The founding of AEGEE in FRY
Bili negde u Evropi dva momci iz Holandije i dve devoke, jedna iz Novog Sada i jedna iz Beograda...
Beginning of April 1995, Eindhoven
Stephan and I are preparing our traineeship in Budapest. We spend our last weeks in the Netherlands, before the trip. Eindhoven University of Technology organises the European Week 1995. They ask AEGEE to fill the gap of nationalities, so the organisers will have a representative part of the European students.
We decide to invite our friends from Zagreb - mainly guys. They arrive, early in the morning, and we go to the registration of participants, followed by a welcome party. Within minutes the guys seem to discover something interesting. There are girls who speak their language, they are close now, but at home they are far away, too far away. We get introduced to each other and have a great week together, students from Eindhoven, Novi Sad, Zagreb and Beograd.
End of April 1995, Budapest
AEGEE-Budapest organises the sports conference, right at the moment of our arrival to the city. Of course we join the conference. Once more we have to pleasure to be amongst a group of students from all over, Beograd meets Zagreb - again.
May 1995, Budapest
On a business-trip in Budapest, one of the girls from Novi Sad visits us once more. We get the feeling that we owe them by now. After Eindhoven and twice in Budapest, the time has come to make up for it. The most logical conclusion is taken, we're off to Jugoslavija.
May 1995, Novi Sad - Beograd
After little feeling uncomfortable about the 'country of the evil', as it is shown to us in the Western media, we decide to accept the invitation. Not knowing what will happen we get on the train 'Ivo Andric' from Budapest to Novi Sad. The mirror that was shown to us, did not create an optimistic image. Even the girls could not completely relief us from feeling uncomfortable at first. What would happen to us in the 'land of the aggressor'? How bad would the shortage be after many years of embargo? What could we expect? We decided to take it as it came - and we don't regret it! As we were only staying for a weekend, we initially planned not to go further than Novi Sad, because even the name Beograd still sounded like a nightmare. Luckily the girls managed easily to convince us to come to Beograd for the largest part of the trip. Already in Novi Sad all our initial pessimism about the situation vanished. OK, it was a Balkan country, but by far not the worst of what we had seen until then.
What struck me most was how familiar it all was. The phones were the same, the buses were the same, the language was the same, the rituals were similar, in short, for outsiders like us, there was more in common than different from what we had seen in Slovenia or Croatia that time.
The embargo seemed virtual. Although the prices were of course higher - and we could imagine that for an average inhabitant this was too expensive - there was more choice in the shops than in Budapest by that time. Only when we moved from Novi Sad to Beograd by bus could we see some 'real' effects of the shortage. Fuel was not available at filling stations, but rather offered by fat guys lying in the sun on the trunks of their cars, selling gasoline for DEM 3 per litre. Until then we didn't know that fuel came in so many colours and that those colours would indicate the fuel company that produced it - that is unless the 'sverceri' would mix colourants into their merchandise.
Our trip had more than aim. Of course we were visiting friends and in a way it was an interesting country to visit at the time. But, on the other hand, we also felt like AEGEE ambassadors exploring the boundaries of Europe. Was Beograd ready for AEGEE? Could AEGEE take the challenge of extending into Serbia? The answer was simple: YES!
May-June 1995, Budapest
The third phase of AEGEE's extension was now getting on its way. First we met young people interested in founding antennae. Then we went there to see with our own eyes if it was possible and desired and to convince the people to start working on AEGEE as a contact. Now we had to convince AEGEE. The first step, convincing the Comité Directeur went smoothly. By telling them that these were the right people for AEGEE and that they too had a right to be included into European structures after such a long and unfair isolation, the CD was very co-operative from the beginning onwards. They decided to accept Novi Sad and Beograd as contacts as soon as the cultural embargo was partly lifted.
The second step actually was a bigger one. How could we take away the fears and uncertainty among the AEGEE members troughout Europe - the same fears and uncertainlties we had shared before going there ourselves? We wrote an article and had it published, both on paper and on the internet. After a short but fierce discussion on the AEGEE internet discussion list, taking away fears from some people, the whole issue was settled - we could go on.
Now we stood before the challenge of beating Yugoslav bureaucracy, which after the dissolution of former Socialist structures had difficulties accepting the wish of the young people to organise themselves into independent student associations. We moved slowly, but surely.
December 1996, Eindhoven
While in Beograd students were on the streets demanding democracy and the newly elected power to be installed, I came home, business as usual. But this time was different. I found three messages on my answering machine and two messages on e-mail. Because of my continuous interest in the former Yugoslavia area, some people had obviously found my address and they had contacted me. People involved in the student protest had discovered AEGEE as a possible partner in their struggle for democracy. We had to act fast, that was sure. Contact were laid and representatives from the student protest were invited to join the final conference of the "Find your way..." cycle, a cycle that happened to aim at democracy, the role of the media and co-operation between CEE countries and the European Union.
December 1996, Budapest
The delegation from the student protest luckily made it to Budapest, were they explained what was going on in Beograd.
Four Dutch participants didn't hesitate and took the challenge to join the protest. They went to Beograd.
March 1997, Utrecht
The student protest representatives from Beogard, among which AEGEE members, were invited to join a meeting organised by anti-war and peace movements in the Netherlands about the protest. We organised a little get-together with them to see what more could be done about the bureaucratic problems that still existed.
9 May 1997, Aachen
Being one of the nominees for the AEGEE-Award 1997, radio Index and radio B92 presented their work at Aachen university. They received the award, after a vote in which they got a big majority, for the role they played during the student protest and their important role in the democratisation process of their country.
1998, Beograd
AEGEE-Beograd is an active member of AEGEE-Europe. It organises a wide variety of activities, among which two Summer Universities - one organised by themselves and one in co-operation with the International Projects Working Group. Since April 1998 they are even represented in Brussels, in the Comité Directeur.
... još i sad sretno zive svi zajedno svuda u Evropi.
John Stienen, Eindhoven, May 1998.