HERZEG-BOSNIAN MEDICAL HQ APPEALS FOR HELP

ZAGREB, Nov 23 (Hina) - The main medical HQ of the Croatian republic of Herzeg-Bosnia forwarded a letter today to the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, UNHCR Commissioner Sadako Ogata, U.S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major and the U.S. Ambassador to Croatian Peter Galbraith asking them to undertake urgent measures for preventing the tragedy threatening to the besieged Croatian enclaves in central Bosnia where there are approx. 150,000 persons. The HQ appeals for the deliveries of aid to the Franciscan Hospital in Nova Bila, whose patients and medical personnel are fully surrounded by the Muslim forces. The letter states that only ten doctors (excluding the pediatrician, anesthesiologist and the gynecologist) carried out 350 surgical interventions under general and 1,500 operations under local anesthesia since the hospital was founded on Dec 19 1992, that 1,800 wounded and 3,400 ill persons were admitted to the hospital in the recent six months, that 80 patients are treated daily, and that there have been 40 to 50 births per month. The hospital operates without electricity, running water, anesthetics, antibiotics and soaps. (End) 232007 MET nov 93