Nominate Divac

Given that Dragan Kicanovic, President of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee, stated on May 5 at the session of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee, in response to the question "who is our candidate for the Sport Committee of the International Olympic Committee," that Vlade Divac should be that person, we believe that the candidacy of the famous basketball star is really in effect, because it has not been withdrawn.  However, sine the Yugoslav Olympic Committee demonstrated surprising ambivalence toward the fate of the letter which never even arrived to Lausanne, which is why Divac is not included among the candidates from 45 countries, VREME is beginning an initiative for making good the candidacy which was formalized and then suddenly forgotten - that is to say, for finding a way and a method for including Divac on that list.  The first step is an open letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, with the explanation of the case and a request that he do everything within his power to get this exceptional athlete on the list which he was nominated to through sports channels, and was withdrawn from through political channels.  At the same time, the Editorial Office of VREME Magazine is issuing a call to the democratic public of Yugoslavia to join our appeal and to support the subsequent inclusion of Divac among the candidates for the Sports Committee of the International Olympic Committee.

To Mr. Marquise Juan Antonio Samaranch,

President of the International Olympic Committee

Lausanne

"Dear Mr. Samaranch,

we are addressing you in the hope that you will use your authority within the bounds of your jurisdiction to correct a great injustice which has been done to an exemplary athlete like Vlade Divac, basketball player with the Sacramento Kings and prominent member of the Yugoslav National Basketball Team.  When fourteen years ago you shook hands with him in your country in the city of Madrid, while giving him the bronze medal at the world basketball championship which took place in Spain, he was only 18 years of age.  He was the youngest player in the Yugoslav team at the time, but his talent was evident even then.  Later you met many more times and he usually occupied the highest place on the victor's pulpit when you gave him gold medals which he won as part of the Yugoslav National Basketball Team.

For already eleven seasons, Vlade Divac has been playing in the NBA League and is one of the most successful European players who ever got a chance to play in one of the toughest leagues in the world.  However, his ties to his native Yugoslavia in which his parents and his brother live have always been exceptionally strong.  Whenever he could, Divac played for the Yugoslav National Basketball Team.  The last time he played for the team was at last year's European championship in France.

As an exceptionally popular personality, Divac is a sports idol in his native country, but also a man who is very prominent for his humanitarian work.  Together with seven other players on the Yugoslav National Basketball Team he founded the Group 7 which plays exhibition games during the summer period, thereby gathering significant funds for aid to children.  At the same time, during the NBA Season Divac is very active in the area of humanitarian work in America also, which is best indicated by the fact that he recently got the J. Walter Kennedy NBA Award, named after the former NBA Commissar.

When at the advice of the Yugoslav Basketball Association, the Yugoslav Olympic Committee voted to nominated Divac for the Sports Committee of the International Olympic Committee by a vote of 6-4 (the other candidate was Jasna Sekaric, Olympic champion in archery and world record holder on more than one occasion), the Yugoslav public was convinced that the best candidate had been elected.  The entire Yugoslav press extensively covered the candidacy of Vlade Divac.  That happened on March 2000.  The Yugoslav Olympic Committee sent Divac's preliminary candidacy to the International Olympic Committee, announcing prompt sending of the complete documentation.  The candidacy was accepted and as far as what is known about it, it has been sent by the Yugoslav Olympic Committee through a special agency for delivering mail and packages, but it never arrived to Lausanne.  It disappeared without a trace.

Our Magazine reported this news and made public the "Divac Case."  The only fault on the part of the famous athlete is that he spoke on more then one occasion in negative terms about present regime in Yugoslavia and spoke about the need for democratization of the country.  We believe that such an attitude qualifies him even more for membership in the Sports Committee of the International Olympic Committee, because an athlete who takes part in many areas of life and is not afraid to raise his voice against the stifling of freedoms in his country can certainly do a great deal for athletes of the world as their representative in the Sports Committee.

Dear Mr. President we greatly respect your efforts in lifting sports sanctions from our country.  Your letter to the Security Council in the summer of 1994 contributed significantly to getting our athletes back on the international scene and to confirm in recent years that their place is in the highest circles of the sports world and not in a political quarantine.  At that moment you did the right thing in the name of sport.  We are certain that you can do the same thing today.  We ask you to consider our initiative and to include an exemplary athlete, the basketball star Vlade Divac, on the list of candidates for the Sports Committee of the International Olympic Committee, which he is not sitting on despite having been nominated, all thanks to the influence of top politicians.

Belgrade, May 24, 2000

Editorial Office of VREME Magazine