Last nigth I attended the Vukovar symposium in Washington, DC sponsored by
the AMAC – National Capital Group and Dr. Dragan Jezic (President of this
AMAC chapter) and Dr. Danica Ramljak. Several people have already contacted
me asking how it was, so this will be a very brief rundown on the event for
the entire CroWorldNet. AMAC plans to put out a more formal report in the
future. Although I tried my best to convince C-SPAN to cover the event, I
failed – so to all, please accept my apologies.
This event was very well done and received. I want to especially note that
Dr. Ramljak put on a highly professional, interesting, well attended event –
and that she has now set “the bar high” for any future symposiums and panel
discussions here in Washington. My personal thank you to Danica, and thank
you to Ambassador Ivan Grsdesic and the entire Croatian Embassy who helped
sponsor the event and supplied voluteers, and all others who pitched in.
The title of this event was “Out of th Rubble: Impact of a City’s Destruction
on Country and Society”: 10th Anniversary of the Destruction of Vukovar”.
Panelists and speakers included Amb Grdesic, Dr. Dragan Jezic, Amb Peter
Galbraith (Moderator), Amb Drago Stambuk, Ms. Alenka Mirkovic-Nadj (Radio
Vukovar), Prof Ognjen Caldarovic (Univ of Zagreb), Dr. Raymond Shelton (NYC),
Amb Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Congressman Elliot Engel (who spoke in stead of
Congressman Chris Smith – who did not attend and had another professional
commitment that could not be avoided).
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Some footnotes:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<UL>
<LI>it was held at a conference room at the Leavey Student Center at
Georgetown University – an excellent, comforable venue</LI>
<LI>about 150 persons attended (my rough guess)</LI>
<LI>C-SPAN did not cover it (much to my chagrin) but there were journalists
and TV camera persons in attendence and filming from Zagreb and VOA</LI>
<LI>the panelists discussed not only Vukovar, but the attacks on the WTC and
the Pentagon, and the comparisons between these two milestone events </LI>
<LI>at the beginning, after Dr. Jezic’s warm opening remarks – about seven
minutes of film footage of the last days of Vukovar were showed on a large
screen for the audience – most of the film taken by RTV Belgrade – this
effectively set the solemn tone of the evening and focused the audiences
attention</LI>
<LI>all of the speakers were excellent, esp Ms. Mirkovic-Nadj and Amb
Stambuk</LI>
<LI>Ms. Mirkovic-Nadj emphatically described in detail her last days in
Vukovar and her experiences and last minute escape; she gave us a powerful
first hand account of what it was like during the last weeks and days in
Vukovar, and she spoke of the herosim of her radio colleagues and the
remaining 16,000 citizens who endured the three month long siege; no one in
the audience was left untouched by this heartfelt and dramatic account – by
her descriptive account, I felt a sense for what she went through in my
opinion, Dr. Stambuk is a “hidden treasure” for all Croatians – he was soft
spoken, and poetic, yet powerfully clear; he spoke in both Croatian and
English, and recited a small but moving poem commemorating Vukovar and, it
must be noted that his English was perfect each word spoken conveyed a deep
sense of clarity and emotion that completely compelled the audience to focus
on his main message: that Vukovar died so that Croatia could live – that the
defenders of Vukovar, by willingly sacrificing their lives for Croatia, in
effect “bought” Croatia the time necessary to organize and form a defense
strong enough to withstand the Serbian genocidal onslaught; Dr. Stambuk
reminded us all of our collective debt to Vukovar and its defenders, and he
encouraged the current Croatian gov and all Croats everywhere to raise funds
to help rebuild Vukovar and to assist Croatians to return; he suggested that
we contact large foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation and others to
see if they would be interested in rebuilding Vukovar in all, a very powerful
and moving speech
the other speakers were all excellent, too
I few final notes: thanks again to Dr. Danica Ramljak, Dr. Jezic and the AMC
and all others – this was an event we are all proud to have attended there
(reportedly) is another upcoming panel discussion in December at The Cato
Institute (<A HREF=”http://www.cato.org”>www.cato.org</A>) here in
Washington, DC regarding Stability in the Balkans(?) – not sure – details are
not yet posted yet on the Cato website; I understand that the President of
the HDZ will be one of the panelists, Dr. Ivo Sanader; the Cato Institute is
an extremely well-funded (right-leaning) think tank devoted to individuals
rights and freedoms; The Cato has championed the causes and positions of the
Serbian American community over the past ten years, and several of their
senior analysts have written pro-Serbian articles and reports; some, like
Jonathon Clarke, have been guest speakers at <A HREF=”http://www.suc.org”>
www.suc.org</A> annual conventions and functions; even though not all of the
ideas and positions advocated by the Cato Institute are adverse (like
reducing the role of the international community in Bosnia – and by
definition giving more rights to the Croatian community in Bosnia, this
argument cuts both ways and could apply to the RS, too I hope that Dr.
Sanader is well prepared for this event!!
finally, I think one way we could honor the fallen defenders of Vukovar (ten
years after they sacrified their lives for Croatia) and honor the request of
Dr.Stambuk, is to try our best (here in the US) to unite and work together
effectively, as a team; to that end, I hope that the recent proposal by Marko
Puljic – to develop a website to be jointly shared and supoorted by the CAA
and NFCA, gets the support it deserves – let us all work toward this goal -as
a first step to developing a more effective, stronger, kore united (in any
and all ways possible) community here in the US
Regards.
Tony Margan
distributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) – CroworldNet@aol.com
