Last Day in Serbia
Tuesday was our last day in Serbia. It was very cold and rainy...my toes were numb! Everyone in our group is great - Tom, Beth, Darnella, and Barbara. We get along very well. Our city coordinator, Dane (pronounced dawn-a), has been great. He's a young guy with lots of energy (more energy than me!). We have a van that transports us from place to place which is much better than taking taxis. It's interesting that people park wherever here...on the sidewalks, half on the sidewalk and half on the street. It doesn't seem to matter.
We went to the Humanitaritan Law Center first. HLC is a regional non-governmental human rights and humanitaritan organization. It was founded in 1992 after the outbreak of armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The HLC has been researching the killings, disappearances, and torture of prisoners of war and the patterns of ethnic cleansing. They interview witnesses and victims and enter their accounts into a database. Natasa Kandic is the founder and executive director. For an article about Natasa, go to http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935405.htm. She is a very brave woman. She was actually in the building while we were having our meeting, but was busy with other things.
During our meeting, we watched a video about HLC. The video included footage of the execution of 6 Muslim prisoners by members of the "Scorpions", a unit of the Serbian Interior Ministry. This footage was made public in 2005, and four of the men were sentenced this year. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1637469.ece
We also had meetings with the Center for the Development of Serbia and B92. Dane is on the right.
B92 is a radio and TV broadcasting station. Sasha Mirkovic, the co-founder of B92, told us that their website is one of the most popular websites in Europe. http://www.b92.net/eng/
We had a farewell outing at the Restaurant Reka. They had a great band. They sang a few Serbian tunes, but mostly American music like "Lady in Red".
Darnella is on the right. She is a graduate of Miami University (my Alma Mater). We were there at different times, but we were reminiscing about Oxford nevertheless.
We went to the Humanitaritan Law Center first. HLC is a regional non-governmental human rights and humanitaritan organization. It was founded in 1992 after the outbreak of armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The HLC has been researching the killings, disappearances, and torture of prisoners of war and the patterns of ethnic cleansing. They interview witnesses and victims and enter their accounts into a database. Natasa Kandic is the founder and executive director. For an article about Natasa, go to http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935405.htm. She is a very brave woman. She was actually in the building while we were having our meeting, but was busy with other things.
During our meeting, we watched a video about HLC. The video included footage of the execution of 6 Muslim prisoners by members of the "Scorpions", a unit of the Serbian Interior Ministry. This footage was made public in 2005, and four of the men were sentenced this year. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1637469.ece
We also had meetings with the Center for the Development of Serbia and B92. Dane is on the right.
B92 is a radio and TV broadcasting station. Sasha Mirkovic, the co-founder of B92, told us that their website is one of the most popular websites in Europe. http://www.b92.net/eng/
We had a farewell outing at the Restaurant Reka. They had a great band. They sang a few Serbian tunes, but mostly American music like "Lady in Red".
Darnella is on the right. She is a graduate of Miami University (my Alma Mater). We were there at different times, but we were reminiscing about Oxford nevertheless.
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