Promoting stability in the Balkans : working with civil society in the democratisation process, 1998-2001 / editor Panagiotis Roumeliotis

This book is a collection of essays, documents and speeches, a collage or better an imprint of an effort that lasted more than three years. An individual and team effort to promote dialogue, to surpass prejudices and fears and to plant seeds out of which a culture of democracy and respect for human rights and minorities can bloom in the Balkan region. The book is also a token of a voyage into a region that has experienced so much self-inflicted suffering but also often so much unfair judgment and misunderstanding from the outside. This was a voyage whose principal goal was to build a bridge. A bridge between peoples held in isolation in the Balkans but also a bridge with a family of nations in Europe sharing a belief on a set of democratic and humanistic values. As such this book should be read and held as a representation of a process that is still alive, vital and necessary. As a collage this book should be held as a token of an experience that is larger than what it represents. Finally, this book should be a reminder that there is much more that needs to be done, much more that needs to be understood and acted on as to ensure the return to a place of safety, stability and prosperity for the peoples of this battered region of Europe.