BETLEHEM IN NOVA BILA

ZAGREB, Dec 27 (Hina) - Christmas manger were set up in the Nova Bila Franciscan hospital in Central Bosnia. Crucified Christ watched his fellow-sufferers speechlessly from the wall of this church turned to hospital at the end of the world. Christmas tree was decorated with empty pillboxes, blown up rubber gloves and some remaining tinsel strips. Bellow the tree there was a model with symbols of the "White Road for Nova Bila": trucks carrying humanitarian aid, road of salvation - way to life. Christmas tree was surrounded with silence of the wounded waiting for the promised salvation - the evacuation to Croatia. Ivo Ivankovic (35), with sniper wounds in a hand and stomach, speechlessly watched the decorated Christmas tree. He had been under treatment for a month already. No changes for the better. He wants to be at home with his family. Ivanka Strbac (42) was seriously wounded in the hand and stomach while she fled from Cajdras, the Zenica area, together with her son and husband. Her husband and son were killed in the woods as they stepped on a mine. Six-year-old Velimir Banovic fled from Banovici with his mother. He was wounded in a cannon attack on Vitez one month ago. He wished to get an orange and a toy car. Seven-year-old Sandro, wounded from sniper, malnourished and exhausted, cannot talk about his Christmas wishes. He barely said through tears that he wants to go home and that he does not hurt any more. The women from the Lasva Valley might have made a Christmas cake, if they had the ingredients, for the wounded who have been under treatment in the Nova Bila Franciscan hospital. One kilogram of sugar costs DEM 50 and an egg DEM 5 (when it is available). Maternity ward of the church turned into a hospital was also "working". The first scream of a new born baby broke the gloomy silence in the part of the church where the wounded were accommodated. They could wish the baby everything..., except their fate. They can give the baby nothing. (The author of the text is one of journalist who escorted the convoy "White Road for Nova Bila and Silver Bosnia", which managed to enter Nova Bila. During signing of the Christmas truce in Brussels on 22 December, Moslem forces attacked the convoy on his way back to Croatia from Nova Bila and they resumed the offensive on the Lasva Valley.) NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: HINA issued two photos with this text and the photos can be ordered on tel. 425 545 - Photo Agency HINA Ltd. - FaH 271629 MET dec 93