COMMISSION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
FOR GENDER EQUALITY
Attn: Mrs. Vera Babić
Prisavlje 14
10000 Zagreb
CENTRE FOR WOMEN WAR VICTIMS
RADNIČKI DOL 20
10 000 ZAGREB
Tel/fax 48 23 258
Dear Mrs. Babić,
Thank you for sending us a response to our memo dated January 21, 1999. We are contacting you again because we consider that our demand has not been clear enough.
When we asked the Commission of the Republic of Croatia for Gender Equality to react to the mentioned article by Mr. Ivkošić (published in Večernji list on June 14, 1998), we were not thinking about the reaction you had mentioned. Namely, we had, along with many other national and international nongovernmental organizations, sent the memo to the Council of Honour of the Croatian Journalists’ Association to which they promptly declared themselves (published in Večernji list on July 15, 1998).
We believe it is legitimate to expect a somewhat more powerful and to the public more available reaction from the Commission, which in its name carries the idea we as an organization strive towards. We expected that the Commission would declare itself publicly about cases which were described by the Croatian Journalists’ Association as, “expressions of hate speech, demonstration and advocacy of intolerance within Croatian society”, in this case, hate and intolerance against women.
In any case, we believe that the stated author and his article should be condemned publicly by the institution in which the female citizens of Croatia should have confidence that it will justify its own name.
Consequently, we are appealing to the Commission to declare themselves in a manner available to the general public.
We kindly ask you to inform us about this matter in writing.
On behalf of the Centre for Women War Victims and Autonomous Women’s House Zagreb
Neva Tolle
Slavica Kušić
Zagreb, February 10, 1999