Appeal by Mostar medical staff

Medical staff, inhabitants and authorities of the besieged Bosnian city of Mostar have addressed an appeal for help to humanitarian organisations throughout the world.

The appeal, made on January 4, was translated and distributed by the Croatian antiwar movement via electronic mail. It describes the "multi-national, multi-cultural" town as in danger of destruction.

"Mostar is encircled as Sarajevo, thirsty as Zepa, destroyed and burnt as Vukovar but not yet conquered. It is still proud and ready to fight for freedom and for protection of its identity in our unique homeland - Bosnia and Hercegovina - while our last citizen is alive.

"We, medical workers ... are taking care of more than 5000 wounded, hurt and sick inhabitants ... We have been living for already eight months in cellars, hungry and thirsty, naked and barefoot, without electricity and fuel, lacking medicaments, sanitary material and medical equipment, in an almost complete media blockade, forgotten by the rest of the world.

"We do not possess sanitary vehicles. We work under conditions which resemble those of the Middle Ages. We are performing operations without oxygen and sterile materials, frequently under the light of candles and lanterns.

"Winter made our working conditions even more difficult. A real catastrophe is endangering Mostar as far as medical service is concerned."

The statement said that a mobile hospital, gift to Mostar, had been stopped by Croatian forces "at the very entrance to the town".

The statement called on "all international humanitarian organisations ... to organise the transport of medicaments, sanitary materials and medical equipment to our hospital in order to prevent a real catastrophe and death of a great number of people to whom we can not provide an adequate medical treatment in such conditions".

From GLW issue 127