The Prime Ministers of Bosnia, Montenegro, Greece and Macedonia will sign the Mostar Peace Charter as part of the traditional 'Mostar does not forget its friend' event on Monday, organised by the Centre for Peace and Multiethnic Cooperation. The Head of N1’s Board of Editors, Brent Sadler, is to receive the 'Mostar Peace Connection' reward.

Bosnia’s Prime Minister, Denis Zvizdic, Montenegro’s Dusko Markovic, Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia's Zoran Zaev will sign the Charter after visiting Mostar’s Old Bridge and throwing flowers into the Neretva river.  

The signing of the Charter will be an expression of the intent to “honour peace, maintain peace, work toward cooperation, trust and reconciliation throughout the entire region of the Western Balkans, so that the countries that belong to the union of European nations can one day also officially become part of that society,” the President of the Steering Board of the Centre for Peace and Multiethnic Cooperation, Alija Behram, told N1.  

“We think that Mostar is the place from where these kinds of messages should be sent. Mostar endured a terrible cataclysm in the 1990’s. This was a destroyed city which emerged from the ashes, and everything was rebuilt with help from the rest of the world,” he said.

Some of the PM's will be accompanied by their ministers who will discuss cooperation among each other, he said.  

“We established the Charter three years ago and wanted it to become a regional story. Zvizdic said that it was a good idea and that he will be a sponsor,” Behram said.  

Behram hopes that the Charter can help Bosnia on its path toward the EU and NATO.

He recalled that the three members of the country’s Presidency had expressed messages of peace at the event three years ago, but that he is not certain they did all they can to implement those messages.  

This year’s recipient of the “Mostar Peace Connection” award, which is awarded to those who have significantly contributed to peace and the establishment of trust and cooperation between people, is going to Brent Sadler for his wartime reporting from Mostar for CNN.  

“Brent Sadler is, not only a CNN war reporter who worked from Mostar, but also a great humanist,” the President of the Steering Board of the association, Alija Behram, told N1.