General information

Call No.:

350-1-1:63/1

Part of series

HU OSA 350-1-1 Records of the International Monitor Institute: Europe: Balkan Archive

Located at

VHS NTSC #63 / No. 1

Digital ver. identifier

HU_OSA_00000063

Date of air

1993-08-11

Date

1993

Level

Item

Primary Type

Moving image

Language

English

Notes

Destruction Civilian Property • Military/Para-Military

Content

Form/Genre

Television program

Contents Summary

David Marash reports on the UN bureaucratic logjam which has been preventing the evacuation of seriously ill and wounded children from Sarajevo. He cites the specific case of Irma Hadzimuratovic, a young girl suffering from shrapnel wounds and meningitis. Her doctor, Dr. Edo Jaganjovic, explains how he is unable to treat her due to a lack of basic necessities such as lab work and electricity. Marash explains that Irma's doctor would like to get her out of the Sarajevo hospital, but that a bureaucratic logjam is preventing him from doing so. Marash explains that in order for Irma to have been transferred, her case would have to have been approved by a UN committee—but they concluded that she was too ill to travel, despite never examining her. Interviewed is her father, Ramiz Hadzimuratovic, who details the extensive bureaucracy he had to go through in order to get Irma to a London hospital. Marash then details the efforts of various news organizations, such as "Oslobodjenje," a French News agency, SKY News, and the BBC in helping out in making passports and showing the world reports of Irma's suffering. The report cites UNICEF statistics, showing that since April of 1992, 13,932 children were wounded, and 1450 children killed (in Bosnia). The second part of the report contains a Ted Koppel interview with David Marash, who explains that Irma's case has changed UN regulations regarding the evacuation of children. Marash further explains that the Bosnia war is about nationalists who want to define the world according to ones religious and ethnic background. He states that Sarajevo's long history of ethnic and religious tolerance presents an [ideological] threat to the totalitarian regimes of Croatia and Serbia. Furthermore, he states, if Sarajevo manages to remain a democratic capital, it could attract intelligentsia from Serbia and Croatia to move to Sarajevo. Statements are made by Dr. Anthony McDermott, UNHCR Spokesperson Sylvana Foa, an unidentified civilian woman, and New York writer Susan Sontag.

Context

Associated Names

ABC (Copyright holder, Creator/Author, Producer)