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| June 28, 2005 |
| SGI-Serbia and Montenegro Hosts General Meeting of the Balkan Peninsula |
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| Balkan General Meeting attendees take commemorative photo at the SGI Belgrade Center |
On June 17 and 18, SGI-Serbia and Montenegro members hosted a general meeting of the Balkan Peninsula at the SGI Belgrade center. SGI-Europe Chair Shoichi Hasegawa and Vice Secretariat Keikichi Matsumoto joined members from Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and Croatia, as well as members from Romania and Hungary. Historically, the Balkan region has been fraught with recurring conflicts. Historians have said the Balkan Wars were one of the sparks igniting World War I. Following the collapse of the communist block in 1989, individual Yugoslav states began declaring their independence in succession, and internal strife escalated. SGI-Serbia and Montenegro was established as a chapter on July 3, 1999, following NATO air strikes on Serbia, and in October 2003, officially registered with the government as a peace, cultural, and educational organization.
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| Newly established SGI Balkan Youth Peace Committee |
Several members shared how they encountered and began practicing Nichiren Buddhism. One Serbian woman had escaped Croatia when conflict erupted and encountered the SGI and Nichiren Buddhism after making her way to Belgrade. There were days when she subsisted on one apple a day, until she finally found a job as an elementary school teacher in Bosnia. Today she serves as the SGI communicator in her adopted country. Virginie Wyart of France, currently working for an international organization in Kosovo, spoke about the SGI training session she attended in Japan in March 2005. She reaffirmed her resolve to contribute to peace in Kosovo.
On June 18, the organization's first youth general meeting was held. A Balkan Youth Peace Committee, made up of young people from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, was established. Virginie Wyart was appointed the committee's young women's chair and Mr. Arbonetti (tentative spelling), the young men's chair. The group pledged to be the vanguard for establishing peace in the Balkan Peninsula.
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