
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993                   TAG: 9308160034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Medium

BOSNIA AIRLIFT STARTS, RESCUING LUCKY FEW

Twenty-one Bosnians arrived Sunday in Britain for needed medical treatment, the first beneficiaries of an airlift inspired by the evacuation of a severely wounded Bosnian girl.

Ambulances took 13 of the evacuees to leading eye, neurosurgery and plastic surgery hospitals in London and southern England. The rest were flown to Birmingham in central England and Leeds in northern England, a spokesman for the Department of Health said.

Hours later, a plane carrying another 18 patients touched down in Linkoping, 150 miles south of Stockholm, Sweden. Officials said nine will be treated locally and the rest at hospitals in Stockholm, neighboring Uppsala and Goteborg in western Sweden.

The airlifts were arranged after the delayed evacuation of Irma Hadzimuratovic, a severely wounded 5-year-old Bosnian, drew world headlines to the plight of others trapped in Sarajevo without needed medicines and treatments.

Irma was evacuated to London for treatment for shrapnel wounds and severe meningitis. On Sunday, she was in critical but stable condition.

One doctor on Sunday criticized the airlifts as a publicity show. But U.N. officials defended their role, saying her plight had led to needed offers of care abroad.

In Sarajevo, U.N. peacekeepers carried some of the wounded on stretchers to armored ambulances for the trip through the besieged Bosnian capital to the airport. While waiting for the flight, the patients sipped apple juice or ate oranges - food they had not seen since the war began 16 months ago.

The group that arrived in London consisted of seven children and 14 adults. Four adults on the original list were not evacuated on Sunday, but U.N. aid workers hoped they would be later this week.

Dr. Patrick Peillod, head of the U.N. evacuation team in Sarajevo, said the medical airlift had turned into a public relations show, parading sick and wounded children like "animals in a zoo."

He said the British government had asked for more children and consequently more were added to the evacuation list, even though there were adults whose medical condition was more critical.

by CNB