[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E888-E889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE NOVALIC FOUNDATION OF CROATIA

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 23, 1996

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, this Chamber has heard many statements on 
the horrors that the recent wars on the territory of the former 
Yugoslavia visited on the peoples of that region. While no side 
remained blameless in these conflicts, in fact, all sides committed 
unspeakable crimes, it was certainly the Serb aggressors who showed the 
world degrees of inhumane cruelty, of barbarism that some of us had 
hoped would never be used again as tools to settle questions of 
territory or dominance.
  I was one of the Members here who made many of the statements I just 
referred to as I followed these events closely and felt very strongly 
about them. Nonetheless, just the other day I was reminded again quite 
powerfully of the excesses of perverse cruelty in these wars. I was 
presented with a photo album of some of the churches of Eastern 
Croatia, the region that is still under Serb occupation. These pictures 
reminded me that this was not just a political and ethnic war, but it 
was also a war against culture and religion. The Serb invaders 
purposefully targeted the churches of the Croat and Hungarian ethnic 
communities in that region, shelling them with ferocity and great 
precision. About 67 churches lie partly or fully in ruin in or around 
the still occupied territories.
  Not all news coming from that region is bad, however. These photos of 
the destroyed churches were presented to me in my office by a 
remarkable individual, Mr. Antun Novalic, a businessman from the town 
of Osijek, Croatia, right across a river from the occupied territories. 
In this area where the wounds of ethnic hatred are still festering, Mr. 
Novalic has

[[Page E889]]

established a foundation with his own money, dedicated to rebuilding 
those churches regardless of the creed or ethnicity of the 
congregations. His plans also include the restoration of the old Jewish 
cemetery in the village of Vorosmart, an ancient Hungarian settlement 
in Croatia going back over a millennium. The cemetery suffered no war 
damage, but it suffered vandalism during the invasion and is generally 
in a neglected state.
  Mr. Novalic was not asking for money in this country, as he told me 
he wanted to establish a record of accomplishment using his own funds 
before he would ask for others to contribute. He was here to seek moral 
support and to inform Americans who care about the fate of that region 
of the objectives of the Novalic Foundation.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend Mr. Novalic for his noble idea and wish every 
success for his foundation. I wanted my colleagues to know that for 
every act of destruction, of seeding hatred, someone, somewhere is 
working selflessly on construction, on restoring ethnic harmony and 
tolerance. I hope the United States will remain allied to such people 
and give their efforts all reasonable support.

                          ____________________