(video interview below)
The question of FAITH:
Faith is powerful. It can reveal the light of truth in darkness, or it can be manipulated and used to justify great destruction.
It is ethereal, immeasurable.
Where do you place your Faith? With people, things, God or perhaps fear, doubt and sorrow?
Like an unrequited love, many of us find we cannot live with Faith because it often seemingly disappoints and yet we cannot live without it, for what meaning would the world have in its absence?
An age-old question, we at SistersGeographic would like to explore what Faith means to women we admire, like Florence Mumba, the presiding judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands.
As one of the three presiding judges of the tribunal since 1997, Judge Mumba, a native of Zambia, has heard on almost a daily basis for the past few years about atrocities committed by all sides involved during the 1991-1995 war in the former Yugoslavia and by the warring factions involved in the “spillover” 1996-1999 war in Kosovo, previously one of the six republics that made up the former Yugoslavia.
The first war started a few years after the collapse of communism, when stifled tensions among vying ethnic groups came bubbling to the surface and erupted into an ugly conflict of power among three main parties; Serbs, Muslims, and Croats, with the majority of the fighting taking place in the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Meanwhile, as this fighting was going on, the relationship in Kosovo between Kosovan Albanians and Serbs was breaking down until war finally broke out there in 1996.
Most of the people indicted of war crimes at The Hague are Serbs, whose soldiers committed the majority of the most heinous crimes during both wars including mutilating, raping, and killing thousands of Muslims in a systemic effort to create an “ethnically pure” Serbia.
After listening to such tales of horror, some of us might lose faith in humankind but not Judge Mumba, who says that despite all that she has heard, she is still hopeful that women and men will one day achieve a lasting peace on this earth because of her faith as a Christian (Protestant) in God.
| SISTERSGEOGRAPHIC | In our next issue: Dr. Uma Tuli, Director of Amor Jyoti Rehabilitation Center for Children in New Delhi, India, talks about Faith, Hinduism, and what it means to her. |
In her own words: Judge Florence Mumba On
Faith
QUESTIONS (click on "Answers" to view; please note, you must download RealPlayer to view them)
SistersGeographic: Do you pray?
Click on ANSWER
SistersGeographic: In this world of so many religious wars, where sometimes faith is used as a justification for war, like in the war in the former Yugoslavia, what would be your advice or opinion on how to best develop or view one’s faith keeping this in mind? ANSWER
SistersGeographic: During your time as judge, you have presided over the first United Nations case to focus exclusively on rape as a war crime in the trial of Anto Furundzija, a Bosnian Croat paramilitary chief who was convicted in December 1998 of having allowed a subordinate to rape a Bosnian Muslim. What is your advice to women who have been spiritually or physically battered or sexually abused whether during war time, as was the case with many women during the war in the former Yugoslavia, or peace time? How would you advise these women to keep their faith? ANSWER
SistersGeographic: According to reports, the majority of these women who were raped during the war in the former Yugoslavia were Muslim, and the majority of the soldiers who did this were Bosnian Serb Christians; I wanted to know how you felt about this being a devout Christian; your thoughts ANSWER
SistersGeographic: In July of 2000, this tribunal made a landmark decision establishing rape as a war crime—what effect do you think that this will have on any future wars (hopefully there won’t be any, but if there are…) and do you think that this decision sends a strong enough message in general about rape as a crime—whether during war time or peace time? ANSWER
SistersGeographic: What do you think we can do to stop these kinds of atrocities from happening again –concretely—and do you think faith plays a role in this prevention? ANSWER