Delegates visited Hope Hotel, protesters marched to downtown church Sunday

NATO delegates visit Hope Hotel, birthplace of peace talks, at WPAFB

Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia on Sunday visited the very room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where their nations three decades ago agreed to end a war.

Delegates from those countries and others attending the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton this weekend visited the Richard Holbrooke Hope Hotel and Conference Center at the base, gathering in the very room where a breakthrough in the 21-day 1995 negotiations made possible that war’s end.

• NATO delegates visit Hope Hotel, birthplace of peace talks, at WPAFB

Protestors against NATO sit, chant inside John’s United Church of Christ

After multiple speeches at Deeds Point MetroPark, a group of an estimated 200 to 300 protesters marched toward downtown.

Police were lined up at every point of the protest route and closed intersections to traffic.

St. John’s United Church of Christ is approximately four blocks east of the NATO Village security perimeter.

After several hours of speeches, the crowd peacefully dispersed from the church.

Chance Zurub and Walaa Kanan came from Cleveland and Toledo, respectively. They spoke to Dayton Daily News reporters as they left the church with other protesters.

“We’re actually here to say no to NATO because we see NATO as not a symbol of peace, but as a symbol of imperialism that is facilitating bombing of other nations and directly destabilizing other nations,” Zurub said. “And NATO members such as the United States and Britian are directly involved in the genocide that’s going on in Palestine.”

“So we are here to make our voices known to say that this is not welcome within Ohio and within our communities,” he said.

Kanan said she also wants to encourage wealth to go not to supporting genocide in Palestine but “pushing for funding actually going towards out communities because organizations like NATO have war profitable which is why we continue to not invest in our communities.”

Credit: Sarah Cavender

Credit: Sarah Cavender

Head of Italian delegation: Important work being done in Dayton

Speaking through an interpreter, Lorenzo Cesa, a member of the Italian parliament and head of the Italian delegation, spoke of the important work being done in Dayton this week.

“Being here in Dayton to celebrate the Dayton agreement of 30 years ago means to try and provide responses to the new challenges, including Ukraine and some other hot spots,” he said, shortly after meeting the president of the European Parliament.

“The public perception is that NATO should be associated with the concept of weapons, war etc., while it’s not and being here in Dayton and the U.S. is of utmost significance because we should maintain relations and cherish relations between Europe, European countries and the United States,” he said.

Cesa said his father always told him the U.S. liberated his country and is the reason Italians live in a democracy.

“And we will never forget that. We should step up efforts to maintain and cherish relations with the U.S. and this is what we’re working on and here we are upholding the original foundation and the original idea of NATO as instrument of peace, as a means to respond to current challenges.”

He said this includes not only Ukraine but other parts of the world “where Russia and China are trying to exercise their leverage.”

European Parliament president on Dayton: ‘I love it’

Credit: Sarah Cavender

Credit: Sarah Cavender

Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, spoke to a Dayton Daily News reporter as she walked down Main Street between events.

“It was important that I would come to Dayton on the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Accords, which marked a peace deal over some of the biggest bloodshed that our continent has seen in recent decades,” Metsola said.

Asked about her impression of Dayton itself, she said: “I love it. We’ve eaten well. We’ve been very well hosted. I managed to go to the university. I even popped by a local church. Everybody we’ve met has been very warm, very welcoming and very eager to showcase their city.”

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

‘Conversations About Peace & Security in the Balkans’ panel discussion concludes series

The last of the 12-panel series concludes at the University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts. The discussion featured H.E. Dr. Vjosa Osmani, President of Kosovo, and Dame Karen Pierce, former U.K. Ambassador to the United States and Special Envoy to the Western Balkans.

Rick Staggenborg, of Oregon, comments on the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton

Protesters marched from Deeds Point to St. John’s United Church of Christ

Water Street district resident Jon Richard comments on rally at Deeds Point

Former base commander recalls Dayton peace talks

Peace treaties are often long shots. That was the feeling of Col. Robbie Robinson, the commander of the 88th Air Base Wing when Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hosted the 1995 talks that ended a war in the former Yugoslavia, he said in an interview Sunday.

The idea that negotiations might end a war — “That to me would be a miracle,” Robinson said after speaking as part of a panel at the University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts.

• ‘That to me would be a miracle.’ Former base commander recalls Dayton peace talks

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Speakers denounce NATO at large Deeds Point MetroPark protest

Multiple speakers have spoken on a stage built at Deeds Point MetroPark.

It is estimated that there are at least 300 protesters at the demonstration.

People carried flags, signs denouncing NATO and brought out a banner that read: “No to war profiteers No NATO.”

Rally organizer discusses Deeds Point protest

Olivia Rowland, a rally organizer with Party for Socialism and Liberation, talks about the coalition of groups meeting at Deeds Point MetroPark today.

Charter buses have brought in protesters from outside of Dayton. Rowland said she expects several hundred protesters at the demonstration.

Rep. Mike Turner meets Belmont High School marching band at Riverscape Saturday

Bosnian journalists find Dayton ‘welcoming,’ setup ‘overly militarized’

Denis Dzidic, executive director of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Leila Bicakcic, director of the Center for Investigative Reporting Bosnia and Herzegovina, visited the Oregon District and talked about their visit to Dayton and what Dayton means to their homeland.

The pair enjoyed a visit to the Hope Hotel, where the Dayton Peace Accords were signed 30 years ago, ending a brutal war in their homeland.

“For us it’s where history was made,” Bicakcic said.

They are busy attending committees, but hope to break away for a visit to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Air Force Museum, and local coffee shops and restaurants.

Dzidic said the intense security around the NATO Village seems excessive, and hurts the experience both for Daytonians and those visiting for the conference.

“I didn’t like the fact that they close the city so much security wise, it felt like such a bad set up the way the locals get to experience that (and) the people coming here experience Dayton,” he said. “It seems overly militarized for just a conference.”

But aside from that, they find Dayton residents very friendly, noting how people come up to them at coffee shops and restaurants just to welcome them here.

“It’s very different from D.C. or San Franciso…normally when coming from Europe, that’s kind of the first impression. People are very welcoming,” Bicakcic said.

• Steak, gin and intense security: NATO visitors’ impressions of Dayton

NATO releases statement on what it intends to accomplish in Dayton

The organization released its most detailed statement Saturday on what its Parliamentary Assembly is trying to accomplish in Dayton.

The gathering in Dayton, which ends Monday, is aiming to create policy recommendations for NATO leaders planning to meet June 24 to June 26 for a summit in The Hague, Netherlands, “to set the Alliance’s future path,” the alliance said.

• What NATO is trying to accomplish in Dayton

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