BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA PRESS CONFERENCE ON LANDMINES

Press Briefing

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA PRESS CONFERENCE ON LANDMINES

Bosnia and Herzegovina contained approximately 3 million landmines, or an estimated 152 mines per square mile, making it "the most infested" country in the world, that country's Permanent Representative, Muhamed Sacirbey, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

He said some estimates of the number of landmines planted in Bosnia were as low as 3 million and others as high as 6 million. The Government believed the figure was "somewhere around 3 million". It was thought that there were 17,000 minefields, meaning that approximately one-fourth of the country's territory was "contaminated".

Mr. Sacirbey said that mine incidents in Bosnia were not highly publicized due to media sensitivity to those types of situations. However, the Government believed that about 50 to 80 such incidents occurred every month, with children comprising approximately 20 per cent of the victims. About 20 per cent of the victims died, while 40 per cent underwent amputation and a further 40 per cent suffered fragmentation injuries.

He introduced a 15-year-old landmine victim, Kenan Malkic, who had lost both arms and most of his left leg when he stepped on a mine while playing soccer near his home three years ago. When Kenan started outgrowing his prosthetics, he had written to the Ambassador with a plea for new artificial limbs. What made Kenan unique was his family's foresight and energy in reaching out to as many people as they could to try to deal with his problems.

Mr. Sacirbey said the mine had destroyed many aspects of Kenan's body but not his mind or his genes. In order for his mind and body to continue developing, he needed special attention and further assistance to accommodate his growing body. The Sisters of Charity Health Care System had been seeking ways to help the children of Bosnia, and the ambassador had sought their help in trying to enable Kenan to live a positive life.

He said Kenan's plight would help to highlight not only his own needs, but also those of many others in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the issue of landmines. That issue had been publicized briefly in the media following the death of the Princess of Wales but attention for a day, a week, a month or even a year would not solve the problem.

Mr. Sacirbey emphasized that the assistance programme was open to people of all ethnic and religious groups. "We do not care how the injury has come about, all people deserve the assistance that is being offered here. And of course to have the Sisters of Charity Health Care System part of this effort, obviously a Catholic-originated programme, we are most grateful that this gives us another sense of multi-religious, multi-ethnic support for Bosnia and in turn encourages us in Bosnia to rebuild what very much traditionally has been a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society".

Press Conference on Landmines - 2 - 18 December 1997

John DePierro, president and chief executive officer of Sisters of Charity Health Care System, said the institution had been founded in 1903 and

had grown on Staten Island into a truly integrated system that did not consider colour or race.

A. Georg Fleischer, chairman of the institution's department of rehabilitative medicine, outlined Kenan's progress and described his specialty as one that strove to enable a person with a disability to live as fully and independently as possible.

Elissa Montanti, also of Sisters of Charity Health Care System, and who was instrumental in gaining medical support for the boy, thanked all those involved in the effort.

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