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Faith in Peace: Spirituality in the Bosnian Religious

Peacebuilding

Kiyo MiyamotoResearch FellowConflict Analysis Research Centre University of Kent, UK

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Religion and Peace

• Religion can influence conflict transformation process through a religiously motivated intervener (outsiders and insiders) or through the religious characters of the conflict (parties and issues).

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The Former Yugoslavia

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The Former Yugoslavia (Political entities)

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Problems in 1980s

• The death of charismatic leader, Tito, in 1980• Deterioration of economic condition

-rising unemployment rate

-oil crisis and worldwide economic depression

-soaring inflation rate and drop in GDP• Distribution inequality between the entities

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Erosion of Federal Politics

• The discontent towards the federal government increased among the entities, because the federal government was redistributing financial resources between entities.

• The federal government was consisted of the representatives from entities (republics and provinces) and the decision had to be based on consensus.

The federal government gradually became non-functional.

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Rise of Ethno-Religious Nationalism

• With the background of economic problems, and erosion of the federal politics and the collapse of communism, Yugoslav politics was coloured by ethnic nationalism.

• Ethnic nationalist politicians gain power with the background of state economic crisis and people’s frustration.

Eventually led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.

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Bosnia-Herzegovina Ethno-religious Distribution (1991)

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Choices for Peoples in Bosnia at the Yugoslav Disintegration

• Bosnian Serbs prefer staying within the framework of Yugoslavia which is likely to be Serb dominant.

• Bosnian Muslims prefer to becoming independent, avoiding to stay under Serb dominance.

• Bosnian Croats want to have secession in their parts of Bosnia with support from Croatia.

Subsequently war broke out in 1992.

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Bosnia under the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995)

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Problems of DPA Implementation

• Slow progress and difficulties in the repatriation of refugees and internally displace persons (IDPs).

• Persistent tendency of ethnic politics.

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Peacemaking and Peacebuilding

• Peacemaking aims at settlement such as peace agreement and containment of violence

• Peacebuilding aims at addressing structural issues (deep-rooted sources of conflict) and long-term relationships between conflictants. It refers to the overall efforts to cultivate peace culture in order to transform conflict peacefully.

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The Population Affected by Conflict

Middle-range Leadership

Grass-roots Population

Source: John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997, p 39.

Few

Many

EliteLeadership

Affected P

opulation

Top Political Decision-Making Elite

Cultural/Social leadersPolitical Advisors

Low-Ranking Politicians

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Peacemaking and Peacebuilding

Peacemaking

Peacebuilding

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Inter-Religious Peacebuilding: Case Studies

• Inter-religious dialogue between religious leaders in Bosnia

• Conflict resolution training seminars for religious people

• An individual’s peace action and multi-faith choir

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Inter-religious dialogue between religious leaders in Bosnia

• Communication and dialogue between leaders of the religious communities: Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish.

• The leaders communicated through facilitators out of public eyes and eventually articulated a common moral vision.

• In 1997 the leaders of four religious communities met face to face for the first time since the outbreak of the war.

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Statement of Shared Moral Commitment

• Singed by the leaders of four religious communities.• Articulated the moral principles including mutual

respect, cooperation, and common living shared among the religious communities.

• Establishement of Inter-Religious Council (IRC) to promote further religious collaboration.

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Conflict Resolution Training for Religious People and Community Leaders from the Former Yugoslavia

• A series of training seminars for religious people and community leaders to promote healing and reconciliation

• Conflict resolution and problem-solving skill training

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Conflict Resolution Training for Religious People and Community Leaders from the Former Yugoslavia

• Intense dialogue between seminar participants from different religious communities led to increased mutual understanding and trust-building

• Some went on to take practical actions

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Face to Face Interreligious Service in Sarajevo

• Director, Friar Ivo Markovic

Personal peacebulding actions

• Pontanima

A choir composed of people from different faiths and performed music from Christian (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant), Jewish, Islamic and Far East.

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Pontanima

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Religion: Peacemaking or Peacebuilding?

• Religiously oriented peace efforts can possibly be a part of peacemaking through personally communicating or publically urging political leaders for settlement.

• The potential contribution of religious efforts seems greater for peacebuilding because of it reach to wider audience.

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Assets for Religious Peacebuilding

• Religious communities as institutions

• Religious traditions and rituals

• Spirituality

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Words by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa

‘I told those dedicated workers for peace and reconciliation that they should not be tempted to give up on their crucial work because of the frustrations of seemingly not making any significant progress, that in our experience nothing was wasted, for when the time was right it would all come together and, looking back, people would realise what a critical contribution they had made. They were part of the cosmic movement towards unity, towards reconciliation, that has existed from the beginning of the time.’

(In Northern Ireland, 1998)