Date: April 14, 1993
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Thornhill, Ontario
Addressed to: Letters to the Editor, The Toronto Star
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 3_Part2_Part59.pdf
About This Letter
In this letter dated April 14, 1993, Valentina Krčmar writes to The Toronto Star in response to the article “Bosnia’s Pain a Humiliation No One Can Hide” (April 12, 1993). Her tone is mournful yet unsparing, exposing the apathy and moral bankruptcy of world leaders who watched Bosnia’s suffering unfold.
Krčmar begins by referencing Pope John Paul II’s Easter appeal for peace, expressing both reverence and resignation.
“Pope John’s passionate appeal to the world on Easter Sunday will not bring any action, as usual. Holy Father’s best intentions will again fall on the deaf ears of the world’s leaders, because they have their own agenda. Bosnia is certainly not on their agenda.”
She turns her focus to the failed diplomacy of Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance, whose peace negotiations she condemns as hollow performances designed to buy time for further atrocities.
“All the rhetoric is really curtain for allowing more time for the killing of the Muslim population of Bosnia… All these negotiations and never-ending talks are for one purpose only — to give the Serbs more time to complete the killing of the non-Serbian population.”
Krčmar accuses international powers of prioritizing profit and political influence over human lives, suggesting that Western financiers held more concern for their investments in the former Yugoslavia than for the mass slaughter of civilians.
“All invested money must bring dividends. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people do not matter at all. Money does.”
Her grief deepens into disbelief as she reflects on how global indifference allowed the repetition of the very horrors that the world had vowed never to repeat after the Holocaust.
“Holy Father is begging the world to stop this war. He is even comparing this war to the Second World War with direct reference to the Holocaust. Unfortunately, Holy Father cannot impose the action on the heartless world’s leaders. Our Bosnian and Croatian children are not even on their agenda.”
Krčmar laments that truth and morality are powerless against propaganda. Serbia, she observes, succeeded in manipulating world opinion — even convincing Jewish communities of its supposed benevolence during World War II — while Croatia and Bosnia, impoverished and besieged, could not afford such deception.
“Bosnians and Croatians do not have money for propaganda. Our two countries have been plundered by Serbs. Croatia is still feeding over 700,000 refugees, it is daily attacked by Serbian terrorists — and no one budges.”
Her closing lines are both prayer and indictment — a plea that divine compassion might succeed where human conscience has failed.
“Holy Father, we need your words, so that maybe your prayers put the wisdom and compassion into the hearts of the world’s leaders… We have no people to spare… the horrible dance of death is whirling over two countries, and no one cares.”
Krčmar’s letter captures a moment of profound despair — yet within it, her unyielding faith and courage endure. It stands as both a lament for the innocent and a condemnation of a world that had once promised “never again.”
