Date: November 9, 1992
Author: Mothers for Peace – Bedem Ljubavi (Toronto Chapter)
Addressed to: Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 2_Part38.pdf
About This Letter
In this fierce and meticulously detailed letter, Mothers for Peace confronts Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the United Nations for what they describe as a deliberate and shameful failure to act on the atrocities unfolding in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Valentina Krčmar and her colleagues write in the aftermath of repeated meetings and documented submissions — including evidence personally handed to Cyrus Vance in January 1992 about the existence of Serbian concentration camps. Despite acknowledgment from UN offices and humanitarian agencies, the international response came months too late, only after media exposure in July 1992.
“Why in July, when this information was available to the UN already in January? Was this a cover-up?”
The letter denounces the moral and procedural paralysis of both the UN and the Red Cross, accusing them of silence in the face of genocide. It condemns statements made by General Lewis MacKenzie, whose claims of “equal guilt” between aggressors and victims were viewed as a profound betrayal of truth.
The mothers further criticize the hypocrisy of UN-led humanitarian events such as UNICEF’s “Week of Tranquility,” which they call “the final insult to every civilized person,” pointing out that aid was being purchased from the very aggressors responsible for the suffering of Croatian children.
Despite the rage and exhaustion evident in their tone, the letter ends with a renewed plea for dialogue and action:
“We cannot sit still knowing full well that every minute of the day people are dying in the most violent way imaginable. We have no choice but to speak for our children — wounded, innocent civilians — whose cries no one hears.”
