition of Palestine into two states. The Jewish state was allocated 55 percent of the land for less 33 percent of the population and the Palestinian state was allocated 45 percent of the land for approximately 66 percent of the population. Jerusalem would become an “international city.” The Zionists accepted the partition, while Palestinians and the Arab states rejected it. On 14 May 1948, the British Mandate was terminated; Israel declared its independence, and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out. The Zionists prevailed and claimed an additional 23 percent of the land. Jerusalem was divided: West Jerusalem became part of Israel, while East Jerusalem came under the jurisdiction of Jordan. In the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Israel subsequently gained control of East Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The international community has never accepted the legality of this annexation.
Since 1967, there have been numerous Arab-Israeli conflicts and numerous efforts to make peace, including the present efforts being spearheaded by President Obama’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Senator George Mitchell. The peace efforts of the past have failed to reconcile the differences between all parties, and bitterness and hatred on both sides persist. Palestinian citizens within the city maintain little interaction with municipal authorities, and services in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are not on par with services in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods. The borders of Jerusalem remain a topic of great contention between Jews and Palestinians, with the question of who controls East Jerusalem being a fundamental issue.
The Old City of Jerusalem is divided into Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian quarters. It is unique in that it is sacred to all three Abrahamic faiths. The Temple Mount, or Al Haram-al-Sharif, houses several holy sites revered by the three religions. The Western (Wailing) Wall, or the Kotel, which runs the length of the western side of Temple Mount, is the remaining wall of Solomon’s Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians. It is Judaism’s most sacred site. Al Haram-al-Sharif is the sanctuary that contains both the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and is Islam’s third most sacred site. The al-Aqsa Mosque was constructed in the 7th century over the ruins of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, while the Dome of the Rock was built over the site from
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which Muhammad is said to have ascended to Heaven. Just a short walk away is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, sacred to Christians because it houses both the place of Jesus’s Crucifixion and the tomb in which he was buried. Members of all three faiths from around the world travel to the Old City to visit these sites for religious observation; however, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza cannot easily get to the Temple Mount.
Starting in 2002, Israel built a separation wall that cuts a line along the outer rim of Jerusalem. The wall encloses Palestinians within the West Bank and makes access to Jerusalem extremely difficult for Palestinians who are not residents of the city or who have work permits. In 2008, Jerusalem had a population of approximately 760,800, with approximately 429,000 Jews and 268,000 Arab. Religiously, 64 percent of the population is Jewish, 33 percent is Muslim, and 2.3 percent is Christian. Clashes, war, and contestation between Palestinians and Jews have been the hallmarks of the city’s history for ninety years and show no sign of abating or decreasing in intensity. On the contrary, the status of Jerusalem will be a key and contentious issue in future negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Compounding these immense problems facing the city in the context of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians are the Jewish settlements that now extend from Jerusalem into areas of the West Bank and the question of residential construction in East Jerusalem.
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City Profile
KADUNA Kaduna is the capital of Kaduna State, Nigeria with a population of about 1.5 million people. Languages include English, Hausa, and several local languages. The northern part of the state is predominantly Muslim, while the southern part is predominantly Christian. The area of Kaduna is 7,626.20 square kilometres.
The United Kingdom formally colonized the country of Nigeria by 1914. The British administered the colony by dividing it into two regions: the North, which was allowed to maintain its religious-based administration, and the South, which was home to Christian missionaries. Currently, the country is divided into six zones and political positions are rotated among these zones — three in the North and three in the South — to assure an ethnic balance. The president and governors are limited to two terms of four years each.
Kaduna is situated on the Kaduna River, the main tributary of the Niger River and home to many crocodiles. The city’s name derives from the Hausa word kada for crocodiles. Kaduna, “the City of Crocodiles,” is 300 kilometers north of Abuja. The city was founded by the British as the capital of Northern Nigeria in 1917 and was recognized as the commercial, industrial, and political center of Northern Nigeria.
Of the 6 million people who live in Kaduna State today, 1.5 million people live in the city of Kaduna, which is roughly split 50/50 between Christians and Muslims. By design, the colonial authorities created a settlement pattern that segregated the two faiths; however the local population resisted this and moved liberally throughout the city. In general, a majority of Christians inhabit the southern side of the city, and a majority of Muslims live in the northern side. Unlike other cities in Nigeria, Kaduna is characterized by its considerable urbanization and does not have the typical “settler” versus “indigenous” population tension. This is largely because Kaduna is an economic center and many people move there for work.
Kaduna once had a flourishing textile industry; however, most of the factories closed due to economic policy neglect during military rule, and more recently, competition from Chinese imports. Currently, the economy of Kaduna is supported mainly through trade in cotton-textiles and beverages and through furniture factories. A pipeline delivers oil from the Niger Delta to the oil refinery and petrochemical plant, an important employer in a city with high unemployment. A 2009 World Bank study shows that one out of every five adults in Nigeria is unemployed. Kaduna is listed as one of the six cities with the highest unemployment in Nigeria. Kaduna state is the home of many important institutes of higher education including the Nigerian Military Training College, Kaduna Polytechnic, Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna State University, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, and the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research. The Nigerian Military Training College is the only military institute that trains Nigerian officers in the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
In 2000, the city of Kaduna made international headlines when a violent conflict between Muslims and Christians in the city left 2,000 dead and over 10,000 injured in a clash that lasted from February to May of that year. Over 2,000 properties were destroyed, including 170 churches and mosques, and between 60,000 and 65,000 people were internally displaced. The violence was sparked during a protest by Christian groups in response to the introduction of the criminal code of Islamic Sharia law in Kaduna state. In 2002, Kaduna was
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once more rocked by violence over what is known as the “Miss World Riots,” in which 250 people were killed in three days.
As a result of these bouts of violence, the Kaduna state government under Governor Ahmed Makarfi instituted several important reforms known as the “Kaduna Compromise,” which has provided a model for other Nigerian states. Under the Compromise, the Sharia criminal code was implemented only in Muslim-majority local governments in the state and with clear assurances that it would only be applied to Muslims. Thus, there is a dual court system of secular and Sharia courts. The state government in recent years has also increased the presence of security agencies across the state.
Religious and traditional leaders still have great influence in the community and often assist in mediation efforts. One source of conflict, however, was the power vested by the British to the Emir of Zaria as the head of traditional leaders in the colonial state. Under the Kaduna Compromise, Governor Makarfi granted additional chiefdoms to various local governments of the state, such that Christians now have state-recognized traditional leaders among their constituencies.
With these changes, very little public unrest has been seen since the incidents of 2000 and 2002, and Kaduna remains a model to which other Nigerian states along the ethnic and religious divides look for solutions to their own conflicts. Nonetheless, tensions among the communities remain, especially amid protracted unemployment, as Kaduna’s last textile mill shut its doors in 2009 and the presence of security forces remains high. Nigeria continues to fare poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Survey.
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City Profile
KIRKUK
The population of Iraq is estimated at 28 million, although 2.5 million have fled the country to escape sectarian violence, which is one of the greatest sources of refugees since 2005. Another 2.8 million have been displaced internally. Best estimates for ethnic groups are 75 to 80 percent Arab and 15 to 20 percent Kurds. Significant minority ethnic groups together constitute about 5 percent of the population. These include Turkmen, Assyrians, and Chaldeans. Best estimates of religious affiliation show that 97 percent of the population is Muslim. Of this, 60 to 65 percent is Shia and 32 to 37 percent is Sunni. Christians make up 3 percent.
Kurdistan has been an autonomous region of Iraq since 1991, when the international community established a no-fly zone after the first Gulf War.
Kirkuk lies about 240 kilometers north of Baghdad. The name Kirkuk is derived from the Assyrian name Karkha D-Bet Slokh, which means “the city besieged by a wall.” The present city of Kirkuk stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian city called Arrapha, which existed in the 5th millennium BCE and The city reached great prominence in the 11th and 10th centuries BCE under Assyrian rule. The oldest part of the city is clustered around a citadel built on an ancient mount.
Kirkuk contains oilfields accounting for 13 percent of Iraq’s proven reserves. The region around Kirkuk accounts for as much as 40 percent of Iraq's oil production and 70 percent of its natural-gas production, factors that contribute to making “ownership” of Kirkuk a matter of contention.
Kirkuk is the most ethnically diverse city in Iraq. Kurds stake a historical claim dating back to the late 19th century, when, they assert, Kurds made up three-quarters of the population of Kirkuk province. A 1957 census showed, however, that Turkmen predominated, making up 37 percent of the population, while Kurds made up 33 percent, Arabs 22 percent, and Christians 1 percent inside the city of Kirkuk. That census revealed that in the Kirkuk province, the population proportions were as follows: Kurds at 48 percent, Turkmen at 21 percent, Arabs at 28 percent, and Christians at less than 1 percent. It should be noted that some sources suggest that the 1957 census showed that Kurds were the majority. However, between the 1970s and 2003, the regime of Saddam Hussein uprooted more than 100,000 Kurds (some estimates say 200,000) in his efforts to “Arabize” the city.
Statistics in Iraq and the usages to which they are put are highly controversial and different censuses have generated different results and are highly politicized. Sunni Arabs cite a 1997 census that showed Arabs — both Shiite and Sunni — made up 58 percent of the city's population. Some experts say the data is faulty because under the "Ethnic Correction Policy,” many Kurds and Turkmen unwillingly changed their Iraqi National Identification Card to be regarded as Arabs, so they would not risk being expelled from their houses to other provinces.
Since the toppling of the Hussein regime in 2003, hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Kurds — perhaps up to 350,000 — and Turkmen returned to Kirkuk to reclaim their lost properties or to reside in camps on the eastern fringe of the city. Some experts say their motivation was to rebalance the city's population in preparation for the December 2007
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referendum. Most experts say Kurds now make up a clear majority. After a ruling allowing around 70,000 displaced Kurds to vote, Kurds now control most of the city's important political posts. The Turkmen, once the foundation of the city’s urban elite, have been most affected as a result of continuous ethnic violence.
Article 140 of the Iraq Constitution stipulated that a province-wide referendum to determine the status of Kirkuk would take place before 31 December 2007. However, citing security concerns, the government failed to conduct the referendum. Turkmen in particular are opposed to a Kirkuk ruled by Kurds because they see it as the first step to incorporate Kirkuk into Kurdistan. Turkmen complain of being scapegoated by Kurds, subject to attack and discrimination. Other ethnic groups harbor similar complaints in the face of aggressive moves on the part of the Kurds who have taken majority control of Kirkuk province, allowing them to place Kurdish loyalists in key positions in the civil service, intelligence services, and police service, while Kurdish Peshmerga, the army of Kurdistan, patrol the streets.
Turkey fears that a Kurdistan with Kirkuk as its capital and sitting atop such oil abundance would constitute a move by Kurdistan toward creating an independent Kurdish state. Ankara's primary concern is that such a move by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to seek greater autonomy could spill over into its own borders and spark unrest among Turkey's own 12 million Kurds. Iraq's Sunni and Shiite nationalists, fearing an eventual division of Iraq, say Kirkuk is home to Arabs as well as Kurds and thus should not be incorporated into Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan. They accuse Kurds of forcibly driving Sunni and Shiite Arabs out of their homes, of overstating their claim to Kirkuk, and of "reverse ethnic cleansing" by displacing some of the city's Arab residents. But to most Kurds, Kirkuk is their “Jerusalem,” linked by centuries of history and culture.
Although provincial elections were held throughout Iraq on 31 January 2009, no elections were held in Kirkuk because of disagreement regarding the size of the city’s population. As part of the Provincial Election Law, the UN issued Article 23, a special proposal related to Kirkuk that stipulates a temporary power-sharing agreement or joint administration on an equally proportionate basis: 32 percent representation each for Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen and 4 percent for minorities. This proposal has been adopted by the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC).
Kirkuk is Iraq’s tinderbox of conflict, with the potential of all-out war between the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces as well as internecine ethno/sectarian violence among Turkmen, Kurds, and Shia Arabs.
Iraqi national elections held in March 2010 had a 55 percent turnout. Nationwide results show that Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiya list, which includes the largest Sunni blocks as well as secular Sunni parties, won with a marginal lead over Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition. It may take some time for Iraq to form a new government. The issue of the future status of Kirkuk will be a matter of negotiation among the competing parties.
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City Profile Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica Kosovo was the last part of Yugoslavia to proclaim independence, in a move recognized by 69 countries (out of 192 UN members) to date but not by Serbia. The final status of Kosovo therefore remains contested.
Following the NATO-led campaign in 1999, which resulted in the retreat of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Police Forces from Kosovo, the “Kumanovo Military-technical Agreement” and UN Security Council Resolution 1244, established the basis for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNIMK) to become the administrative authority and the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), the chief security authority.
Of Kosovo’s approximately 2.1 million people, it is estimated that Albanians comprise at least 88 percent and Serbs at most 7 percent of the population. After years of trying to reach some accommodation between the Belgrade government and Kosovo Albanians, the United Nations-appointed mediator Martti Ahtisaari put forward a plan calling for supervised Kosovo independence. The United States and the European Union embraced the plan, but the United Nations did not; Russia, which sided with the Serbs on the issue, withheld its vote in the Security Council. In February 2008, Kosovo’s Albanian-majority Provisional Institutions of Self-Government declared independence from Serbia, again with recognition from many Western countries and the United States, but not the United Nations. After agreement from the United Nations General Assembly, the Serbian government requested an opinion on the legality of the independence declaration from the International Court of Justice, a process that is ongoing.
The municipality of Mitrovica/Kosovska Mitrovica lies about 40 km north of Pristina. It consists of one town and forty-nine villages. Since 1999, the town has been divided roughly along the Ibër/Ibar River. Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica has a history of communal violence. With the war’s end, a severe outbreak of violence in 2004 and the declaration of independence, the population moved in two directions: Serbs who were living on the southern side of the river moved to the northern side and Albanians on the north side to the south. The northern part of the municipality has a Serb majority and the southern part an Albanian majority.
The northern part is administered both by the United Nations Administration-Mitrovica and by its own municipality, which is ultimately run by Belgrade. The southern part is governed by municipal institutions, which regard the northern municipality authorities as illegal and de jure claim jurisdiction over the whole municipal territory. Broadly speaking, Kosovo Albanians fear partition of the city and that the Serbian government will attempt to sever the northern Serbian-majority municipalities of Kosovo and have them integrated into Serbia. Kosovo Serbs fear being reintegrated into a Kosovo-Albanian controlled town, a small, marginalized group in an independent Kosovo, risking intimidation and the slow emasculation of their culture and language.
Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica city itself is less than three square kilometers in size with a population of approximately 85,000. On the northern side of the river, Kosovo Serbs account for an estimated 16,000 people and on the southern side there are an estimated 66,000 Kosovo Albanians. There are also several other ethnic communities living in the city and its surrounding villages. For all practical purposes, the two largest ethnic communities live in different systems (with different languages, currencies, mobile telecommunications
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provision, electricity supply, and so on). An estimated 18 percent of all Serbs in Kosovo live in north Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica.
The EU’s rule of law mission, EULEX, which is neutral on the status of Kosovo, provides mentoring, monitoring and advising of policing throughout Kosovo, including Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica. KFOR also maintains a security presence. The International Civilian Office, a body set up by states recognizing Kosovo’s independence, also has an office in Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica. One of the ICO’s tasks includes implementing Ahtisaari’s decentralization proposals, which would see the current Mitrovicë/Kosovska Mitrovica municipality split into two, governed by a joint commission.
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City Profile Mostar Current day Mostar is the fifth-largest city in Bosnia-Herzegovina and is considered the unofficial capital of Herzegovina. The city has a long history dating back to the twelfth century in which a wooden suspension bridge set across the Neretva River was the focal point of the settlement. The early fifteenth century, with the introduction of the Ottoman Empire into the region, saw the development of the settlement into the more modern city of Mostar and the renovation of the bridge into the beautiful single-span masonry arch that came to be known as “Stari Most” or the Old Bridge. From this bridge the name of the city Mostar is derived, which means “bridge keeper.”
Under the Tito regime, Mostar had a thriving economy based around the metal-working factory, cotton textile mills, and an aluminum plant. Most of these industries were destroyed during the war; however, the city of Mostar rebounded and now relies on production of aluminum and other metal industries, agricultural, stone manufacturing, and tourism. Three hydro-plants situated along the Neretva River provide energy to the surrounding countryside. Mostar is also home to the two leading universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, University of Mostar and Džemal Bijedi� University educating about 6,000 students annually.
An official census has not occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1991, however, as of 2005 it is estimated that about 127,066 people call Mostar home. The city is almost equally divided between Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks, with the Croats having a slight numerical edge. A negligible number of Serbs live in the city. Mostar was a key city in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, with much of the city, including the iconic Stari Most, being destroyed by constant shelling from all sides. It was reconstructed in 2004 and the bridge and its immediate surroundings are now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The reopening of the bridge has not brought Croats and Bosniaks together, and the city remains divided. The Croats live on the western side of the river and the Bosniaks reside on the eastern side. Politically, the Croats and the Bosniaks share power at the municipal level, but practically, the citizens of the two largest communities rarely mix.
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City Profile
NICOSIA
Cyprus is an island in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, at a distance of 300 kilometers north of Egypt, 90 kilometers west of Syria, 360 kilometers from Greece, and 60 kilometers south of Turkey, at the geographical crossroads of three continents. The population of Cyprus is estimated at 796,000 with approximately 77 percent Greek Cypriots, 18 percent Turkish Cypriots, and 5 percent “other.” Religious affiliation follows similar patterns between Greek Orthodox and Muslim. Cypriot history revolves around three empires: the Byzantine Empire for almost nine centuries beginning in 285 CE that created the basis of a lasting Greek Orthodox Christian identity; the Ottoman Empire for three centuries beginning in 1571 that brought Turkish migrants to the island; and the British Empire for nearly a century beginning in 1878 that established Cyprus as a central British colony.
Politically, the concept of enosis, or “union” with the Greek motherland, became important to Greek Cypriots when Greece gained independence from the Ottomans in the Greek War of Liberation from 1821 to 1829. Many Greek Cypriots had supported the Greek independence effort, leading to severe reprisals by the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman rule came to an end when the British Empire took possession of the island in 1878 and then annexed it in 1914. Government was devolved along ethnic lines. The religious divide was reinforced by nationalist ideologies emanating from Europe, which created the basis for two distinct nationalities. In 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne, the nascent Turkish republic relinquished any claim to Cyprus.
In 1955, Greek Cypriots began a guerrilla war against British rule for the unification of Cyprus with Greece. Turkish Cypriots opposed enosis and demanded either unification with Turkey or partition. In 1960, Cyprus gained independence after Greek and Turkish communities reached a compromise agreement on a constitution that required power sharing.
The Constitution of Cyprus originally provided for shared governmental powers between the island's Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. Within Nicosia, the capital of the Republic of Cyprus, the Constitution divided the Nicosia Municipality into Greek and Turkish sectors with a mayor and a set of city councilors for each sector. But deep divisions and mistrust between the two groups led to violent clashes in the 1960s. Tensions between the Greek Cypriot majority and Turkish Cypriot minority came to a head in December 1963 when violence broke out in Nicosia and Turkish Cypriots stopped participating in the government. In 1964, when it appeared that Turkey might invade Cyprus to protect the minority Turkish Cypriot community, the government brought the matter before the UN. The UN established, with the consent of the government, the UN Peacekeeping Force on Cyprus (UNFICYP), whose original mandate was “to use its best efforts to prevent a recurrence of fighting and, as necessary, to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of law and order and a return to normal conditions.”
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On 20 July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a coup against President Makarios that was instigated by the Greek military junta intent on establishing enosis. Turkey ultimately and occupied 36 percent of the sovereign territory of Cyprus. Some 180,000 Greek Cypriots were forcibly expelled from or fled their homes. In the non-Turkish controlled part of the island, some 50,000 Turkish Cypriots fled in the opposite direction. The UN and the international community condemned Turkey’s actions. After widespread fighting, a cease-fire was declared in August, and the island became divided into separate Greek and Turkish Cypriot sections. Despite international pressure, Turkey refused to withdraw.
In 1983, Turkish Cypriots made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in the face of international condemnation and established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the northern part of the island. The TRNC is recognized only by Turkey. The naming and recognition of the TRNC is a controversial issue among Greek Cypriots, and they frequently use the term "so-called TRNC." Others use the term "self-declared.” The EU uses the phrase "areas not under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus." The Turkish Cypriots are heavily dependent on transfers from the Turkish Government. Ankara directly finances around one-third of the TRNC's budget. In 2008, approximately 40,000 Turkish army troops were still stationed in the Turkish Cypriot part of Cyprus.
The Republic of Cyprus, internationally recognized as encompassing all of the island of Cyprus, is unable to exercise its mandate in the area of Cyprus under control of Turkish Cypriots. Only Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus as the legal government of the entire island.
Divided Nicosia — called Lefkosia by the Greek Cypriots and Lefkosha by Turkish Cypriots — is the capital in both sections. In the area of Nicosia under effective control of the Republic of Cyprus, the Greek Cypriot population is 280,000, while the area of Nicosia claimed by athe TRNC has a population of about 85,000 Turkish Cypriots. Many Cypriots lost their homes and possessions or emigrated during the decades of conflict. In the UK alone, there are estimated over 200,000 Greek Cypriot emigrants and approximately 100,000 Turkish Cypriots. It is also estimated that 100,000 Turkish settlers have settled in the self-declared TRNC. Of the 20,000 Greek Cypriots who originally chose to stay in the TRNC area, fewer than 500 remain.
The Republic of Cyprus was admitted to the EU on 1 May 2004, officially representing the entire island; however, the acquis communautaire, the sum total of EU law, does not apply in the northern part of the island. Turkish Cypriots have or can obtain citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus, which entitles them to travel and work in Europe. However, the northern part of the island cannot initiate direct trade and flights.
Although numerous efforts have been made to bring about the reunification of Cyprus, all have failed. The right of displaced owners to their properties has been confirmed by the European Commission on Human Rights (ECHR).Turkey’s unresolved membership application to the European Union is also predicated on the island’s unification.
In recent years, both sides have pursued confidence-building measures to that end. In 2003, restrictions on the movement through crossings between the two parts of the island were lifted, and in March 2007, the barricade structures on Ledra Street in Nicosia were demolished in an effort to facilitate the eight crossing points along the UN ceasefire line. More recently, Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders launched intensive negotiations aimed at ending the division of the island.
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1. Hotel Number One �ika Jouina 3, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica – telephone: 028 424 903 or 064 64073 22
2. Cultural Centre 3. Community Building Mitrovica (CBM) – 4. Center for Community Social Development (CCSD) – KTA Building, Filipa Višnji�a Street No. 04 5. Hotel Palace – Shupkovc Mitrovicë – telephone: 381 28 31 180 6. Hotel Lux -
The Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) is a 10-year, $35-million grantmaking initiative
that supports good governance in Southeastern Europe. In 2003, the German Marshall of the United States, the United States Agency for international Development, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation joined together to create this unique public-private partnership. Subsequently, European partners have joined this effort to strengthen transatlantic cooperation in the Balkans. BTD awards grants to civic groups, indigenous NGOs, media, think tanks, governments and educational institutions to strengthen democratic structures in Southeastern Europe through two principal programs: Lining Citizens to Governments and Regional Cooperation and Collaboration. BTD makes grants in and between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia.
Cultural Heritage without Borders is an international relief organization working to preserve cultural monuments endangered in various ways. The aim is to integrate the preservation and development of cultural properties into Swedish and international emergency aid and development cooperation. Working with cultural heritage can help vulnerable groups recover their sense of dignity and empowerment,
which in turn can increase the possibilities for reconciliation and fight against poverty.
IKV Pax Christi is active on many fronts in the Netherlands and internationally. We start up and support local peace efforts in conflict areas. These can differ greatly from one another, but their purpose is always to build bridges, to nurture mutual understanding and to improve disrupted relations between groups. We use means of communication and various activities to draw public and political attention at home to hotbeds of
conflict in the world and to raise funds to finance projects and programs abroad. In addition to this, since 2006 IKV Pax Christi has examined the tensions between the various population groups in Dutch society. We wish to contribute to ending antipathy and exclusionary sentiments. Our activities target debate, critically monitoring policymakers and spokespersons and an exchange program for pupils and teachers in the Netherlands and Turkey. We support other organizations' local, regional and national projects to strengthen their call for a more inclusive society.
The Kosovar Civil Society Foundation - KCSF is an independent, not-for-profit organization focused in supporting local civil initiatives leading to a strong civil society movement that will promote a democratic culture and will be responsive to the socio-economic needs of Kosovo.
The European Integration perspective for Kosovo has brought KCSF to a strong focus into issues related to the EU’s framework for the Western Balkans known as the Stabilization and Association Process. Through the newly established European Integration Initiative (EII), KCSF is committed to support the EU integration process and contribute to make it work.
The Kosovo Foundation for Open Society is a local non-governmental organization and part of the international network of philanthropic foundations financed by George
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Soros. The Foundation works with government and civil society to strengthen capacities improve implementation of existing policies and develop new strategic directions. It does so both through developing and implementing its own projects, and by supporting Kosovar organizations that require both financial and operational assistance. Active as an independent Foundation since 1999, it is engaged in a number of programs, including: European integration, civil society, minority and Roma.
Mitrovica is one of the oldest settlements in Kosovo. The strategic position between two rivers, Ibër/Ibar and Sitnicë/Sitnica with economic motives enabled Mitrovicë/Mitrovica territory to be populated since prehistoric era. In the ancient ages until medievalism it was known as Albanik (Monte Argentarum), an abundant place with silver and
lead. A notable development Mitrovica experienced during the XIX century, with the discovery of minerals and ore, that turned it to the most developed industrial city in Kosovo. Municipality of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica is situated in the northern Kosovo in an approximate distance of 40 km way from Prishtinë/Prishtina, with the surface of 326 km which means 3.25 percent of territory of Kosovo. Municipality of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica has 46 settlements. It expands on the scale of 42.53 geographical north wide scale and in 25.52 length of east scale. Elevation scale of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica is 508 - 510 meters. Based on the latest data of the official registration, made during the year 1981, and later from the data of Statistics Office of Kosovo, registration of the years 1991, 1998 etc.,it is calculated that Mitrovicë/Mitrovica Municipality has approximately 126, 000 inhabitants, where 110,000 live in the southern part of the town with a composition of Albanians, other minorities such as Bosniaks, Turks, Roma and Askali.
The Northern Ireland Foundation is a small, non-profit organisation that develops programmes around a shared and better future in Northern Ireland (community relations), the
exchange of international best practices (conflict transformation), and local community activism (rural/urban regeneration). The Northern Ireland Foundation works for a progressive and outward-looking Northern Ireland society, in a setting of tolerance and reconciliation.
The OSCE Mission has helped to create democratic institutions in Kosovo. Now the Mission continues to support and strengthen these institutions, and monitors their work for compliance with human rights standards. Without prejudice to the status of Kosovo, people need and deserve functioning institutions that follow democratic principles and adhere to practices of good governance. The goal of the Mission is that the human rights of all people living in Kosovo are respected. The Mission promotes mutual respect and tolerance among all ethnic groups and the establishment of a viable multi-ethnic society.
Rotary Club of Hingham, Hull and Scituate Massachusetts USA. Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service above Self. The
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mission of Rotary International is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.
UNKT Area Based Development Programme in Mitrovicë/a North/South and Zvecan/Zveçan Area Based Development Programme is a joint United Nations Kosovo Team program implemented in Mitrovicë/a, and Zvecan/Zveçan municipality by six UN Agencies: UNDP/UNV,
UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA and OHCHR and its implementing partners. This program works closely with local authorities and civil society through a multi-dimensional approach contributing to the development of municipal policies, planning and delivering of health, education and social services, promoting economic development and human rights, by building the capacities of local institutions and empowering local stakeholders to plan and deliver services that fully meet the needs of all communities.
The University of Massachusetts Boston includes peace and reconciliation among its strongly held values, as reflected in the establishment and support of the Moakley Professorship of Peace and Reconciliation, and in our campus vision statement which calls for the university to contribute to “the cultural, social, and economic development of the Commonwealth and the global community.” The University of Massachusetts Boston’s John W. McCormack
Graduate School of Policy Studies is a world class academic and research center, dedicated to creating opportunities for students, faculty, researchers and graduates from across a broad spectrum of backgrounds to explore policy and the complex economic, social and political issues which increasingly shape diverse urban communities.
The John Joseph Moakley Chair for Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts Boston was endowed to honor the memory of Congressman John Joseph Moakley by academic study and practical intervention in the processes of reconciling divided peoples, communities, and societies. The focus of this work is inspired by Congressman Moakley’s unrelenting commitment to ending the war in Central America and his impassioned investigation of the murder of six
Jesuits in El Salvador opened the way to a peaceful settlement between the rebels and the Salvadoran Government.
Staff, FCT Padraig O’Malley, Moakley Professor of Peace and Reconciliation, UMass Boston Allan Leonard, Director, Northern Ireland Foundation, Belfast Nancy Riordan, Boston Patricia Peterson, Boston Observers Meral Akinci, Nicosia Xhevat Azemi, Kosovo Property Agency Stephen P. Crosby, University of Massachusetts Boston Ja
mes Holmes, Belfast
Official FCT Documentary Jim Demo Mike Hechanova Sarah Levy John Mulrooney D
