AN organisation with strong Isle of Man connections is playing a leading role in the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation in the former Yugoslavia, with plans to launch activities in Eastern Africa this year.
TransConflict – which was co-founded by Isle of Man native Ian Bancroft and Mirjana Kosic, from Bosnia-Herzegovina – is governed by Richard Karran, James Karran and Alistair Bancroft, the charity’s trustees who were each born and raised in the island.
To date, TransConflict’s activities have primarily focused on Serbia and Kosovo, including efforts to improve minority rights protection for the Bosniak and Albanian communities, and to strengthen the policy-making capacity of political parties.
While it is aiming to broaden its horizons around the world, the organisation hopes to one day create a ‘peacebuilding’ centre in the Isle of Man.
TransConflict, in conjunction with the Reverend Donald Reeves, has also been working to initiate a sustainable peacebuilding process centred upon the orthodox monasteries of Pec and Decani in the predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.
For 2012 and beyond, the UK-registered charity will expand its activities into Eastern Africa, where Rich Karran, a teacher at Chellaston Academy, Derby, has spent the past five summers spear-heading the construction of two fully-functioning orphanages in Kampala, Uganda, each with single-sex dormitories, a medical room and a class room.
Rehabilitating some of the 30,000 child soldiers abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) will provide the focus on TransConflict’s future activities in Uganda.
Richard said: ‘The Ugandan civil war left behind many young boys and girls, many of whom have been sexually-abused, in need of psychological assistance, healthcare and education in order to help them reintegrate into society. The issue of former child soldiers is one of the key obstacles to Uganda’s long-term recovery.’
The former Yugoslavia, meanwhile, remains an important core of TransConflict’s activities. As Ms Kosic, originally from Banja Luka in the Republika Srpska, emphasised: ‘Though the region is no longer on the front pages of the papers, there are many lingering problems that continue to affect inter-ethnic relations. Bosnia and Herzegovina remains divided, and Kosovo’s status remains unresolved.
Violence
‘Whilst a return to the wars of the nineties is unlikely, small-scale and sporadic outbreaks of violence, such as that recently witnessed in north Kosovo, is a persistent threat.’
In addition, TransConflict will soon launch a Global Coalition for Conflict Transformation, designed to uphold and implement the principles of conflict transformation. More than 40 organisations from a variety of countries – including Iraq, Uganda, Sudan, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland – have already applied to join.
Ian Bancroft explained how the Global Coalition would ‘bring together those organisations who believe in the necessity of transforming the root causes of a particular conflict, not merely seek to manage or contain it’.
One of the main aims of the coalition is to facilitate the sharing of experiences between peacemakers, whilst educating others in the methodologies of conflict transformation.
TransConflict, despite its relative youth, has established itself as a leading source of analysis and insight on conflict transformation-related issues.
In 2011 alone, its website – {http://www.transconflict.com.transconflict.com} – which is developed by Alistair Bancroft, attracted over a quarter of a million visitors, including leading diplomats, academics and practitioners. Features such as TransCulture – which showcases efforts to explore and transform conflict through cultural means – have helped open up the field to a broader audience, and TransConflict is now looking to work with schools from across the i sland to promote conflict transformation education.
TransConflict – whose advisory board includes Julian Harston, one of the world’s leading practitioners of peacekeeping, and Mr. Gerard Gallucci, the former UN regional representative in Mitrovica, north Kosovo – hopes to one day establish a peacebuilding centre in the island, which would offer educational courses and provide visiting delegations with a neutral space in which to overcome their differences.
Ian Bancroft said: ‘The long term goal is to put the Isle of Man firmly on the conflict transformation map.’