
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 10, 1993                   TAG: 9308100164
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

RED TAPE BROKEN FOR HURT CHILD

Irma Hadzimuratovic, a badly wounded 5-year-old girl whose evacuation from Sarajevo was delayed by red tape, flew to London Monday for treatment that could save her life.

A team of doctors stood by at London's renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children as Irma arrived from the Bosnian capital in an evacuation arranged by the British government.

The girl, severely wounded in the abdomen and spine during a July 30 mortar attack that also killed her mother, has come to symbolize the plight of Sarajevo and the U.N. red tape that keeps many wounded in the city. Irma's condition had deteriorated while doctors and U.N. officials negotiated for almost a week on her evacuation from a hospital in Sarajevo, where chronic shortages hamper even simple medical procedures.

Irma's evacuation was made possible by the tremendous media attention that her Sarajevo doctor, Edo Jaganjac, focused on her case.

Irma's little sister survived the mortar attack because a neighbor threw her body over the girl, suffering serious injuries herself in the process.

Irma's 36-year-old father, Ramiz, accompanied her.

by CNB