Non-Governmental Organisations in Serbia

In Search of Identity

AIM Podgorica, 19 September, 1999 (By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

The current Serbian regime regards non-governmental organisations as some kind of subversive activity which does not differ much from operation of the opposition. They lump them together with foreign mercenaries and local traitors. That is the reason why the regime is very "cautious" when it registers non-governmental organisations, especially those which it decides could be dangerous.

According to the data of the Federal Statistics Office there are 25 thousand non-governmental organisations in Yugoslavia. Director of the Centre for Development of the Non-Profit-Making Sector which gathers the biggest number of non-governmental organisations, Zarko Paunovic, says that there are in fact just 1200 of real NGOs oriented towards development of civil society: "In the society which is for a whole decade war stricken, in an ecopnomic, social and moral crisis, their influence is comparatively small and it is difficult to even determine the exact number of members of NGOs...". According to his calculation each of the 1200 non-governmental organisations has about ten activists and a passive circle of supporters who occasionally join their campaigns. On the local level, they sometimes manage to move things from a standstill and achieve something.

Among the not at all negligible number of non-governmental organisations for the local conditions, there are surprisingly few non-governmental organisations for protection of human rights. Although few in number, these organisations - in the multitude of others which are for nine years already searching for their identity - act in a quite determined direction and have well-established teams of investigators and lawyers. This group includes the Centre for Anti-War Action, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Humanitarian Law Fund and Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

Not even after nine years of the existence of non-governmental organisations in Serbia is there a single sociological analysis of their influence on public opinion and changing of relations in the society. That is why the evaluations of their work and influence are quite arbitrary, especially that of the anti-war movement in Serbia. Nevertheless, in real life, something is happening. At the most difficult time when everything was still smelling of the war in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, under public pressure, general Vlada Trifunovic was released from prison, and the war in Kosovo caused a massive resistance of soldiers and reservists who first refused to respond to call-up and later left the front. NATO bombing induced the citizens to resist the war policy of the regime, so in several cities in Serbia, apart from publicly rebelling, the citizens started establishing civil parliaments or citizens resistance movements (in Cacak, Leskovac, Valjevo, Uzice...).

A significant influence on creation of an anti-war disposition in Serbia was exerted by the strategy of the Humanitarian Law Fund which has for years already been publishing names of persons against whom a crime has been committed, or whose fundamental human rights have been violated, or who have become victims of violation of law by the state. People were protected regardless of their religion or ethnic origin during all the wars from Croatia to Kosovo. With its persistence, dedication, work in the field the Fund has earned respect among other NGOs and of the public in general, which has sensed well that in this case it is not just the matter of "work for donors". For seven years already the Fund has investigated cases of repression primarily by the police and it offers legal counsel to the victims. It is also the only NGO which represents victims of repression at the Committee for Defence from Torture in Geneva. Recently it is busy defending Romanies who are victims of racist persecution both in Serbia and in the province of Kosovo.

The problem of the largest number of NGOs is that they are engaged more in what does not exist than in real difficulties and needs. This causes their disorientation, problems with finding their identity and reaching the citizens. They are often isolated, reminding of disinterested closed circles which are interested only in themselves, and not social problems. For example, during the war in Kosovo, many ethnic Albanians and members of another small ethnic group from Kosovo (Goranci) were victims of local hooligans in the cities of Serbia. In Vrsac, for example, three bakeries were demolished owned by ethnic Albanians who after that definitely moved out of this city leaving it to enjoy in its multi-ethnic image. Shops that belonged to ethnic Albanians were wrecked in Kikinda as well, but thanks to the intervention of mayor Paja Francuski, passions were quieted down and the Albanians have remained in this city. An Albanian was killed in Nis, and many misfortunes caused by ethnic cleansing will never be known. Local NGOs have not reacted in a single of the mentioned cases. But local NGOs in Vrsac and in Kikinda will proudly speak about their projects of regional cooperation with Hungary and Romania in the so-called Banat Triangle which is at this moment more a declaration of good will than it has tangible results.

Citizens' parliaments and civil resistance movements are a new phenomenon in Serbia. They are linked to neither political parties nor to NGOs. In the beginning of September, by self-initiative they organised the citizens' parliament of serbia. Their founders - citizens who are exposed to terrible repression because at citizens' protest gatherings during NATO bombing they appealed on the citizens not to agree to the war waged by the regime with the whole world. However, the rebellious citizens who were arrested, beaten up because they opposed the war and the regime, were defended by lawyers of the Humanitarian Law Fund and the Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights. In order to prevent defence of persons punished for publicly expressed stands at protests from remaining their private matter, independent monthly Republika joined in the campaign and in cooperation with the victims and the defenders, citizens' parliaments and NGOs, published all relevant data and reports from trials in order to make these affairs public, and not be just sensationalistic topics which are quickly forgotten. By raising these cases to the level of public affairs the intention is to reduce the violence of the state against its own citizens and preserve the feeling of solidarity of the citizens with families of the indicted and to make it clear to the people that a word stated in public cannot be liable to punishment.

A new NGO - League of Free Municipalities and Cities of Serbia - founded after the victory of the opposition in local 1996/97 elections acquired great popularity and was quite successful. The organisation of free cities has considerably contributed to the appearance of new non-governmental organisations. This, of course, does not mean that the non-governmental sector has overcome teething troubles: overlapping of activities, different organisations taking away projects from each other, fighting for the same people and, of course, the same donors.

In the past year, financial support to non-governmental organisations for certain projects was offered by foundations active in Yugoslavia and those which are not registered here. Among the former, NGOs were supported by the Open Society Fund, USAID, German foundations: Friedrich Ebert, Friedrich Naumann and Conrad Adenauer, and British Foundation Know-How. The major donors from the latter group were the European Union, Westminster Foundation, NED, IRI, and NDI. Significant humanitarian aid to non-governmental organisations active in humanitarian work was offered by a number of organisations gathered in the Directorate of 20 Organisations which are partners of UNHCR which itself also offered humanitarian donations to Yugoslav organisations.

As a union of NGOs in the organisational sense, until recently there was only the Centre for Development of the Non-Profit-Making Sector (founded in 1996) with its seat in Belgrade. The Centre is oriented towards work on information and documentation, research and establishment of communications among NGOs, consulting and publication of projects. Only in this Centre is it possible to get full data on all NGOs. Its educational program is carried out through the Forum and this year it will try to give new answers to the questions such as participation of NGOs in democratic processes, role of NGOs in the Stability Pact of South-Eastern Europe.

The interlocutor of AIM, Zarko Paunovic, speaks about cooperation of NGOs in the region of the Balkan, the Danube-valley countries, Europe, the region of Banat. Initial results are registered also in cooperation with NGOs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, with which there are joint projects.

There is another new association of non-governmental organisations: the Civil Initiatives which seems to have the ambition to become a new centre of non-governmental organisations. According to the words of Miljenko Dereta, the head of this association, they have established cooperation in the country with political parties, trade unions, media and local authorities, while abroad, through its membership in the Centre for Pluralism, they have contacts with 16 countries of the former communist block from Europe to Azerbaijan.

At the time of NATO intervention (on 28 April), another association of non-governmental organisations was established: Yugoslav Action. It is formed of 58 NGOs, the mentioned Civil Initiatives inclusive, 11 citizens' parliaments and certain independent media. One of the members of this association is the Yugoslav Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights whose main campaign at the moment is amnesty of persons who refuesed to participate in the war in Kosovo. Members of Yugoslav Action are also the Alternative University Education Network (founded after passing of the repressive University Law), Belgrade Circle and humanitarian group 484. This association needs further organising, and when donors are concerned there are only promises.

The figure of 1200 non-governmental organisations, with a few honorary exceptions, is the only thing that promises that civil society stands a chance in this space. The past years of their existence can be said to have been finding their bearings according to the principle one step ahead - one step back. Every job undone, divisions and mutual quibbling were useful only for the regime. The citizens are just getting used to the fact that there is something else besides the state.

Olivija Rusovac

(AIM)