Surving Sarajevo money they need to become officially recog nized as a foundation Shifting and purchase the vehicles to start regular deliveries from Splu and Zagreb. They hope to have the first trucks on the road by the end of August. With the intrastructure they've drawn up. Ashton and Gardner hope to create an organization capable of providing help on a world-wide basis, wherever it's needed.even AtaSerbian checkpoint: -John Ashton, Sarajevo journal after the terrible Balkan war is finally over. And even if the war ends tomorrow." says Ashton, "it will require a further three to five years to deal with the mountain of physical and psychological problems that will be left behind " Performing an arterial bypass on a sixyear-old boy without anaesthetic, just to keep him alive long enough to get him into the operating room for his other wounds. watching doctors amputate the leg of a young woman, one month pregnant, who rushed out of shelter to try to help the victim of a shelling, only to be hit herself by the next round; seeing people bleed to death in the emergency room from relatively minor injuries, because there aren't enough doctors to attend to them all; comforting a woman who pleads with the doctors to save her life as her intestines spill out on the hospital bed: John Ashton has seen enough of the horrors of war in the former Yugoslavia. And he's working to try to alleviate them, to prevent the deaths that can be avoided and convince Sarajevo's citizens that not everyone in the world has turned their backs. For further information about IEMRA. and details of how you can help, contact IEMRA. c/o Marburger Bund. Richler Straße 6, 50668 Köln (tel. 0221/73 31 73). Donations can be sent by check (payable to IEMRA) or transferred to the foundation's account at the Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank Köln e.G.. BLZ 370 606 15. account number 000 368 1629. VERTRIEB Monika Nittler Tel. (089) 8 54 82-12 ANZEIGENLEITUNG: Eke Brgte Pohl Tel (089: 8 54 82-13 ANZEIGENVERKAUF: Egon F Naber IMS Wredeweg 1. 49082 Osnabruck. Tel (0541) 5 23 93-4 Fax 5 53 28 Vertagservice H.-J Hecht Pommemang 14 H. 23596 Lubed 14. Tel (0451) 30 69 70 Far 30 11 06 (Nielsen 1 und V Egon F Naber IMS (Nigen und il Venags Media Mesengasse 11. Contact Memut G Benecke 60313 FrankduMain Te! 10691 29 83 57 Fax 28 02 95 (Nisen A Mederburo Petra Zoulek Peamers 32 80687 Muncher Tel (0891 58 22 11, Fax 5805 258 Nielsen IV) German Media Senace LIC Anders Hagstrom. 1 Lambton Place London W11 2SM Tel 1004471) 221 5462 Fax 229 0795 (UK / Ireland) GWP Intemational Kurt Bunmann Seest 6 CH-8002 Zunch. Tel (0041) 1-202 3091 Fax 202 6261 (Schweiz) FOTOS IN DIESER AUSGABE: The Venice Simpion-Onent Express E Abenten 1x S 34. 1x S 64 1x S 65, AKG 1x 5 55 1x S. 70 BTA 1x S 10 1x5 50 1x5 63. 1x 5 8. 1x S. 30. McMaster 1x 5. 61. E Melke Er stammt aus Virginia. Er war Matrose, Koch und Schickeria-Fotograf. Bis er vor einem Jahr aus der New Yorker Szene in das Grauen auf dem Balkan geriet und statt gelifteter Stars verstümmelte Leichen ablichtete. John Ashton resignierte nicht, sondern wurde aktiv. SPOTLIGHT: John. what exactly is the SPOTLIGHT: What is the background to ASHTON: I worked in tormer Yugoslavia SPOTLIGHT: How did you come to be in former Yugoslavia in the first place? ASHTON: I went down there as a photojournalist, and I only planned to go for two days But then I walked into a hospital and saw the situation I have a paramedical background, so when I saw surgenes being done without anaesthesia and without oxygen I was shocked). I realized that these are simple things to get to former Yugoslavia. So I went to the UN and I helped them come up with a plan to get the oxygen bottles out, and this is what started my interest in the hospital system there. Sometimes we had over 100 victims in a one-hour period, and we could not cope with the situation. We'd run out of simple things. We would boil the gauze and re-use it on another patient. And we'd do the same with needles and plastic gloves. Everything we'd boil and re-use if we could do it. I was coming to Germany every three weeks for maybe a week's rest, and I met people here in the German community who were willing to help, sending small amounts of medicine. giving small amounts of money for me to buy medicine. That worked quite well. But it was only supplying enough for a couple of days each time I went back in. And the situation became so dangerous, because I was still trying to make a living as a photographer. Come Christmas time, when my friends were starting to get wounded and killed around me. I decided to get out and do something from the outside, bringing medical supplies in to hospitals in former Yugoslavia. SPOTLIGHT: A large number of organizations are already working in the Balkan war area, as you mentioned. including the United Nations. the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization. Is another organization really necessary? ASHTON: Absolutely. The problem is. many of these organizations are spread out around the world. What we have decided to do is to start with former Yugoslavia and work with one problem at a time. And we approached these organizations and talked to them about the problems they were hav ing, and how we could fill a certain niche in their programme. And they were very happy to have someone else come in with trucks, with medicines, because they can. not handle it all themselves. SPOTLIGHT: And how can you be sure that the medicines you send to former Yugoslavia reach the hospitals that they're meant for? ASHTON: We put everything into the system immediately. It goes straight to our warehouses in Zagreb and Split, and straight on a truck as the hospital calls for it. Within two to three days the hospital can have their supplies as opposed to the other organizations that often take three to four weeks. What we're planning to do is have each truck manifested and have the chief of each hospital sign for his manifest. and also to notify the donors who give large donations that he has received their goods. SPOTLIGHT: A lot of readers will have read in recent weeks about the collapse or the near collapse of the United Nations aid efforts. You're convinced that IEMRA can succeed despite these difficulties? ASHTON: Absolutely. I've worked with the local commanders. I've travelled through their front lines many a time, and I've established a good relationship with them, so that we can travel without the UN. But at the same time we have to give their hospitals medication, and it has to be a very diplomatic operation. They're all very upset with the United Nations, because they expected the UN to come in and stop the war, which was not the United Nations mandate. So they harass the convoys and make it very difficult for the UN to get through, whereas private donors get their supplies through. The Red Cross doesn't even use UN escorts. They talk to local commanders and deal with local doctors SPOTLIGHT: You've worked as a photographer in a number of war areas. including Lebanon and Afghanistan. How does the situation in former Yugoslavia compare? ASHTON: This war is the most inhumane. immoral war I've ever seen in my life. Here everything is being completely burned, everyone is being slaughtered because of their ethnic background Every woman who is captured basically is raped in some sectors of this war. 4.8 million people have had to leave their homes, more than 386.000-almost 400.000 - people have died in one year in Bosnia alone. It's appalling what's happening there. And the international community just doesn't seem to be standing up to its promises to try to halt this conflict SPOTLIGHT: How long do you antici pate that IEMRA will be working in former Yugoslavia ASHTON: If the war stopped tomorrow. I imagine we would probably have to work there another five years just to get the infrastructure back up to a substandard level. where it can function without support We re taking tour per cent of our donations and putting them aside in a special ac John Ashton, executive director of the International Emergency Medical Response Agency (IEMRA), talks to lan McMaster. count. After the war is over we will donate this money to the reconstruction or reequipping of hospitals. These hospitals in former Yugoslavia were very much like the modern hospitals in America or Germany All the hospitals had Siemens X-ray equipment and IBM technology. But they're deliberately targeted as military targets, and this has destroyed a lot of the equipment there. They're using car headlamps, with car batteries, over the operating table That's the only light available for surgery. It's very easy to make a mistake under these conditions. SPOTLIGHT: John, thank you very much for talking to SPOTLIGHT. and good luck with your project. ASHTON: Thank you very much. |