Beautiful Hillary helped promote hospital aid & landmine awareness in Bosnia
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  Beautiful Hillary helped promote hospital aid & landmine awareness in Bosnia
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Author Topic: Beautiful Hillary helped promote hospital aid & landmine awareness in Bosnia  (Read 942 times)
Beet
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« on: March 27, 2008, 08:11:14 PM »

Monday, 21 October 1996: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman to the rescue of children threatened by landmines! United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched Superman: Deadly Legacy at a White House ceremony today featuring the Man of Steel promoting landmine awareness in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Landmines have inflicted death and enormous pain and suffering on hundreds of thousands of children over the last several decades," says UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. "We must do everything in our power to protect them from these deadly weapons."

DC Comics published the comic book in cooperation with the US Department of Defense and UNICEF.

Closer to the ground and smaller, children suffer greater injury and are more likely to be killed by mines than adults. Such devices as the 'butterfly' mine lure children with their attractive, toy-like appearance. In 68 countries, where an estimated 110 million landmines are lodged in the ground, often long after hostilities have ended, children pick up or step on the devices every day while herding animals, working in the fields or just playing.

"I know they look like fun," says Superman as he sweeps up two boys before they can pick up a couple of mines. "But even if they haven't gone off doesn't mean they won't -- at any time!"

And they do, with appalling frequency. About 800 people are killed by landmines every month, 30-40 per cent of them children. "A landmine is a perfect soldier," the UNICEF State of the World's Children 1996 report quotes a Khmer Rouge general as saying. "Ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses."

Once laid, an anti-personnel mine can remain active for as long as 50 years. And clearing them is no easy task. It's a laborious, expensive process, with each mine costing between $300 and $1,000 a day to clear. Trained workers have to crawl their way along, probing the soil inch by inch.

Between four and six million land mines were laid in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the recent conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

The White House event also highlighted another project aimed at improving the lives of children and people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A new US Agency for International Development (USAID) hospital partnership will link the Buffalo General Hospital in Buffalo, New York, with the Tuzla Clinical Centre in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the exchange of information on effective medical strategies.

The message of Superman: Deadly Legacy, available in English as well as in the local scripts of Cyrillic and Latin, is simple, yet forceful: Children must learn how to avoid danger zones where anti-personnel mines are hidden -- and they don't need Superman to keep them safe.

"They still can be heroes, even without superpowers," the Man of Steel tells a crowd of adults and children in the last frame of the comic book, as he lifts off for adventures unknown. "The only superpower they need is the power of knowledge."

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Hillary writes about helping to unveil comic book awareness program



The newest comic book to hit the streets in Sarajevo is an American classic with a modern twist. Predictably, the hero wears a red cape and has a large "S" emblazoned across his chest. He has special vision, supernatural powers and a big heart.

But this Superman doesn't just fight villains in a mythical Metropolis. He is crossing the Atlantic to warn children in Bosnia and Herzegovina about the dangers of land mines in a region still emerging from the darkness of war.

Superman's arrival in Bosnia is the result of a public and private partnership involving our Defense Department, United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright, UNICEF and its special representative Judy Collins, Warner Bros. and DC Comics. The comic book will be a vital educational tool in a country where millions of land mines currently lie in wait for vulnerable children and civilians.

I was honored to help unveil the comic book at the White House this week and to announce a new American hospital partnership that will help boost the recovery effort in Bosnia.

Standing in the East Room with children from Bosnia — some of them war refugees — and watching the mayors of Tuzla, Bosnia, and Buffalo, N.Y., sign the hospital agreement, I felt pride in our nation's tradition of humanitarian assistance and our commitment to democracy in the former Yugoslavia and around the world.

The hospital partnership, sponsored by our government through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the American International Health Alliance, will involve Buffalo General Hospital and the Tuzla Clinical Center. Like other hospital partnerships that I've visited in Russia, Estonia, Ukraine and Belarus, this one will benefit both hospitals and countries involved.

Not only will American physicians and nurses be exposed to new and different medical challenges, the resources, expertise and technology they bring to Bosnia will improve the availability and quality of medical care for tens of thousands of people there.
Many of those needing care are women, children and refugees suffering from physical and emotional traumas associated with years of violence and war.

Already, American medical personnel from Buffalo have traveled to Tuzla and worked side by side with their Bosnian colleagues, even in the midst of war and violence. They have procured $1.5 million in supplies for use in Tuzla. And Eli Lilly & Co. has committed $250,000 in donations for next year.

In addition to expanding pediatric services, improving pre-natal care and the treatment of chronic diseases, the hospital partnership will enable the Tuzla Clinical Center to improve its care of children maimed and injured by land mines, many of whom are taken there.

Today, one out of every eight homes in Bosnia is endangered because of a proximity to mines. In central Bosnia, one of every three acres of land is unusable because of mines. And even though the fighting is over and peace has taken hold, the detonation of land mines has become the most common cause of serious injury in the country.

The prevalence of mines prompted UNICEF to launch a mine-awareness campaign for children and civilians. Superman seemed just the sort of person to help get the message across.

The comic book, called "Superman: Deadly Legacy," tells the story of two boys in Bosnia. They are walking along a road looking for a friend when one bends down to pick up some debris from a mortar. Quickly, Superman pulls him away, and the boy narrowly misses stepping on a mine concealed underground.

As the boys continue to search for their friend, Superman teaches them how to avoid places where land mines might be hidden: bombed-out houses, abandoned buildings, old checkpoints and trench lines. Even paths and bridges are sometimes littered with land mines, Superman explains.

With Superman's help, the boys eventually find their friend but not before happening upon a wounded dog (who dies) and a playmate who has lost a leg and is wrapped in bandages. He tripped a mine while practicing soccer in an open field.

It is a chilling tale, one that reflects the chilling reality of children's lives in Bosnia. But it is also a tale of hope for the people of Bosnia who, with our help, will be able to take one more step to a stable, peaceful and democratic future.
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