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HOM

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE POUR LES MIGRATIONS
ORGANIZACION INTERNACIONAL PARA LAS MIGRACIONES

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I wanted to take the time and write to you personally, on behalf of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to thank you for the enormous efforts you have made In lining up hospital space for the wounded children of the former Yugoslavia. Your time and energy in this respect are crucial to the success of our Special Medical Program.

As we have discussed, the conditions in Sarajevo present a great many logistical and security challenges. Trying to carry out any program in a war zone situation is dangerous, but it becomes even more tenuous when trying to move people, injured people, out of harm's way to temporary medical care in another country. Due to these concerns, an evacuation from Sarajevo seems to be taking longer to organize than expected. We are experiencing the same situation in our attempted screening of nearly 200 Identified medical cases in Tuzla, originally planned for June 13, but postponed to a later date, since the heavy fighting In the area precluded the IOM team from travelling to that city.

Although I know it has been difficult keeping the interest and commitment of hospitals in place through these many weeks of uncertainty about the projected evacuation of victims of war directly from Bosnia, I hope we can ask you and your hospitals to remain on board while IOM continues to pursue possibilities of evacuating some these victims out of the conflict areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina. In the end, the only way we can move them is if we can count on people like you to confirm that free hospital care and community support is ready and waiting.

Again, let me express our sincere appreciation for all your hard work to date, especially given the extremely difficult circumstances surrounding this program. I only hope you will be able to keep this wonderful effort going for a while, and that IOM will continue to be able to count on you and the members of your organization to help in this worthwhile humanitarian program. Thank you again.

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IEMRA is a non-profit, international humanitarian aid organization that is providing urgently needed medical support to the former Yugoslavia. In order to continue and expand its mission of aid IEMRA is seeking the support of individuals, organizations and governments.

CONCEPTION

The International Emergency Medical Response Agency (IEMRA) was conceived in direct response to the current conflict in the former Yugoslavia, with the sole purpose of providing effective and efficient support to the regional medical infrastructures serving populations devastated by the conflict.

IEMRA was formed to address an unfulfilled niche in the overall aid effort, namely the supply of specific, urgently needed medicines and medical equipment to the exact points of need. In this way the aid supplied has the maximum effect on life and health.

STRATEGY

In Europe and the United States, IEMRA has generated funds from the public, private and business sectors. Support is also available from government funding bodies and other philanthropic organizations.

Through a compact, non-bureaucratic structure these funds are used in the most efficient and effective way possible to provide medical relief to the former Yugoslavia. IEMRA takes a 'marketing' approach to the business of international aid finding out exactly what is needed, obtaining it and delivering it exactly where it is needed. This targeted approach allows IEMRA to keep the percentage of funds spent directly on aid relatively high, (a minimum of 70% of donated funds is spent on medical aid) and allows the costs of delivering aid to be kept to a minimum.

Discussions with the seven national associations of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry have resulted in an agreement whereby short dated pharmaceuticals will be donated to IEMRA for humanitarian use. However, this agreement will not be brought to action until the State Department approves the transport of IEMRA's U.S. originated aid to Europe by the Department of Defense, Humanitarian Affairs section.

IEMRA has received encouragement for its activities in the former Yugoslavia from State Department humanitarian funding offices. This is in response to operations already carried out, and IEMRA's increasing ability to provide specific aid to specific points in the Yugoslavia. There is also interest in the potential for IEMRA to deliver aid to areas and towns in parts of former Yugoslavia that have been cut off from aid for long periods. This at a fraction of the current cost of the international air drops being conducted in these areas.

METHOD

Medical shortages are assessed in the hospitals, clinics and refugee centres. This information is relayed to Munich, Germany where information from other aid organizations is also taken into account in order to prevent delivery of redundant aid, and lists of priority medicines and medical equipment are drawn up. To date IEMRA has been supplying medical aid to the Sarajevo hospitals, but with expanding resources will target over 60 hospitals and clinics in Bosnia alone, as well as many others throughout the former Yugoslavia.

These medical supplies are obtained either from doctors and organizations collecting medicines for the former Yugoslavia, or are purchased at discount from pharmaceutical and medical supply companies. For example, IEMRA's relationship with Bayer AG (Germany) allows pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies to be bought at cost. In addition, Bayer provides a 30% of volume donation on top of the order. In one operation IEMRA flew in a consignment of post-operative antibiotics that had not been available in Sarajevo in over a year.

STRUCTURE

Once established as a Foundation IEMRA will be headquartered in Cologne, Germany, convenient to pharmaceutical corporations, government and military air bases. This will be the centre of management, finance and buying; coordinating and controlling all of IEMRA's activities.

The centre of operations will be in Zagreb, Croatia, where all activities from need identification to aid distribution operations will be coordinated. At full planned size in the former Yugoslavia there will also be three mobile field offices providing extended control and support for operational activities. These will be staffed and operated by international medical and logistics personnel.

The United States program (IEMRA U.S.A.) will be a financial and physical aid generation branch of IEMRA, registered under its own auspices and involved in its own autonomous aid generation programs. The potential impact on aid provision to the former Yugoslavia of IEMRA's current discussions and agreements in the United States is huge, and represents a new channel of humanitarian aid if tapped.

about peace and hopefully long term resolution of the tensions in the region.

No matter how quickly peace comes, the medical infrastructures in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia have been almost destroyed and are entirely dependent on outside support.

Despite the uncertain political and social future of the region, there should be no question as to what the international communities' obligation is. Those suffering in this conflict have a strong moral claim to international generosity.

The potential that IEMRA has created for providing medical aid to these people in the manner planned can make a substantial difference to the lives of the victims of this crisis. To link the different elements, and realize the potential of this project, requires positive steps in Washington DC from a few key people, and the support of those who want more done in the former Yugoslavia.

- IEMRA

Capitol Hill

Zibe Ayeen

Tel. 1/202 / 544 0904 Fax. 1/202 / 547 1285

Germany

Meichelbeckstr. 4A, 81545 München.
Tel. 49/89/642 32 52
Fax. 49/89/642 32 92

The current situation in the Balkans is characterised by extreme uncertainty. The international community, led by the United States, Britain, France and Russia is trying to establish a frame work for bringing

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War Torn: the bewildered gaze of a Bosnian child, safe

now in a refugee camp, reflects the horrors of war.

The risk was brought home to him soon after his arrival, when. running across an intersection targeted by Sarajevo's omnipresent Serbian snipers, Ashton was shot through the leg. "They get a reward for killing journalists." he says. "Four friends of mine went in front of me, and I could see the snipers on the bridge. talking and not doing anything. Then I started across with my cameras, and there was a quick movement on the bridge of a man taking aim One of the whizzing bullets went through his leg: as he raised himself on his arms. another bullet passed within inches of his stomach. On the same day. CNN journalist Margaret Moth was shot in the face near the airport. "If you're there." Ashton says, "it's only a matter of time."

Ashton was lucky: the surgeon in Sarajevo had specialized in ski-team injuries, and repaired the tendons in his ugly wound one by one. Doctors had said he'd never walk again: but. after a month of recuperation in Munich's Bogenhausen hospital. Ashton was back at work in Sarajevo However, the experience opened his eyes to

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the danger After a close colleague was killed on Christmas Day trying to help John get out of a dangerous situation, the pleas of the doctors at the Sarajevo hospital that he could help more by mobilizing support from abroad than by being murdered on the front line began to sound convincing

What was needed was an organization which could administer aid reliet on the

"Death and violence are nothing more than television novelties to most people; but scratch their BMWs, walk up the steps too noisily after 10:00 p.m., and you've committed a horrendous crime."

-John Ashton, Sarajevo journal

intimate scale Ashton was already providing bringing desperately-needed supplies and equipment directly to the hospitals which had requested them. The problem with most existing organizations, says Ashton, is that they operate on too large a scale. providing hospitals with huge quantities of a single item. but not necessarily the item that hospital needs. "The main problem is the sheer scale of the disaster." he explains Praising the efforts of the UNHCR, the International Red Cross (IRC), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), and the World Health Organization (WHO), he adds that the tragedy is so large that "they simply can t cope."

Thus, on January 2, 1993, in Munich. the International Emergency Medical Response Agency (IEMRA) was born. To

gether with New Zealander Tony Gardner, whom he had met during his recov ery in Munich last August. Ashton co-founded the or ganization as a way offcially to continue the work he had begun Currently operating out of a Munich apartment. IEMRA has already flown in small loads of medical supplies. including antibiotics. which have been unavailable for a year in some hospitals. Firms such as Bayer Leverkusen soon agreed to contribute: and the Marburger Bund. a German medical associa tion noted for its support of aid organizations. Is fully behind the effort.

"We're filling a spe

cific niche." says Tony Gardner, who brings a background in business and market consulting to his post as business manager of IEMRA. "Our small size and unbureaucratic nature mean we can be much more flexible and supply hospitals directly with the most urgently-needed medicines at the time they need them. Our Zagreb office will receive requests directly from the hospitals and pass the information on to us." Ashton adds that there's no question of competition between the aid organizations. "The others are happy to have all the help they can get. And we're happy to take their supplies to hospitals. too. if we can help. All that matters is getting the stuff where it's needed. regardless of who does what."

Shellshock: most drivers are afraid to use this empty street, which often comes under heavy fire. Surrounded by wreckage, a boy on a bicycle takes the risk.

Survivors: one of the concerns of the aid organization I.E.M.R.A is the fate of the civilian population in war-torn Bosnia after the actual conflict is over.

Of late. activity at IEMRA has gained momentum. preparatory to the opening of its new headquarters in Cologne this August. Together with the Munich-based enterprise Famosa Consulting, a start-up and development adviser group for charities. Ashton and Gardner have drawn up a busi

"One woman in
Sarajevo said, 'I re-
member watching T.V.
coverage of Lebanon 12

years ago, knowing
nothing like that could
ever happen here, to
us."

-John Ashton, Sarajevo

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ness plan showing how the foundation will be set up and expanded in coming years. Among other things, the plan calls for a U.S. office to organize fund-raising: in the meantime, IEMRA is being financed through donations and the personal savings of its two co-founders. Determined to keep their administrative costs at a minimum. Ashton and Gardner are exploring every possible source of financing in an effort to raise the

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