Witten by Valentina Krcmar, Documents from Exile: Croatian Women and Mothers in the War for Free Croatia. Bedem Ljubavi - Toronto Chapter, 2017.
It is my greatest pleasure to present to you this quite large collection of documents, representing the work of Canadian-Croatian women of Toronto and vicinity during the Homeland war, which we were able to save from the ravages of passing time. Behind us are 25 years of existence of the young democratic Republic of Croatia in whose freedom and building we, ladies of "Bedem Ljubavi" of Toronto and vicinity, gave our share too. With this collection of documents, I want to show you how we contributed to the freedom of our beloved Croatia. Unfortunately, some of the documents were lost and part of them we couldn't use since they faded. Even so, these documents in front of you are an excellent overview of the work of Canadian-Croatian ladies of Toronto and vicinity and, as far as I know, these are the only preserved ones of our work.
When the defensive Homeland war started, Croats in Canada already had several well-organized, working organizations, but there was a need for new organizations which would draw in people who were not engaged in any other organization. Thus in the 90s, AMCA (Almac Matris Croaticae Alumni, the organization of former students and friends of Croatian universities) was organized and very shortly afterwards "Bedem Ljubavi" was formed, on the initiative of the mother organization in Zagreb, but also due to a great need for such a type of women's organization on the territory of Toronto and vicinity. A few members of "Bedem Ljubavi" were already members of AMCA, some were even in the AMCA Governing board, thus the connection between AMCA and Bedem Ljubavi was considerable and invaluable.
How was "Bedem Ljubavi" formed? In the mere beginning of the aggression on Croatia, a great number of women simply couldn't find a place for themselves in already formed organizations in the territory of Toronto and vicinity. Many ladies were members in their parish churches, some in various clubs, however, a number of women lived outside the boundaries where Croatian organizations or churches which rallied ladies of Croatian origin worked, and all those ladies wanted to help their homeland under attack. In the beginning of 1991, Mrs. Visnja Milas Matutinovic, then vice president of the mother organization in Zagreb, which was already very active in Croatia, sent us a request to help them with meetings with Mr. Cyrus Vance, assistant to the UN General Secretary, in charge of Croatia. So the beginning of our work was looking after Croatian interests at the UN. We responded to her request right away and our organization was formed. An invitation to Toronto and vicinity women was sent over the radio program "Sounds of Croatia," owned by Carmen and Ivica Loncaric. The invitation to the ladies was read during the program, but also a few words were spoken later on over the air. I invited all Croatian women of Toronto and vicinity to a meeting in the "Croatia" hall in Mississauga. To this day, I recall that meeting when I was standing in front of hundreds of women. That wasn't easy because I wasn't well known in the community, only a few people knew me, thus I had to introduce myself and tell my thoughts on how we should organize. That meeting was very successful because a lot of ladies came and joined immediately so right away we went into action.
In the beginning of the work, "Bedem" had a lot of members. I don't know the number, although we have the lists with the addresses and telephone numbers, but slowly the number became smaller and smaller because some of them found a different type of work. Some had to stop working in the organization because the work was demanding, and there was so little time. You have to bear in mind that almost all the ladies were employed, and the work in the organization was after regular daily obligations. The meetings were very frequent (unfortunately we don't have all the minutes of the meetings), telephone conversations and consultation all the time, especially in the first days of the aggression. Very frequently, meetings ended late at night, and then we hurried to our homes to continue working on what we were told to do at the meetings. We slept very little those days. In the mere beginnings after the founding of "Bedem Ljubavi" were Ljubica (late) and Kiril Bukatko, Biserka Butkovic and I, but after that first initial meeting in Croatia hall, a lot of new members joined.
One fact which I think is extremely important I have to emphasize: all the members of "Bedem Ljubavi" were ordinary women, mothers, with full-time jobs. Voluntary work in the organization was done after working hours, during or in the evenings when we could talk and decide how we were going to proceed and what we would do. Unfortunately, none of us had any experience in working with politicians, journalists, and world leaders. No one has ever taught us how to do all of that. We had to learn "walking," on the job, and the work on hand was very demanding and emotionally difficult. Very often, our conversations finished in tears, but we had to go on, there was no time for emotions then. Human lives were in question.
In the beginning of our work in our Canadian-Croatian community, we were using the name "Bedem Ljubavi" for our organization, but as we were in constant touch with Canadian or world officials, with different world newspapers or individuals, we had to give our organization a Canadian name too, i.e., some kind of formal translation of the original name. I don't remember how it came to the name "Mothers for Peace," which sounded to us very practical; however, very shortly we realized that we were wrong. Unfortunately, that name didn't represent the true meaning of our work, i.e., to let the world know what is happening in Croatia and to stop the Serbian aggression on Croatia. On the contrary, we had a few problems in our own community because some people criticized us because of that name. I think that a few members even left our organization because of that name, but we had to use it because we were registered under that name. I personally almost hated it because it really did not represent us. As a matter of fact, that name put us in the line with a few left-leaning women's organizations in the world, and that was never our intention. Unfortunately, we used that name until the end of the Homeland war and I am quite happy that name "Mothers for Peace" is not mentioned anymore.
From the first meeting until the end of the defensive Homeland war, our ladies worked in many different ways. Thus we were present in the beginning of 1991 at the meeting with Mrs. Barbara McDougall, Canadian External Affairs Minister, whom we from then on regularly informed about the situation in Croatia. Later on, we met with many members of the Canadian government, as well as with the leaders of different political parties of Canada, because everyone had to be contacted and told what was happening in Croatia. So we also met with the Mayors and councilmen of the City of Toronto and Mississauga, various world organizations, such as the Red Cross, with which we had a huge correspondence. We cooperated with other Canadian-Croatian organizations, such as CCIC (Canadian-Croatian Information Centre), Dora, and others. AMCA, (Association of former students of Croatian Universities), was an organization with which we closely cooperated and often arranged joint projects. Very often, we organized demonstrations to which we invited various nationalities because we had to animate whoever could help us. Therefore, we were closely connected to Hungarians, Slovenes, Macedonians, Ukrainians, and others. All of them were aware of the gravity of the situation in which Croatia was:
One of the more important activities was the correspondence with various world leaders about the situation in Croatia, as well as daily press, radio, and TV monitoring. Our members reacted in writing or verbally to each and every incorrect presentation of Croatia. We were struggling against the lies about Croatia, which were daily widespread. This struggle was the most difficult because it required quick and timely actions. However, there were a few Canadian journalists who realized the truth and helped us a lot. One of them was Mr. Bob McDonald, a Toronto Sun journalist, as well as Eric Margolis, also a Toronto Sun journalist, who helped us a lot, especially in the problem with Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie, the infamous UNPROFOR commanding officer (and a big friend of the Serbian rebels).
But all of that wasn't enough. We realized that we had to find someone who would, with great dignity, represent Croatia in the world, so we sent Mrs. Josipa Milas Matutinović to the conference in Washington, where she, with her emotional speech, raised to their feet 1,800 attendees of the conference, all representatives of various countries. She also represented us in Japan, at the conference of women's organizations. All that was a part of our work, which we did, along with everything that was to be done daily. But we also needed money to help the wounded of the Homeland War, for children who lost their parents in the Homeland War, and for everyday work. Thus, we organized different actions, such as "Hair Cutting Marathons," "Christmas Arts and Crafts Sales," dinners, and cookie and cake sales, etc., which are presented in the collection of documents, and all the proceeds were used to help Croatia.
While preparing the documents for publication, I was really sad because I realized, when reading our various letters to different world leaders, how our letters were full of emotions and tears, while their responses to us were just "polite"—and meanwhile, our children and elderly were dying, women were raped, and the wounded were slaughtered. Only today do I realize how little they cared for us! Each and every response was written in a similar manner. In reality, only now I can plainly see that God was with us, because that world's armada of mercilessness and lack of consideration for those who suffered didn’t even see us, let alone feel our pain! However, although we were very conscious of how little they cared, we never gave up. Letters were going out every day, all the time—we never stopped, and they had to read our letters! We were receiving responses to our letters, which were far from satisfying, but I think that we were able to move some small icy stones in someone’s heart here and there.
I am very positive that not one member of "Bedem Ljubavi" regretted a bit of time given to such work, because we in Canada constantly demanded with our work, letters, numerous telephone calls, faxes, or meetings with various world leaders that they do what was moral and righteous. In every letter or telephone conversation, we always emphasized who the aggressor was and who the victim was. We touched almost everyone we could think of—some responded, some even reproached us. Even Canadian peacekeepers wrote to us. The UN knew about us. The Canadian government was in constant touch with us, and almost every letter that we wrote or received is listed in the enclosed documentation, as an example for future generations of how they should fight for their homeland. Unfortunately, a few of the documents were lost due to time degradation (they lost their original color), thus they are lost for history, which is a shame. But even without these lost documents, it is very obvious how the Canadian-Croatian ladies of "Bedem Ljubavi" in Toronto and vicinity worked for their homeland.
It is my great hope that the excellent work of these wonderful Canadian-Croatian ladies from Toronto and vicinity will be preserved for the future. I also hope that this collection of documents will answer many questions about the work of these good ladies in the times when Croatia needed us, and we, Canadian-Croatian ladies, responded to that urgent call with all our hearts.
Valentina Krcmar
August 2017