Date: February 18, 1993
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Mothers for Peace – Bedem Ljubavi (Toronto Chapter)
Addressed to: Mr. Cyrus Vance, Former UN Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 2_Part62.pdf
About This Letter
In this February 1993 letter, Valentina Krčmar writes to Cyrus Vance, the former UN Special Envoy, confronting him with the moral failure of international diplomacy and the devastating human consequences of inaction.
Her words are filled with disbelief and sorrow as she recalls his visits to war-torn Croatia, particularly Vukovar Hospital, after the city’s destruction. She questions how he could have walked through such devastation and failed to see the mass graves just beyond its walls.
“If you moved from the door, a few hundred yards farther, you would have seen the graves and the people buried alive.”
Krčmar challenges Vance’s silence, accusing him of turning away from evidence of atrocities that were already known to the UN months before the world admitted their existence. She reminds him that diplomatic neutrality in the face of evil is complicity, writing:
“You cannot use the United Nations name to hide the graves and the suffering people. You are not fulfilling your duty as a human being.”
This letter is a direct moral appeal — a blend of accusation, grief, and conscience — capturing Krčmar’s tireless insistence that those in power confront the truth and act before more lives are lost.
