Landmine victims highlight plight
with volleyball tournament in Balkans
By Sandra Jontz, Bosnia
bureau
Ivana Avramovic / Stars and Stripes
The Tuzla Canton team, in yellow, volleys against the Croatian national team during a
sitting volleyball game in honor of Princes Diana, who fought to ban landmines, at
a tournament in Tuzla, Bosnia. |
TUZLA, Bosnia and Herzegovina — The Bosnian war broke Enis
Tokic’s body; he wasn’t going to let it do the same to his spirit.
In 1994, while fighting on the front lines, Tokic stepped on a land
mine — ripping away his left leg from the knee down. Shortly after getting his
prosthetic limb, Tokic, now 31, joined Tuzla’s sitting volleyball team, a squad made
up of other war veterans who lost limbs.
Edin Ibrakovic, 39, and former volleyball player, used to jump to
spike a volleyball across the net. But a landmine blast robbed him too of his leg and now
he uses his hands to scoot around the court to position himself before spiking from a
seated position.
On Saturday, Tokic and Ibrakovic’s team, and competitors from
Sarajevo and Croatia competed in the third annual Memorial to Princess Diana sitting
volleyball tournament at Tuzla’s sports center. Diana, the former Princess of Wales,
was a strong opponent of landmines whose involvement with the organization helped it earn
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. She died in 1997.
Feeling like a part of society is as much a part of rehabilitation as
working with a physical therapist, said Jerry White, executive director and founder of
Landmine Survivors Network, the volleyball tournament sponsor.
Next year, the tournament hopes to continue its international push
and include teams from Great Britain and the United States, said Tuzla Canton governor
Selim Beslagic.
Ivana Avramovic / Stars and Stripes
A prosthetic leg is left near a bench during the volleyball. The tournament was held in
Tuzla, Bosnia on Saturday. |
White attended the Saturday tournament and, while in Bosnia, hoped to
meet with U.S. Army officials at Eagle Base to offer his organization’s help to the
military, in hopes for a little aid in return. Scheduling conflicts prohibited him from
making the last-minute visit, he said.
If he had the chance, he wanted to know what humanitarian aid, if
any, the Stabilization Force soldiers could offer his organization and former Bosnian
soldiers.
He said the local government could use soldiers' help in building
wheelchair ramps at peoples’ homes, he said.
Eighteen years ago, White stepped on a landmine while hiking in
Israel. He lost his right leg from the knee down and wears a prosthetic limb. Five years
ago, he started the survivors network.
“Our main goal is to help people who have been hurt by
landmines,” said Plamenko Priganica, executive director of the Bosnian chapter of
LSN. “Our second goal is to help rid the world of landmines.”
The United States is the only NATO country that refuses to sign the
1997 Land Mine Ban Treaty, said White, whose headquarters is in Washington, D.C. The
United States is one of 60 land mine-producing countries. The treaty bans the use and
production of land mines.
Every 22 minutes, someone is killed or maimed by a landmine, adding
up to 20,000 victims a year, according to the organization. Eighty percent of victims are
civilians and the organization has estimated that there are 300,000 landmine survivors
worldwide.
The group has chapters in Jordan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, El Salvador and
Bosnia. Next year, they plan to open chapters in Vietnam and Mozambique.
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