Balkan Peace Team

Balkan Peace Team

"From 1994 to 2001 the Balkan Peace Team worked for the peaceful resolution of conflict by involving international volunteers in work with local peace and human rights groups. BPT was a cooperative effort of several international grassroots peace organizations that worked at the request of local peace workers. The Project closed in March 2001, because an evaluation of its resources and organization concluded that continuing a good standard of work was no longer possible. Closure announcement (April 2001)...

"In 1993 a number of organizations, including International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), Peace Brigades International (PBI), and War Resisters International (WRI), received requests from Croatia and Kosovo for an international presence. A joint project was formed, the Balkan Peace Team, which now has 11 member organizations.

"The first team arrived in Croatia in February 1994, using the local name Otvorene Oci - Open Eyes - with volunteers both in northern Croatia (Karlovac) and in Split. The presence in Croatia ended when the team closed in December 1999...

"The 11 member organizations forming the Balkan Peace Team were:

• Brethren Voluntary Service (Geneva)
• Bund fur Soziale Verteidigung (Minden)
• Collectif de Jumelage des Soci?t?s Civiles de Gen?ve et Prishtine
• Dutch Mennonite Working Group - ex Yugoslavia
• Eirene International
• Helsinki Citizen's Assembly Geneva
• International Fellowship of Reconciliation
• Mouvement pour une Alternative Nonviolente (Paris)
• sterreichische Friedendienste, Vienna
• Peace Brigades International
• War Resisters International

A Final Internal Assessment of Its Functioning and Activities By Christine Schweitzer and Howard Clark

Contact

Web: http://www.peacebrigades.org/bpt.html