Igman Initiative

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The Igman Initiative (Serbo-Croatian : Igmanska inicijativa) is an umbrella association whose goal is to foster economic and political cooperation as well as to encourage normalization of inter-state relations among the countries of the Dayton Quadrangles: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. [1]

Dayton Agreement treaty ending the Bosnian War

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton–Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, on 1 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, France, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the ​3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars.

Croatia Republic in Central Europe

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the southeast, sharing a maritime border with Italy. Its capital, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, along with twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometres and a population of 4.28 million, most of whom are Roman Catholics.

Bosnia and Herzegovina republic in Southeast Europe

Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina, and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe, located within the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city.

Contents

History

The initiative was named after Mt. Igman in remembrance of the intellectual activists, who traveled from all over former Yugoslavia via the Igman Mountain Road to Sarajevo in April 1995 in solidarity with the besieged population. [2] In November 2000 a conference Prospects of Relations between Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the FRY [3] ” was convened in Zagreb. The conference gathered more than a hundred NGOs from the nations ratifying the Dayton Agreement. The participating organizations agreed to formally join their efforts to stimulate the normalization of relations among the three countries. In 2001 in Novi Sad the second session of the conference was held where the Initiative was formally established and a Council was appointed.

Igman mountain plateau in central Bosnia and Herzegovina

Igman is a mountain plateau in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Geologically, Igman is part of the Dinaric Alps and formed largely of secondary and tertiary sedimentary rock, mostly Limestone. It is located southwest of Sarajevo, bordering the Bjelašnica range in the south and west, Hadžići and Ilidža in the north, and the river Željeznica in the east. Igman's highest point, Crni vrh, west of the Malo Polje road, at an altitude of 1,510 metres, the homonym highest elevation on the east side of this road reaches an elevation of 1,502 metres. Most of Igman is covered with mixed forest with local pastures. Igman was the location of the lowest recorded temperature in the region, −43 °C (−45 °F). Igman has been the site of extensive combat during the 1992-95 Siege of Sarajevo and certain areas, in particular the surroundings of former front lines, feature a high mine risk.

Yugoslavia 1918–1992 country in Southeastern and Central Europe

Yugoslavia was a country in Southeastern and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929.

Zagreb Capital and largest city of Croatia

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. It is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level. The estimated population of the city in 2018 is 810,003. The population of the Zagreb urban agglomeration is about 1.2 million, approximately a quarter of the total population of Croatia.

The Igman Initiative was founded by the Center for Regionalism (Novi Sad, Serbia), the Forum of the Democratic Alternative BiH (Sarajevo, BiH) and the Civic Committee for Human Rights (Zagreb, Croatia). [4] Freedom House provides nearly all of the funding for the Igman Initiative projects. [4]

The Civic Committee for Human Rights a non-governmental non-profit organization in Croatia. It operates since 1992 and its goal is to protect and promote of human rights in Croatia.

Freedom House is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) U.S. government-funded non-governmental organization (NGO) that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons.

Organization

The Igman Initiative is now governed by four co-Presidents from Croatia, BiH, Serbia and Montenegro and its Council is currently composed of twenty members, five per country. It comprises more than 140 non-governmental organizations from Serbia, Montenegro, BiH, and Croatia. [4]

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The implementation of the Dayton Accords of 1995 has focused the efforts of policymakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the international community, on regional stabilization in the countries-successors of the former Yugoslavia. Relations with its neighbors of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia have been fairly stable since the signing of the Dayton Agreement in 1995.

Serbia and Montenegro former European state from 2003 to 2006 (named Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until February 2003)

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UDIK Non-governmental organization

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References

  1. ↑ "Igman Initiative: Mission" . Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ In an interview with Radio Free Europe one of the activist, Ivan Stambolić, said “because of the people in Sarajevo and solidarity with them, but also in support of the people in Serbia who have been against the war and destruction of the city and the people in it, but also because of war monger and instigators . . . with this act I want to show that patriotism, lest humanism, is a lie.”
  3. ↑ At that time the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) still consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.
  4. 1 2 3 "Igman Initiative: History" . Retrieved April 29, 2014.
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