In the beautiful garden of Koski Mehmed Pasha’s mosque in Mostar, the “Mostar Peace Connection” awards were handed over to individuals who contributed to peace and establishment of trust and cooperation among people in the entire region.
This year’s recipients are Robert Gelbard, Christian Portman, Jeremy Bowen, and the former president of Poland and humanist Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who is posthumously awarded.
“To work on establishing peace and reconciliation is sometimes harder than fighting in the war. The pain of reconciliation is sometimes much stronger than any pain in the war. But our generation has to deal with this pain for the good of new generations,” said Head of Center for Multidisciplinary Cooperation Safet Orucevic.
Wojciech Mazowiecki, the son of the former president of Poland Tadeusz Mazowiecki, received the award on behalf of his father, and he thanked for the recognition of his father’s mission and his fight for peace in BiH. He said his father was a man of dialogue, who always strived for reconciliation but not at all costs.
He also added that Tadeusz Mazowiecki was not a naive politician and that he experienced the tragedy in Srebrenica as his own defeat.
Robert Gelbard, the US diplomat and former Special Envoy of US President Bill Clinton for the Balkans, also received the award and Safet Orucevic stated that Gelbard did a lot for our country during its struggle for true justice and peace.
In his addressing, Gelbard noted that the Old Bridge looked as a symbol of unity back in 1998 and that he met people who also wanted to work on unity and reconciliation during his work in BiH and one of the most important ones was the Mayor of Mostar Orucevic.
Jeremy Bowen, a BBC reporter, received an especially emotional award. It was handed over by Major Commander Esad Humo, the main interlocutor of Bowen’s documentary film “Unfinished Business” from 1993, who fought for the peace in Mostar, and today maintains peace in Ukraine on behalf the mission of OSCE.
(Source: klix.ba)
