Utgave - Etter Lemkin

84 ETTER LEMKIN
The Lillehammer Seminars
In many cases these initial seminars are followed by a weeklong visit
to the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer. Since 1995 Lillehammer has
functioned as an arena for reconciliation. The Nansen coordinators
working in the centres in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia,
Kosovo, and Macedonia have all participated in dialogue training.
Their stay in Lillehammer strengthened their understanding of
inter-ethnic dialogue and reconciliation. Their work is based on an
understanding of the need for reconciliation in order to develop both
a functional state and ease the pain of living for its citizens, not to
mention that it also strengthened their experience that reconciliation
is possible. Lastly, they have a notion of “how to do” reconciliation”.
Nebosja and Mustafa who both work in NDC Sarajevo in 2010 spent
three months together in Lillehammer in the fall of 1997.
Norway is often taken as an example of how slow the process of
reconciliation is through referring to our Second World War experience
and its aftermath. We can turn this around and stress that Norway is an
example of how slow the process is when no politics of reconciliation
is developed and carried out.
The trip to Norway offers participants in dialogue a neutral space
where they can continue their discussions. In most cases the careful
exploration that started in a local seminar in their community
accelerates. Regarding methodology of the Lillehammer seminars,
the most efficient technique, is simply to let the two groups ask each
other questions. Questions and answers provide a genial form of
communication which we often abuse by asking the questions too
fast and giving the answers to soon. A child is a good dialogue person
because it lives through the day by asking many questions. The child
that goes to bed at night is a different person from the one that got
up the same morning. There has been movement, change, and growth
during the day. This is also the goal of the dialogue participants in
Lillehammer seminar.
Each group gets one-two hours to formulate five-six questions to the
other group. They exchange the questions and spend one-two hours
discussing, reflecting upon how they will respond to the questions.
Sometimes they have a group answer; sometimes there is a need for
individual answers. During a weeklong seminar we have time to ease
into the situation and spend as much time as it takes on asking and