Serbian Unity Congress

Studenica Foundation












THE COMMITMENT AND EFFORT OF STELLA JATRAS IN
THE NAME OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE DURING THE
DECADES 1993-2013.






ESSAY FOR THE STELLA JATRAS SCHOLARSHIP CONTEST









VLADICA ILIC
4
TH
grade student of the
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law







2

Belgrade, 2014.

C O N T E N T S



Who was Stella Jatras..3
Representation and the main messages in Stella Jatras texts...... 4
Playing the devils advocate...4
Terrorist links in the USA .4
Staying blind in the face of the obvious4
Failed interview with the ambassador.. 5
What GIs need to know about Kosovo 5
When a diplomat is not a diplomat When youre Richard Holbrooke5
Who Stella Jatras is (to us) today .... 6
Sources 7




























3


WHO WAS STELLA JATRAS?



Stella Jatras (Serbian: , Greek: )
was born on September 18
th
1931 in Poughkeepsie, New York, as the
fourth child in a Greek immigrant family.
As a wife of a US Air Force officer and military attach in
Moscow George Jatras, also a Greek immigrant, Stella spent many
years of her life out of America (living in Russia, Germany, Greece,
Saudi Arabia). In addition to her curiosity for learning about cultures and
traditions of countries she lived in, Stella was particularly interested in
studying contemporary world conflicts and global politics. The results of
that interest gave rise to us writing these lines.
Although she was an American citizen of Greek origin, the life of Stella Jatras was largely
marked by attempts to stop the fabrication of historical facts about the events and conflicts on
former Yugoslavian territories during the last decade of the 20
th
century. Namely, up until the
beginning of the civil war in Bosnia, the attention of Mrs. Jatras, who was an official at the USA
embassy in Moscow at the time, was focused on the Soviet Union and the question of Cold War.
However, with the emergence of the War in Bosnia, Mrs. Jatras directed her efforts towards
presenting the true state of affairs concerning the events on the territories of former Yugoslavia to
the American people and the American public, motivated by the large bias and lack of objectivity in
Western medias reporting, particularly in the United States
Mrs. Jatras activism against untruthful reporting and attempts at changing the view of the
events on these territories, consisted not only of direct contact with government representatives,
pointing towards the true facts about the controversial events, and appeals to stop the fabrication
of facts, but also of writing comments, letters, and articles that were published in numerous written
media in America (Washington Times, Washington Post, Arizona Republic, Patriot News, Los
Angeles Times), but also in a number of magazines and periodicals. Many of them, sharp and
completely unbiased, are still available on the Internet today. Some of them will be presented in
further text.
Mrs. Jatras was a member of the Serbian Unnity Congress and the Serbian National
Defense. Her efforts to give the world an objective presentation of the events in the Balkans and
thus help Serbia were recognized and appreciated by the Serbian community which she as she
used to say herself considered her second family.
She passed away on June 15
th
, 2013 in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.


4

REPRESENTATION AND THE MAIN MESSAGES IN STELLA JATRAS
TEXTS


In the following text, the main messages of some of Stella Jatras articles and texts will be
presented through short reviews. Because of the essays size limitations, other published articles
and texts of Mrs. Jatras will only be mentioned in the Annex (see page 7)


Playing the devils advocate (June 2005)
1

In this article, Stella Jatras, in her selfless struggle for justice and the revelation of truth,
wishes to point the attention towards victims of the War in Bosnia being from both sides engaged
in conflict. Foreign media published news on the killings done by Serbian volunteers, but the
crimes of Bosnian soldiers were left without mention. In her desire to inform the world of the other
side of the story, Stella reveals details about the crimes committed upon the Serbian people. Also,
in this article, she shows evidence that the number of victims in Srebrenica was significantly lower
than the public was led to believe. The author openly criticizes America for publishing only the
crimes committed by Serbs, most often exaggerated at that, while the crimes committed by
Bosnian Muslims or KLA are still left unmentioned and whitewashed.

Terrorist links in the USA (June 2005)
2

In this article, the author strives to inform the public primarily of the significance Kosovo has
for the Serbian people, their history and culture, as well as of the open support the United States of
America are giving to the Albanians fighting for Kosovos independence.

Staying blind in the face of the obvious (December 2005)
3

In this article Stella Jatras deals with the covering up of the fact that Bosnia and other parts
of the Balkans became the springboard for terrorist attacks on Europe. The text highlights the
situation in Bosnia during the 90s, where a significant number of Islamic terrorists are gathered, as
well as the stance of UN high representatives that its good for the rest of the world because it
enables control over them on a small territory. The author puts forward the view that the Western
countries, which have in some way (at least indirectly) supported Islamic terrorism directed towards
Serbia in the 90s, failed to see that it would spread and that today it will be (also) directed towards
the American people. In the end she highlights that the basic mistake was supporting terrorism
which had its spread and fortification as a consequence, and which resulted in the September 11
th

2001 attack on the Twin Towers.

1
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/002.shtml.
2
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/003.shtml.
3
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/004.shtml.
5


Failed ambassador interview (December 2005)
4


Here Mrs. Jatras criticizes the Serbian ambassador in America who failed to correctly
dipute the lies about the state of affairs in Kosovo, which were presented by the reporter Nicholas
Wood in an interview for a popular cable network. Along with Mr. Bozinovic, she criticizes
inadequate comparisons with which the ambassador tried to explain the similarities between the
Kosovo problem and other conflicts between neighboring nations in the world. In the end, the
article points to the ambassadors insufficient skill in answering questions of the viewers who were
tuning in the program.

What the GIs need to know about Kosovo (November 2006)
5

Le Stella reviews a text from The Stars and Stripes that talks about the situation on Kosovo,
which, among other things, states that Albanians are the majority population. Stella Jatras points to
the obfuscation of facts about Serbs, who comprised the vast majority of the population in Kosovo
and who have been targeted to be expelled or killed because of their Orthodox religion. Alongside
that, she highlights the symbolical importance of Kosovo for Serbs and the Serbian state,
condemns the destruction of Serbian churches and the simultaneous building of Muslim mosques.
She also points to the most important facts about the events on Kosovo which the majority of the
public is unaware of, as well as the stance of the Western media on various issues of the time.

When a diplomat is not a diplomat When youre Richard Holbrooke (May 2007)
6

In this article Stella Jatras condemns the American diplomat Richard Holbrook who talks
with hatred and contempt about the Serbian people in his 1995 interview with The New Yorker. At
the same time she criticizes the American government which allows that one diplomat, whose role
is to be impartial during peace negotiations in Bosnia, of expressing an open bias towards one of
the sides in the conflict. In the following text she writes about the bombing of Serbia in 1999, which
resulted in thousands of victims and the ruining of Serbian economy. At the very end of the article,
Mrs. Jatras points to another remark by Holbrooke, given ten years after the signing of the Dayton
agreement, in which he still didnt lessen his contempt towards the Serbian people.




4
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/007.shtml.
5
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/005.shtml.
6
The article is available at the internet address: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/006.shtml.
6

WHO IS STELLA JATRAS (TO US) TODAY?


At the end of this modest essay, we wonder who is Stella Jatras to us (but also to
everybody else!) and what kind of example does she set.
Although she was, undoubtedly, a friend to Serbia, working almost twenty years on
getting the world to hear the other side too (or as the lawyers of Ancient Rome used to
say audiatur t altera pars) of the story in the Balkan conflicts apart from the one shown
in the leading world media, by doing that she didnt become anyones enemy. On the
contrary she was an admirer of truth, fairness, and other principles which are taken for
granted today in international relations.
An example to government representatives, diplomats, journalists, but also to
ordinary people in times of war and tense international relations. That is who Stella Jatras
was, or at least should have been. And today, when her struggle is over Stella remains
that, but shes also a symbol of the uninvited stranger who suddenly shows up from
somewhere, helps you when youre in trouble, and leaves quietly. The symbol of an
unconditional friend.
And my role model, professionally and personally.

We thank her.





















In Belgrade,
July 2
nd
2014



7


SOURCES*


1. http://www.krokeai.com/Krokeates/Professions/Jatras/Stella%20Jatras.htm
2. http://obits.pennlive.com/obituaries/pennlive/obituary.aspx?pid=165389365
3. http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/
4. http://www.dijaspora.gov.rs/borila-se-kao-da-je-srpkinja/?lang=lat%20%282.7.2013.%29
5. http://blog.pennlive.com/life/2013/06/remembering_stella_jatras_pass.html
6. http://www.eserbia.org/history/famous-americans-in-serbian-memory/804-stella-jatras
7. http://www.pogledi.rs/en/stella-stavroula-jatras/








ANNEX: Internet addresses of other published works by Stella Jatras
which are available online but have not been presented in the second
part of the essay *

1. http://home.ix.netcom.com/~sparta13/
2. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0806/jatras.php3
3. http://www.serbianna.com/columns/jatras/001.shtml
4. http://www.krokeai.com/Krokeates/Professions/Jatras/Jatras_Commentary_41005.htm
5. http://www.krokeai.com/Krokeates/Professions/Jatras/Bosnia_Terror_Station.htm
6. http://www.10452lccc.com/english%20articles/stella1.5.04.htm
7. http://www.krokeai.com/Krokeates/Professions/Jatras/Kosovo%20Needs%20Your%20Help.htm
8. http://antiwar.com/orig/jatras.php
9. http://home.ix.netcom.com/~sparta13/wt-021019kurd.htm






* NOTE: All Internet addresses cited in this essay were last accessed on July 2
nd
2014, before the work was
presented to the commission for scholarship approval