A group of Women in Black Network – Serbia activists went to Priština on April 4-5 to participate in the working meeting with the Kosova Women’s Network. The Women in Black – Network Serbia activists in attendance included: Staša, Slavica, and Ljilja from Belgrade, Snežana from Kruševac, Nena from Leskovac, and Jasmina and Svetlana from Vlasotince.
This was the first meeting of our Coalition since Kosovo’s declaration of independence. The women welcomed us with lots of love, attention, and solidarity. The wish to strengthen our friendship and cooperation was prominent throughout all of our meetings. We were sitting at the same table as equal partners from two states, working together to build a just peace. We felt more relaxed than ever – there weren’t any of the obstacles that had existed in our previous meetings. Our friends are happy and we truly share in their joy. We spent time conversing and exchanging our experiences within our environments. We were impressed by their care for our security and the problems we have in our community as a result of our political views differing from those of the government.
Our work has been very successful and was satisfactory for both of us, and we agreed on many planned actions for the period leading up to September 2008. The activities will have one goal – to present our Coalition to Kosovo through the Women’s Peace Caravan that will travel through five or six cities in Kosovo. All the activities will be directed towards communication with public citizens through organizing public tribunals and peace actions in the streets. We had a chance to see a film by television station TV 21 in which they showed the work of our Coalition.
Our friends made a great effort to help make our stay enjoyable. The evening gatherings were filled with emotions and memories of the period of our struggle of the last fifteen years.
While walking on the streets of Priština we felt the warmth and curiosity of the people we met.
We are grateful for the trust and warmth and we hope that we can soon return the gesture.
April 8, 2008. Prepared for the Network by:
Nena and Ljilja
