It's human nature that is the fuel for violent conflict. We get inflamed and silenced - pulled apart in the name of justice and loyalty. Past traumas get turned into a replay. Even our love and longing to step beyond the ordinary world can make us sacrifice ourselves and others." - Dr. Arlene Audregon
Since 1996, UNHCR has been supporting numerous projects addressing the consequences of the violent conflict in the context of rebuilding war torn communities. Pretty soon, it became evident that property issues, housing care, security, legal and social issues are important, but represent only one side of a successful return and reintegration process. What is equally, if not moreimportant, is to foster relationships between people.
People who might have been neighbors or friends before, often became sources of tremendous suffering, harm and pain during the violent conflict. While there is no magic formula to successfully transform such an experience into foundations for new communities, there are ways and tools, how to make this possible.
Such tools are offered by Dr. Arlene Audergon, psychotherapist and conflict resolution facilitator in a book titled The War Hotel: Psychological Dynamics in Violent Conflict*. In this ambitious and fascinating exploration of the psychology of conflict, the author poured her experience with people that lived through war trauma; from American street gangs to bloodshed in the Balkans.
It requires a lot of courage, energy and willingness to face personal questions of accountability, responsibility and to recognize and acknowledge the suffering and pain of the others. This process work is an essential part of the overall reconciliation and conflict prevention framework, as it depends on the individuals and groups willing to step into the complex issues and painful emotions surrounding the war and post-war period, rather than feeling only at the mercy of these dynamics.
It is not an easy process, but if suppressed or neglected, these painful complex topics, are likely to come up again and lead to a new conflict, war and replay of the traumatic events. In order to avoid such situations, UNHCR has been supporting a multiyear project titled Building of Sustainable Community in the Aftermath of War (funded, among other donors, by the Dutch and the Belgium Government and implemented by Croatian NGO Association MI in areas directly affected by the war in early 1990s.)
More then a decade after the violent conflict in Croatia ended, war affected communities still suffer post-war consequences. Furthermore, they are burdened with demographic imbalance and war trauma that, in most cases, has remained suppressed. Those circumstances prevent those communities to develop and grow thus remaining isolated from the rest of the country.
Building a sustainable community, characterized by diversity and tolerance, requires building a bridge, a way of moving from the past to the future. In the development process a community needs to fully use existing resources, and increase skills and capacities. That requires involvement of all social groups, as the united community is the best way to build the bridge that would lead into better future.