Balkans: Music Brings Political Harmony

Thousands of young people have crowded the streets of Novi Sad, 70 km north of capital Belgrade. Most of them head for the Petrovaradin citadel overlooking the city, for music shows on some 20 stages.

Thousands of fans have made their home in more than 8,000 tents in the ”tent city” in town. All private lodging in homes was taken, and hotels were full.

”We had at least 50,000 visitors each night,” EXIT manager Bojan Boskovic told reporters in Novi Sad. ”Besides people from all over Serbia, we are extremely happy to see our foreign guests here.”

{styleboxjp}Judging by the crowds, it seemed that the former Yugoslavia, which disintegrated in the 1990s, had come together again. Groups of young Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians and Slovenes roamed the streets of Novi Sad{/styleboxjp}.

”I came here for good music, as I do each year,” Bostjan Mrak (25), a young engineer from Ljubljana in Slovenia told IPS. ”Besides music, I like to meet the young from all over the region; we have so much to say to each other.”

The disintegration of former Yugoslavia 16 years ago did not mean just the bloody wars that took at least 100,000 lives. It meant also the cutting of all ties between former republics, including direct telephone lines, and a ban on travel. Suspicion, fear and hatred prevailed for years, but relations have improved after 2000 with the departure of the leaders who led the fighting.

Organisers of EXIT said back in 2000 that their aim was to bring people together, particularly the young, from all over former Yugoslavia. That remains the aim now as well.

”It's up to us, the young, to mend the fences,” 23-year-old Cane Mitevski from the Macedonian town Gostivar told IPS. ”We should not allow barriers to remain. It's one region we live in, and we all have one future û Europe.”

Trajan Ionescu (25) from Romania and Stojan Bordzev (22) from Bulgaria shared a tent with two young Englishmen who introduced themselves simply as ”Rory and Adrian from Oxford”. Rory and Adrian were expecting their friends from New Zealand as well.

{styleboxjp float=left}”It's going to be completely unbelievable to them once they arrive,” Rory said. ”They think the war is still going on here and that they need flak jackets. They got completely confused when we told them the Rolling Stones are coming over.”{/styleboxjp}

The concert of rock legends Saturday evening brought the mix to Belgrade. Crowds of Bosniaks, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians roamed the streets of their once single capital since the early hours of Saturday.

”This is something I never thought I'd do,” said Senad Smajcevic (46) from Bosnian capital Sarajevo. Senad survived the savage three-and-a-half-year siege of his hometown under Bosnian Serbs in the 1990s.

”Belgrade was the word I hated most for years. But I gave up when I heard the 'Stones' are coming over.”

The Stones had performed in former Yugoslavia in 1976. In 1998, they held a concert in Croatian capital Zagreb. Not many Serbs went there, because they needed visas.

Now times have changed, and many Croats came to Belgrade. Cars with licence plates from Dubrovnik, Zagreb or the Adriatic coastal town Zadar were parked all over Belgrade. Many of the fans were in their late thirties and forties, or even fifties. Some arrived with their teenage children.

”I hadn't been to Belgrade since 1989,” Igor Tvrdanovic from Zagreb told IPS. ”People immediately recognise my Croatian accent, but they don't seem to care.” He went to the concert with his friends who he had not met since 1989. ”I'm glad our friendship survived, after all.”

Igor's story was replicated many times that Saturday afternoon in the downtown shopping street Knez Mihajlova.

”It's nice to see all those people around,” said store manager Tanja Vasic (25). ”The most interesting thing is that we do have so much in common. Language is no problem, be it Serbian, Croat or Bosnian or whatever. The time has come to put the differences behind us.” (END/IPS/EU/IP/CR/VZ/SS/07)

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency