Show i— nui viB Brat BO1 huihRBbL HIb lost oop hms sd — mwmSSL IBB we tan left b unique event look place last year when the ESe Wiese I Foundation for moms Humanity brought to Venice Italy teenage leaders from strife-tor-n ofdm world and the US to moot with tack other and world leaden It was hoptd that by sharing thtir experiences feelings and ideas tkt future genermrionaf lend tn wan id have m better chance to understand each etb--tr aad to reduce conflict im tkt wnrid Wkat follows eamt from severed conversntians that took pluee durimg the course efu week "I had a friend who was with me in school from first grade to seventh Whether they came from the former grade" said Haris Hatf a Bosnian displaced to Croatia "Then sudYugoslavia or the Middle East Northern Ireland or Africa these denly he left us Just disappeared Then we see on television his father young people had similar experiences to share: Living in fear of what may on an armored tank shouting and happen to them losing family and laughing That broke our hearts All friends having their world disruptwe knew then is that my friend is in ed Many spoke of the pain aid sufBelgrade and his father is in Bosnia in the Serbs army" fering in their lives “The Serbs occupied our town morcbiitaBEF when t was 16t" mid Cam IlMMk These young people also spoke efthe a Croatian "They arrest me and and revenge of cycle I aggression in me a come When out camp put blame and recrimination— going on I find out my parents and little sister for years decades or even longer — are gone I ask some Serbian friends that fueled these deadly conflicts and ‘Where is my family? But they say sometimes seemed impossible to stop don't know what to they happened them I'm sure they do know But no "In Israel far many years we tried one will tell me Some people say to do to the Palestinians what they they are dead Some say they are in did to us" said Yahayatta ("Yoyo”) “If they male a terror atsome camp in Serbia A couple of MUnttaH tack we went inside Gaza we went my good friends and their families inside the territories We took peohave also just disappeared 1 want to know are my parents ple and we pul tern in jaiL We still doi alive or no? h's driving me crazy I We went inside their houses and hawas pretty desperate for a w hile— rassed them I really believe that we did it as a must It was a security risk you dunk about suicide" "There was a period when it The Palestinians see it differently seemed as if every day a soldier was It doesn't matter how I see it They stabbed or a bomb went off" said see it differently Because of the reMaital Caban 18 of Jerusalem "It venge they saw we did to them they was so terrible every day to turn on revenged more There was another the television You knew that someterror attack h w as like a ping-pon- g thing bad happened and you just and every time 20 people died or w ere caponed" waited to hear it" "Four yean of our fives have been "Until 1991 1 didn't know what nationality 1 am" said Jalawn Waatle destroyed" said Bifw Maa- -ik "We M who lived in Croatia "Then one feel desperate We want to be safe day in school they asked me I didn’t I'm not an animal to hate someone know so they called and asked my But I can't live with the people who killed my patents I can't live with mother She said ‘Serb Later on them anymore" these men came to our apartment Croatian solders They took all our "My granddad and my dad's oldbelongings Everything Even my est brother were killed by the white pictures fhad since I was 3 Whitt mark" said mm SMiota Ml of Kenya did they want with my pictures? After "And my dad's second brother was that we moved to Poland" put in prison for life This kind of "The soldiers came to my house story happened to many families If when I was sleeping and made me you told someone like that 'Let's a forgive the white man for what he Mualafc fed afraid" said Palestinian from Jericho 1 want to (fid let's leave that in the past that help everybody not )o feel like I felt wouldn't really be practical Because there's a lot of anger there" because it was very bad" i4 HknbHvteSyr Daryl "You cannot say that we don't know who bombed It 1 first" said Tarp Krabie who v ina but was bora in displaced to Croatia "In my city we Boania-Herzego- a Mi Bosna-Herzego-v- were living peacefully My dal n Muslim My mom is Croatian My best friend was a Serbian girl Suddenly one morning my city was occupied" JUSte In IkbB Mil ofRt'np animas IbRiniL Wntei bn 1st i feWfcySBl bn bust East is if Israel helps the Arabs solve their hurt and the Arabs help Israel solve their hurt But if each country keeps making accusations that only makes the wounds that much bigger" Fur the American teenagers these conflicts were at times difficult to understand "The thing I find discouraging is that with each of these conflicts it's almost like people have to die" commented Daryl Bormtain WUJf Scotts-dii-e Ariz "And then after a period of tune everybody gen tired of die fight-in- g and dying and dry evenuuDy come together and make peace And it' v almost like these lives were lust far no reason at all If only the people had just sat down in the beginning and said ‘Let's imagine what it would te like to have our friends and our families die and let's make peace now " "Regardless of w ho started a war people are dying" said Urn Fan 90k of San Francisco "Forget about how it staled and w hy it started and solve a" "But how do you eliminate the anger and bitterness ?" asked Anil of Northbrook 111 Still many of these voumg peiqde realized that peace wilt only be possible if notions of revenge are pm aside "In a conflict situation everybody mutt bear some responsibility" said KaHhJneauaw ilk of Belfast' Northern Ireland "From my experience— and I'm active for peace in Israel— it's me so important the putt" said Yeyn Mmw I was there before or the tta'at Mestinians were there before-rig- ht now for me it doesn't matter Became my family and friends are hurt and I knew people who were killed in wars or (error attacks And if we argue about w ho was in Israri before it won't solve the problem We have lo say ‘What is going on right now ? We should try to compromise We should try to speak with each other Goran Mesatek may hair spsien finto see each other as a person May be al! these young people whim he apwe can work for a better future" pealed to the world leaden at the "We all suffer" said Laitli Arwfofc conference: “We lost our childhood H lost our trust and security Hr Ml a Palestinian from East Jerusalem "And we all are very eager to find a lost our homes andfamilies We hot solution to our suffering because we everything The only thing wr have can't lake it anymore" left is hope So please don't let us "AU sides are involved in the w ar" lose it “ noted Alabaman Cvfimavic IT a The fiiUau ing communes whu-Serb "and all sides we s Kturts mostaw place at the end of the conference can give us hope it shows that ly the children" "Most of us have been bun one young people are able lo see put the way or another" said On m Iknaift hand to understand the unporsune of Cairo "And I think die only way we ef dialogue and lo moemze the escan accomplish peace in the Middle sential humanity ef all people If MlitBiLiafeji h |