Interview with Regional Director for South East Europe, Mrs. Emily Coffman Krunic

Since 1996, Religions for Peace has been working with senior religious leaders in South East Europe providing support to their peace efforts. Regional Director for South East Europe, Mrs. Emily Coffman Krunic has, in the last few years, initiated, mobilized, and supervised community based organizations. In a recent interview, she expressed the many challenges and achievements in a region that has, in the past and again recently, known tremendous turmoil.

How successful has the building of a multi-ethnic democratic state been?

The history and the present situation of each country are different. Albania's experience differs from other East European countries because it did not experience a war. There, religious communities experienced a difficult oppressive communist regime and they were discriminated against for decades. The oppression brought the religious communities together and forged a great sense of solidarity among the faith community. Now that the "iron curtain of oppression" has been lifted religious communities want to be recognized and engage with the international religious community. The country is proud of its peaceful past and has many examples of inter-religious marriages. This is in contrast to neighboring countries where it is less common. Bosnia is "getting there" as far as becoming a democratic state, but unfortunately is not as multi-ethnically diverse as it was before the war. The larger cities in the country are predominately populated by one ethnic group and the rate of refugees returning over the last few years has dramatically dropped when compared to the period immediately following the war. Most families who left Bosnia during the conflict have made lives in other countries and will most likely not return at this point. But even with these challenges, Bosnia is moving in the right direction and people are slowly putting their lives back together.

Because of the undecided political status and continual instability, Kosovo is not doing as well as Bosnia. Serbians have left and are not returning and more continue to leave each year. The international community wants to ensure that all refugees' legal rights and security are maintained and protected. But more needs to be done to create a peaceful environment and a decision about the political status of Kosovo should be finalized in the near future.

All of the countries in South East Europe that I work in are struggling economically due to black market issues, corruption and development challenges. Additionally there are a number of war criminals still in the region which continues to hinder the reconciliation process.

How has last spring's NATO raid on an Orthodox Church in Pale impaired your peace efforts in South Europe?

The raid resulted in the serious injuries of a Priest and his son who, gratefully, are doing fine today. As a result of the incident, the Orthodox Church removed itself from all inter-religious activities, seriously jeopardizing all efforts to maintain a positive relationship between religious communities. In light of those events, Religions for Peace had to remain neutral to avoid being misused, and keep the peace process moving forward. Finally, all efforts to rally the Orthodox Church paid off and the Church reintegrated into the Council last February.

What are your greatest achievements at this point?

The Inter-religious Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina (IRC-BiH) is emerging as an independent local organization supported by the Bosnian Government. After eight years, the transition of the Secretariat's responsibilities from Religion for Peace to IRC-BiH has not been without its set of challenges. But it was mandatory to fully invest the IRC-BiH and let the organization stand on its own. The transition required strategic planning, capacity building and training. But now the new organization is fully operational and empowered and that is a great accomplishment.

Also, in March 2005, religious leaders from the Albanian Islamic Community, Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Bektashi Community signed a "Statement of Shared Moral Commitment". The four religious leaders called for "respect of the fundamental human rights of all persons, regardless of religious or ethnic affiliation and promised to treat each other the way they wish to be treated." And the Prime Minister of Albania, H. E. Fatos Nano, who attended the event, expressed the importance of religious leaders to Albania, a country where religion was repressed by the government for so many years.

What are the remaining challenges?

The most challenging aspect of our work is ensuring that countries from South East Europe increase inter-religious cooperation in order to promote peace and development. Today, cooperation exists but religious communities are still recovering from past conflicts and therefore are inclined to act exclusively. For instance, we recently supported the inter-religious women's group of Bosnia in drafting and publishing a book on religious cultures such as marriage, cooking, baptism, and funerals. Although the religious communities agreed to collaborate on the project, they chose to divide the work and the book chapters, which are separated according to religions, as opposed to creating a more inter-religious process and product.

In another illustration, we had religious communities collect and distribute food to internally displaced persons (IDPs). Defying the purpose of the project, they initially concentrated their efforts on their own religious group and their own people. However, in the end, women from each religious community agreed to make it an inter-religious effort. And women from the Orthodox religious community, for example, helped IDPs from the Muslim community.

Those two examples illustrate to what degree divisions remain, and highlight the necessity for continued efforts to forge a real relationship amongst these religious communities.

Where does most of your funding come from?

Our funding is primarily provided by governments and foundations in the United States and Europe. We recently ended a grant with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and are continuing to be funded by the German Government and Mott Foundation.

What is the relationship between the role of the United States in the world and the work you are currently doing?

Right now there is a some what of an U.S. political and military dominance internationally. Because of what is going on in the world it is important for the United States to be seen as opening its arms and supporting all religious communities. I think it is important for the U.S. to continue to focus on this because it is perceived that they are not completely opened to all religions and that certain communities are discriminated against, even though this may not be the reality of the situation. I believe U.S. religious communities could be more vocal in promoting and protecting not only national but also international human rights and worldwide peace.

How can the United States contribute to your efforts?

We need more religious leaders to participate and invest in forging stronger inter-religious relations both locally and globally. Reverend Kishkovsky, Executive Director of the Orthodox Church in America, has made a positive impact in the religious community because of his desire to get involved. On a regular basis he speaks to his counterparts in Europe in order to offer his support and solidarity. Committed and sincere, Reverend Kishkovsky encourages peace and international religious dialogue. He is very effective and contributes to the continuation and progress of our work.

We would like to encourage the US to support our projects financially and support the work of religious communities on a global scale. Finally, I believe U.S. religious leaders could get more involved in inter-religious dialogue and do more to promote the importance of inter-religious cooperation.