Date: October 7, 1996
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Thornhill, Ontario
Addressed to: Letters to the Editor, The Toronto Star
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 3_Part3_Part57.pdf
About This Letter
In this letter dated October 7, 1996, Valentina Krčmar responds to The Toronto Star article “Canadian Takes Key Role at War Tribunal” by Bill Schiller (October 3, 1996). Though she expresses admiration for Judge Louise Arbour and her appointment to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Krčmar’s tone is one of disillusionment.
Her opening lines establish her respect for Arbour’s integrity while questioning the broader system’s will to deliver justice.
“Although I really respect Judge Arbour and her work, I think that she is naive.”
Krčmar takes aim at the “carrots and sticks” diplomacy that Arbour optimistically invoked — the notion that international pressure could compel Serbia, Croatia, or Bosnia to comply with war crimes indictments. To Krčmar, such faith was tragically misplaced.
“She obviously thinks that ‘the international community has to keep the pressure and use the system of carrots and sticks if necessary to make the states of former Yugoslavia comply with international arrest warrants which have been issued.’”
Her tone turns cutting as she invokes the most haunting failures of the international community — Srebrenica and Vukovar — where thousands were massacred under the watch of the very institutions now promising justice.
“We all have seen the will and the commitment of the international community to Bosnia and its people when the ‘safe haven’ of Srebrenica was given over to the Serbs. Or, should we mention the Croatian town of Vukovar and thousands of its inhabitants that were not saved, although all of us were begging the world to do something?”
These examples serve as her indictment of international hypocrisy. The same powers that once stood idle, she argues, now seek to cleanse their conscience through symbolic gestures and tribunals — justice in name only.
“No, the international community will do nothing. In fact, it is trying to shovel the shame of Croatia and Bosnia under the rug A.S.A.P. to go on with the pretense of ‘action.’”
With characteristic clarity and moral conviction, Krčmar pierces through diplomatic language to expose the emptiness of global promises. Her letter serves as a warning — that justice without courage is merely theater, and that history will remember those who mistook words for action.
