International Conference:

Confidence Building and Democratic Conflict-Solving Strategies in Divided Societies

A Comparative View:
Macedonia and Moldova

the director of the project: D-r Mirjana Maleska

Since the famous "Peloponesian Wars" by Thucididus, many distinguished people have discussed the causes of wars and ways to impose peace. After 1991 inter- state wars, especially in Europe, have become wars between the central government of the newly formed national states and different minorities or ethnic groups. It confirms the words of D. Horowitz in his work "Ethnic Groups in Conflict" that ethnic conflict is a worldwide phenomenon and a recurrent phenomenon. The international shifting context plays a part in its emergence and remission. The extinction of the communist system followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia is one such "shifting context". As T.Gurr noticed in his book "Minorities at Risk": "since the end of the Cold war, conflicts between communal groups and states have come to be recognized as the major challenge to domestic and international security in most parts of the world".

To contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon of ethnic conflict, the Faculty of Law -Postgraduate Studies of International Politics and Law and Euro-Balkan a non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit think-tank institution, organized in Struga , two days Conference(10-11 of June, 2000) on "Confidence Building and Democratic Conflict Solving Strategies in Divided Societies". The director of the project was Mirjana Maleska, senior fellow researcher

The Conference was a result of the joint project between Macedonia and Moldova, to produce a comparative study in the field of conflict resolution and confidence building in divided societies. The second part of the project will hold in Moldova at the beginning of September 2000.
Beside the Conference, the participants of this joint project, visited some institutions which deal with the issue of confidence building like the Parliament of Macedonia, national Radio and Television,( editors for the emissions devoted to the minorities) some NGO as MCMS etc. The study group composed by the guests from Moldova and other participants from Macedonia, visited municipality of Tetovo and the village of Vrapciste, as well as the cities of Struga and Gostivar where people of different ethnic origin leave together in relative peace and cooperation on the everyday basis.

The idea of the Project is to collect people from the university of Macedonia and Moldova, activists of different NGO's , as well as the and the journalists who cover ethnic problems to exchange experience and knowledge about confidence building policies in divided societies. Our joint idea was to see through comparison, what are the sources of misunderstanding, prejudice and hostility among ethnic communities in
societies like Moldova and Macedonia: to find out if there is a political frame for solving the conflicts and the political means that can help in establishing greater trust and tolerance among ethnic communities in a country. And finally, we were interest to discuss from the psychological and cultural point of view, what kind of people should we be in order to live in peace and prosperity, although we belong to the different religion, language and culture.

The conventional wisdom among journalists and policymakers is that ethnic conflicts have sprung up in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere because the collapse of authoritarian rule has made such conflict possible, said in his article published in "Ethnic Conflicts and International Security", its editor M.Brown. "The 'lid' on ancient rivalries, it is said, has been taken off, and long-suppressed grievances are now being settled. Scholars generally agree that this conventional wisdom offers an inadequate explanation of the causes of ethnic conflict. It fails to explain why conflicts have broken out in some places, but not others, and it fails to explain why some ethnic disputes are more violent then others".

Our joint project:" Confidence building and democratic conflict-solving strategies in divided societies: A Comparative view: Macedonia and Moldova", try to give some answers which could be relevant for the political science as well as for the action of the civil society. There are a lot of similarities between Macedonia and Moldova and that was an important aspect that contributed to the acceptance of this Project. Both countries belonged to the former communist systems and are in the process of transforming their societies into open and democratic ones. During that process, both countries are facing similar economic and political problems: slow economic growth and insufficient political stability.
The Republics of Macedonia and Moldova have both appeared approximately in the same time frame: Macedonia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Moldova after the USSR dissolution. These countries can be compared from more points if view such as: their surface, mainly agricultural, both of them belong to the South Eastern Europe, and each of them lack a sea shore. There are some similarities regarding the conflict aspects: the same structure of the population, 1/3 of the people being national minorities, as well as the a similar structure of the political problems
After the dissolution of those federations, Macedonia and Moldova faced ethno-political conflicts and passed through dramatic experience. After all the consolidation of the democratic order, creation of a national state, and erection of new legitimate institutions, are accepted by practically all members of the society. But the presence of ethnical division lines is perhaps the most important factor, disturbing those processes and actions. However other factors play significant roles, as well. Therefore the main problem in the society of Macedonia and Moldova today is how to build sustainable civil society and democratic state where all different communities will live in peace.

But Macedonia and Moldova also differ. Macedonia succeeded to keep ethnic stability, although fragile after 1991, while Moldova experienced armed conflict. The ties between Macedonians and other national minorities and ethnic groups in Macedonia have not been interrupted on the violent way, although ethnic communities live more parallel lives. They are quite divided because of different social position, language, religion, but also because the members of those different ethnic communities don't trust each other and have many prejudices. Additional to that the situation in Kosovo is unstable and the prospect that the conflict can still spillover throughout the region is still real., although the presence of NATO is important factor for the future stability.

In Moldova, the problem of Transnistria as a separate entity makes in the region situation also unstable and full of difficult uncertainty. The comparative view of Macedonia and Moldova of solving ethnic and political problem could help to make more general conclusions for the theory of international politics and preventive diplomacy.

From Moldova in the Conference participated :Ana Coretchi(OSI, Moldova) Oleg Serebrian(Free International University, Center for European Formation), Ion Stavila(Head of department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Ion Coretchi(editor in Chief, Delovia Gazeta) Ana Pascaru(, Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law), Oazu Nantoi(Incredea Faundation, Institute for Public Policy), Dimitrie Titica (League of Students in Political Science) ,Alexei Melnichuk(piligram Youth Club)
From Macedonia in the Conference participated: Mirjana Maleska( Institute of Sociological and Political Research), Denko Maleski(Faculty of Law), Lidija Hristova(Institute of Sociological and Political Research) Alexandar Comovski(Journalist, TV A1), Vulnet Poska(Journalist, RTV), Sefer Musliu(Journalist RTV), Mersim Polozani(Former Deputy Minister of Justice), Kostantin Minoski(Faculty of Sociology), Silvana Mojsovska(Institute of Economy), Jovan Donev(Euro-Balkan) and Enisa Hadjic, NGO-Aliturovo
From Hungary as an expert participated: Pal Tamas, Hungarian Academy of Scence
From Bulgaria, as experts participated: Stefan Nikolov, Bulgarian Academy of Science and Ilina Markova-Gorki, NGO-Sofija

Gust with opening statement was: Karlo Ungaro, Ambassador of OBSE in Macedonia
The Conference started with the touching documentary film of after-war Sarajevo produced by Macedonian RTV (author: Nikola Kalajdiski) and finished with the promotion of two books published by the Institute of Sociological and Political Research (promoter, Pande Lazarevski, the Director of the Institute)

The second part of the Conference took place in Chisinau, Moldova from 5 do 12 December 2000g. The group from Macedonija M.Taseva, V.Poska,S.Musliu,M.Polozani, S.Kocevski,S.Musli, V.Angelovska, E.Ilieva, A.Dragovik, M.Idrizi i M.Necovska)was lead by D-r Denko Maleski, professor from Law School.
All discussion by two seminars, in Struga and Chisinau will be published soon.