Bosnian Says Many Dying of Cold, Hunger
Bangor Daily News, p.13
11 January 1993.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A government official called Sunday for urgent U.N. aid to a besieged town in eastern Bosnia where he said people were dying of starvation and cold and bodies were piling up in homes.
In central Bosnia, British U.N. peacekeepers fired heavy weapons for the first time Sunday when they came under attack. British officials in London said there were no British casualties or damage to British vehicles.
In Sarajevo, U.N. officials began evacuating survivors from a home for the elderly. A social worker said 32 of the home’s 150 residents have died since October, many from sniper fire or shelling, others from cold.
Residents of the town of Zepa [besieged Bosniak enclave in eastern Bosnia’, about 35 miles east of Sarajevo, are dying daily in houses, huts and caves, said Deputy Premier Zlatko Lagumdzija, citing reports from ham radio operators.
Seventy-three bodies have been found in recent days in the town, home to about 8,000 residents and more than 20,000 refugees, Lagumzija said.
The bodies were taken to vacant houses that serve as morgues and left there because people are too weak to dig graves in the frozen ground, he said.
“Getting help to these people is priority No. 0, more important even than priority No.1,” Lagumdzija said after meeting U.N. officials.
