Date: September 8, 1994
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Director, Mothers for Peace – Bedem Ljubavi (Toronto Chapter)
Addressed to:
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The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
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The Honourable David Collenette, Minister of Defence, Canada
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The Honourable André Ouellet, Minister of External Affairs, Canada
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Mr. François Taschereau, Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN
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Mr. Bill Clinton, President of the United States
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Mr. Warren Christopher, U.S. Secretary of State
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Sir David Hannay, Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the UN
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H.E. Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. Ambassador to the UN
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H.E. Jean-Bernard Mérimée, Permanent Mission of France to the UN
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H.E. Li Zhaoxing, Permanent Mission of China to the UN
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Mr. Yañez-Barnubi, President of the UN Security Council
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Mr. Alexander Borg Olivier, Department of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations
View the Original Letters: krcmar book 2_Part150_Part24-35.pdf
About These Letters
On September 8, 1994, Mothers for Peace (Bedem Ljubavi) launched a major international campaign spearheaded by Valentina Krčmar, addressing a coordinated series of letters to Canadian, American, British, French, Chinese, and United Nations officials. Each letter carried the same urgent plea: do not lift economic sanctions against Serbia.
Krčmar warns world leaders that any move to ease sanctions would represent a catastrophic betrayal of justice and a reward for aggression. Her message is clear and unwavering: Serbia had not withdrawn support for Bosnian Serb forces, nor ceased its occupation of Croatian territory, and thus had earned no moral or political reprieve.
“Once again the Serbs are playing the game with the world, and once again they have achieved playing time and undeserved trust.”
She calls on all recipients to insist upon two conditions before any reconsideration of sanctions:
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Irrefutable proof that Serbia had fully ended military and financial support for Bosnian Serbs.
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Recognition that Serbia continued supplying Croatian Serbs, who still occupied one-third of Croatian territory and prevented more than 250,000 refugees from returning home.
“To lift the sanctions so quickly without major concessions and assured reparations is to reward the aggressor and set the pattern for future tragedies.”
Krčmar’s argument is deeply moral as well as political. She describes Serbia’s campaign for a “Greater Serbia” as one marked by massacres, ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, and mass rapes — atrocities that claimed over 250,000 lives and displaced two million people. Lifting sanctions under such conditions, she writes, would erase the suffering of victims and embolden future aggressors.
While the language of each letter varies slightly depending on the recipient, the essence remains identical — a global appeal for conscience, justice, and remembrance. The breadth of addressees, spanning from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to President Bill Clinton, UN diplomats, and Security Council representatives, underscores Mothers for Peace’s commitment to international advocacy and its remarkable organizational reach.
This campaign stands as one of the most powerful examples of Valentina Krčmar’s diplomatic activism — a unified call from Canada to the world to uphold truth, resist manipulation, and defend the moral foundation of international law.
