To Juan Antonio Samaranch
Chairman of the International Olympic Committee
Lausanne

Dear Mr. Samaranch,

We write this letter with hopes that you can use your authority and try to amend an outrageous act of injustice done to an outstanding sportsman such as Vlade Divac, player of Sacramento Kings and prominent member of the Yugoslav national basketball team. He was only eighteen years old when you shook his hand for the first time and put a bronze medal around his neck after the World Basketball Championship in Madrid 14 years ago. He was the youngest member of the Yugoslav squad, but his talent was obvious even then. You have met him on many occasions since then, usually on the highest step of the pedestal, and granted him gold medals he won with the Yugoslav team.

Vlade Divac has been playing in the NBA league for 11 years as one of the most successful Europeans in the world's best basketball show. However, the bond with Yugoslavia, his home country, and his parents and brother living there, has always remained unbreakable. Divac played for Yugoslavia whenever he could, most recently at the European Championship in France last year.

Divac is an extremely popular figure at home, a genuine sports idol, but also an individual distinguished for his humanitarian activities. Divac has embarked on a humanitarian project with six team mates from the national squad under the name "Group Seven", which has raised a substantial amount of aid through exhibition matches to support children. He is also very active in his humanitarian work during the NBA season in the USA which was recently recognised by the annual NBA award carrying the name of J. Walter Kennedy, a former commissary of the Association.

The Yugoslav public was convinced the right person had been picked when the Yugoslav Olympic Committee voted 6 to 4 in favour of Divac for the candidature (the other candidate was Jasna Sekaric, Olympic gold medallist and world record holder on several occasions in shooting). The Yugoslav press celebrated the decision. On March 10, 2000, the Yugoslav Olympic Committee sent IOC the preliminary candidature and announced the arrival of the whole documentation necessary to complete formal requirements in short notice. The documentation was completed and then sent, according to YOC, through a specialised agency for dispatching post and packages. However, it never reached Lausanne. It has disappeared without a trace.

Our magazine found out what happened and exposed "the Divac affair" to the Yugoslav public. Divac's only "mistake" was that he criticised the Yugoslav regime on several occasions and stressed the necessity of democracy in Yugoslavia. We feel this attitude brings him even closer to membership in IOC, since a versatile individual and sportsman who is not afraid to raise his voice against repression in his country can do a lot for athletes all over the world as their representative in IOC.

Dear Mr. Chairman. We are very grateful for your efforts that resulted in suspension of sports sanctions against our country. Your letter to the Security Council in the Summer of 1994 had a great impact on the return of our athletes to the international scene, who have proved during the past few years that they belong in the elite of world sport and not in a political quarantine. You did the right thing then, in the name of sport. We are certain that you have the power to do the same today. We beg you to consider our initiative and include an outstanding sportsman, basketball star Vlade Divac, in the list of candidates for the International Olympic Committee which does not hold his name for no other reason than the will of self-centered political lords.

Belgrade, May 24, 2000

Editorial Staff of the weekly magazine "Vreme"