REGIONAL COOPERATION MEETING IN OSIJEK

Osijek, 22 and 23 September 2005.

The three NGO's for dealing with the past, Research and Documentation Center-Sarajevo, Humanitarian Law Center-Belgrade, and Documenta - Zagreb held a meeting on 22 and 23 of September in Osijek, Croatia. The purpose of this meeting was to develop a plan for future regional cooperation in the field of their activities.

All three organizations agreed on the direction in which the cooperation will continue. The plan of activities will among other, include development of the consistent information system in each center with the database for documentation of war crimes; continuation of trial monitoring activities, development of a project for oral history on the regional level and networking with other NGOs.

Organizations reflected on the past cooperation and discussed the ways for improvement of cooperation and creation of a Transitional justice model for the countries in the region, as well as on development of a truth-telling, and other mechanisms of this process.  

Meeting in Osijek was successful and determined guidelines for a next year's regional cooperation plan.

These organizations will meet again in November 2005, in Brussels to continue consultations on appropriate Transitional justice model development and Commission for victims establishment, in cooperation with the ICTJ representatives. These consultations started in Belgrade in September 2005.

During consultations on regional cooperation, Centre for peace, nonviolence and Human Rights - Osijek organized public debate on Ovcara trial related to the crimes commited in Vukovar and invited as guest speakers Presidents of three regional centers which explained activities of their centers and participated in the debate. Katarina Kruhonja from Centre for peace, nonviolence and human rights facilitate the debate with the speakers: Ivan Psenica and Ljiljana Alvir from Association '' Vukovar mothers'', Veselinka Kastratovic from Centre for peace, nonviolence and human rights, Natasa Kandić from Humanitarian Law Center, Vesna Terselić from Dokumenta, and Mirsad Tokaca from Research and Documentation Center.

Veselinka Kastratovic as a monitor of Ovcara trial informed audience on trial and convictions for this case.