Official Asks the U.S. to Stop ‘Genocide’ in Bosnia

Calling on Americans to open their eyes to the “genocide” in his homeland, the head of the Red Crescent relief effort in Bosnia-Herzegovina made a brief stop in Orange County on Tuesday to meet with local Muslim leaders and to seek donations of food and medicine.

“I come here to ask Americans to do something to stop this aggression against humanity,” said Izet Aganovic, president of the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross. “Children are being killed, people are in concentration camps . . . in a few months, when winter comes, several thousand more will die.”

Red-eyed and weary, the native of Croatia came to Orange County with a gripping videotape that depicted horrific images of what he said was the slaughter in Bosnia. The scenes included a massacre of civilians standing in a food line, dismembered bodies and slain children.

Aganovic, who heads the largest relief effort in the former Yugoslav republic, said Americans are numb to such images.

“Bosnia is just not a big problem for Americans,” he said bitterly as he watched the videotape in a friend’s Costa Mesa living room. “They just don’t care about problems outside the United States.”

During an hourlong interview, Aganovic said the daily atrocities taking place in Bosnia have become yesterday’s news. Within a few weeks, he said, the suffering of the victims will be all but forgotten.

“The problem is, only one in 15 people here knows what’s going on,” said Aganovic, a 47-year-old doctor from Zagreb in Croatia. “The (Miami) hurricane damaged homes, but in a few days people were able to return. In Sarajevo, people have been without electricity for 40 days.”

Aganovic arrived in the United States on Friday to address a meeting of the Islamic Society of North America in Kansas. Aganovic, who is Muslim, said organizers of the event raised more than $200,000 for relief efforts in Bosnia.

His whirlwind, 12-day tour of the United States will also include stops in New York City and Washington, where he expects to meet with officials from the United Nations and the State Department.

Meanwhile, in Orange County, Aganovic paid a visit Tuesday to organizers who are collecting medical supplies to send to Bosnia.

Sekib Sokolovich , a Santa Ana doctor who is heading the drive for medical supplies in California, said several tons of supplies have been donated so far but more medicine is needed. Sokolovich said relief workers need anesthetics, antibiotics and painkillers to help treat the thousands of wounded.

Donations may be sent to the Bosnia Relief Fund: P.O. Box 28652, Santa Ana, Calif. 92799-9610.