America’s first ambassador to Bosnia reminisces on experiences

The lecture hall was  jammed tight with audience members fidgeting in their chairs and late walk-ins gravitating toward the back of the room and covering the staircase–everyone trying to adjust and move about in order to obtain a better view of the speaker in front.

Victor Jackovich, having graduated from IU in 1970 stood before the audience ready to speak and deliver.

The Journalists for Human Rights actively recruited Jackovich to come speak before students and survivors alike.

The speech delivered by Jackovich on Thursday night on the Bosnian Genocide was produced by the Journalists for Human Rights group  the School of Journalism.

After accepting the nomination of America’s first ambassador of Bosnia, Jackovich took the knowledge he gained from his IU education with him onto the dangerous grounds of the Bosnian war zones.

“I arrived by myself. An army official drove me to the airport, took out a helmet and a vest and said, ‘You might want to take this with you,’” Jackovich said. “My reaction was, ‘Aren’t you coming with me?’”

Improvising as he went along, the main objective, other than staying alive, he said, was reporting all observations and events back to the waiting Washington D.C. officials.

“No report went by without me looking at it,” Jackovich said. “I wanted to keep reports as objective as possible, telling the United States exactly what is going on.”

As a journalist during the time, spreading the truth on genocide was an important goal, Jackovich said.

Bosnian civilians were determined to live life as normally as they could.

They looked up to and believed the U.S. could take the necessary action during the war, Jackovich said.

“It was clear to me that this action could be taken, but it was also clear as a professional diplomat that I belonged to a system and the system works a certain way,” Jackovich said. “And that system won.”

Alen Simic, president of JHR, said always having the past of growing up in Bosnia on his mind has affected him as a journalist.

Simic himself is a survivor of the ordeal and sought refuge in the United States when he was younger.

Simic personally presented Jackovich with an award from the organization to commend him for his efforts.

“It affects me like anybody’s past affects them,” Simic said.

“I want to maybe do something positive because journalists have played such an important role, like in Bosnia making politicians take action.”