Date: March 5, 1993
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Mothers for Peace – Bedem Ljubavi (Toronto Chapter)
Addressed to: Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 2_Part76.pdf
About This Letter
In this searing letter written in March 1993, Valentina Krčmar directs her outrage toward Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The war in Bosnia had reached horrific proportions — mass killings, systematic rape, and ethnic cleansing — yet the international community remained paralyzed. Krčmar’s letter captures the despair and moral fury of a generation of witnesses to genocide, pleading for conscience in the face of bureaucratic indifference.
She begins with bitter irony, condemning the UN’s repeated “condemnations” of Serbian atrocities as hollow gestures.
“Another condemnation of the United Nations of the atrocities in Bosnia — Serbs are certainly laughing themselves silly, listening to the United Nations and their ‘actions.’”
Her tone cuts through diplomatic language, demanding to know how the UN’s leaders could live with themselves while “children, old and young women, boys and men are being tortured, killed, raped, burned alive, massacred.”
“How can you go on condemning when children, old and young women, boys and men are being tortured, killed, raped, burned alive, massacred?”
Krčmar invokes the memory of World War II, drawing a haunting parallel between the world’s appeasement of Hitler and its tolerance of Slobodan Milošević. Her words accuse the UN of moral blindness — of watching history repeat itself in real time.
“If the world reacted to Hitler in time, the horror of the Second World War would not happen. The world then tried to appease the butcher; today the world is trying to appease the butcher Milošević.”
Her letter crescendos with an accusation that is both personal and collective — aimed at every leader who values political comfort over human life.
“Your children are safe, your wives are safe, and we are dying. We will never, never forgive you for not acting when there was still time.”
Through its raw honesty, Krčmar’s letter transcends politics. It is a cry from the heart of a mother to the conscience of humanity, a demand that the powerful stop mistaking words for action.
“Don’t you hear the dying screams in your dreams?”
