by Sheri Fink
The following institutions and their former and current representatives also provided a valuable font of materials: Anne Harringer, Pippa Scott, Svjetlana Tevapčić and the International Monitor Institute; Ger Duijzings, Paul Koedijk, Peter Romijn, Dijk Schoonoord, and the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation; Sead and Nihad Kreševljakovića and the Hamdija Kreševljakovića library in Sarajevo; šefket Ibrišević and the Archives of the Bosnian Army Second Corps in Tuzla; the New York and Boston Public Libraries; New York University Library and U.N. repository; libraries of the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, Stanford University, Hoover Institution, and University of Michigan; Narodna Biblioteka Bratunac; Ministry of Public Health Tuzla; University of Sarajevo Medical School; Bosnia-Herzegovina Institute of Public Health in Sarajevo; Federal Hydrometeorological Institute of Yugoslavia, Belgrade; Kris Janowski, Trudy Huskamp Peterson and the archives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Dr.
Gillian Biddulph and the International Committee of the Red Cross archives, photo, video, and print libraries; Massaoutis Panayiotis and the World Health Organization archives; and Gregory Hess and the World Health Organization.
Hvala puno to those who helped with translation, context, and more in Bosnia, Serbia, and the United States including Izabella Gavrić, Iskra Čucković, Sanel Hadžiahmetović, Nermin Zukić, Melika Horozić, Dr. Anja Tomić, Ulvija Tanović, Damir Arsenijević, Rijad Hasić, Naida Begeta, Vedad Lihovac, Neven Luledvija, Senada Krešo, Boris Knežević, Zoran Ivančić, Darko Radošević, Elvira Jašareviš, Besmir Fidahić, and Vanja Savanić.
Thanks to those friends and acquaintances who provided places to rest my head and suitcase along with valuable conversation and encouragement while working on this book, including: Adila and Jasmina Viteškić, Bisera and Mesud Imamović and Anna Husarska in Sarajevo; Čevala and Himzo Hasić, Doug Ford, Mary Ellen Keough, Catriona Palmer, Laurie Vollen and Physicians for Human Rights in Tuzla; Brian Ruane and the OSCE in Srebrenica; the Lazić family in šekovići; Dr. Lazar Prodanović in Zvornik; Maja Vrhovac in Banja Luka; Sanja Ilić and Zoran, Stefan, and Oki in Belgrade; Pakize Kaleci (with Eric Dachy) for her great cooking in Brussels; Brad Blitz in London; Sharon Silber, David Weiss, George Musser, Talia Schaffer, and Douglas Rothschild in New York; Glenn Ruga, Barbara Ayotte, and Nan Fornal in Boston; Brent Phillips and Anna for a brief, welcome respite in the Algarve; Fokko De Vries, Sanja Percela, Yannick Du Pont, Gaby Post, and Natascha Jerkovic in Amsterdam; Margaret Samuels and Tom Parker in the Hague; the Ulens family in the Netherlands; Gil and Judy Kulick in Maryland; Vladimir and Svatava Mach in Prague; Dr. Simon Mardel and his wife in Barrow in Furness; Thierry Pontus and his wife in Belgium; and Lee and Irv Zelitzky in San Francisco.
A huge thanks to my best friend in Bosnia, Alma šahbaz, and my best Bosnian friends in the United States, Amna, Memin, Anesa, and Fatih Tokmo, for their incredible support and for making me fall even more in love with their country.
I’m deeply indebted to those who supported this work with grants, beginning with Dr. Tom Raffin and the Center for Bioethics at Stanford University, which supported my first trip to Bosnia. Dr. Harvey Weinstein, Eric Stover, and Gilles Perress of the University of California at Berkeley Human Rights Center helped me develop the initial idea for a book on Bosnian war medicine and provided the means, with a generous grant from the Herbert and Marion Sandler Family Foundation, to spend a year in the Balkans (you were right, guys, it did take more than a year to research and write this book). If it were not for their initial interest and willingness to gamble their resources on an untested writer, this book would not exist. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. A grant from the U.S.-Mexico writer’s exchange program (supported by the Writer’s Room of New York, U.S. Embassy in Mexico, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, and Sociedad General de Escritores de Mexico) provided two months of very helpful semi-isolation at La Casa del Escritor in Mexico City, where the first draft of this manuscript was completed. Thanks to the staff of La Casa as well as to staff members, colleagues, and backers of the Writer’s Room of New York and the (unaffiliated) Writer’s Room of Boston, where I wrote at all hours without distraction.
I’m deeply grateful for the generous time and constructive criticism of those who read and commented on early drafts of this manuscript: Jack Hart, editor of the Oregonian, Harriet Washington of Harvard’s Department of Medical Ethics, Herschel Fink (thanks Dad!), Christopher Hitchens, Krim Delko, Linda Pollack, and Steve Walker. Thanks, too, to John and Lynn Franklin for providing years of WriterL, no matter where in the world I was, and for brainstorming with me in a “stuck” moment at the 2002 Nieman narrative journalism conference, graciously hosted by Mark Kramer.
To my buddies from the U.S. army base in Sarajevo, Tony Castillo, Andy Fishman, and Jeffrey Abramowitz, thanks for looking out for me, taking me to the PX, and defusing the “mine” we found on Mjedenica. Thanks to Mirza Muminović and other student members of BoHeMSA at the University of Sarajevo Medical School for organizing the conference that inspired my interest in this subject.
The support and encouragement of friends, fellow writers, and other colleagues has been enormous. Thanks to Fred Abrahams, Patrick Ball, Marc Bartolini, Hamida and Ken Begović, Dino Besić, Vicky Bruce (a.k.a. fairy godmother), Darcy Cosper, Thomas Cushman, Susie Devenyi, Manuela Dobos, Nathaniel Eaton, Leslie Fratkin, Lisa Gervin, Rita Giglio for always believing in me, Tom Gjelten, Daniel Hoffman, Paul Keegan, Ken Kim, Sara Kurlich, Chris Momenee, Katie Orenstein, Barry Reese, Mike Rothenberg, Joe Sacco, James Sanders, Lee and Pip Sanders, Robert Sapolsky, Cindy Scharf, Bob Silk, Ulrike Sujansky, Stacy Sullivan, Kate Tedesco, Teun Voeten, and Sharon Webb. Thanks to Dr. Michael Thaler and Dr. Eliott Wolfe for being wonderful mentors and to leaders of International Medical Corps (Nancy Aossey, Kevin Noone, Martin Zogg, Stephen Tomlin) and Physicians for Human Rights (Len Rubenstein, Susannah Sirkin, Holly Burkhalter) for the opportunity to work and share ideas with you.
I’m indebted to several excellent past editors, including Sally Cheriel at the Oregonian, Pete Gavrilovich at the Detroit Free Press, and writing teachers Marc Niesyn at the University of Iowa and Carl Djerassi at Stanford.
Finally, I have been blessed with a perfect editor in Kate Darnton at PublicAffairs. Her sharp insights have strengthened this book tremendously, and I’m forever appreciative of her patience. She, and PublicAffairs’ generous and supportive publisher, Peter Osnos, have repeatedly touched me with their enthusiasm for and belief in the importance of the Srebrenica doctors’ story. I am deeply grateful to them and to the many other editors and staff members of PublicAffairs, and to my wonderful agent, Peter McGuigan, who worked very hard to make this book a reality.
PRAISE FOR WAR HOSPITAL
“Sheri Fink is… a physician and a superb chronicler. In War Hospital she takes us from the Caucasus into the Balkans… Through her artistry, she catches the thoughts and emotions of various actors involved in that bloody theater, especially physicians: the majority of them men who, under complex motivations that range from adventurism to patriotic sentiment and idealist self-abnegation, come into the war zone at great personal peril. The detailed notes at the end of the book attest to Fink’s impeccable and comprehensive research. Her scrupulous regard for historical truth and attention to detail make War Hospital an engrossing conspectus of a part of the recent Balkan war…”
—The Washington Post Book World
“[Dr. Sheri Fink’s] story is an antidote to the abstract calls of glory, honor and heroism, words that can fill hearts with pride but that sound hollow in crowded, bloodied hospital corridors. Yet she reaches beyond even these themes and confronts the role of humanitarian assistance in wartime, raising the larger question of what must be done in the face of genocide… Dr. Fink brings us into this world gone mad, where everyone laps up the depraved and sickening brew of war. But her real goal is to make us face our own culpability. We are guilty of genocide because we did not intervene. Neu
trality, too, can be a crime. This is not a morality tale for others, but for ourselves.”
—The New York Times
“A moving account”
—Good Housekeeping
“War Hospital is an insightful account of the complexity of armed conflict and humanitarian assistance and a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the personal tragedy of war.”
—JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association)
“Wartime duty and medical ethics are stretched to the breaking point in this wrenching account… of a small group of brave and idealistic doctors who set up shop in the besieged Bosnian town of Srebrenica.”
—Discover Magazine
“Unusually impressive documentation and stylistic superiority.”
—Library Journal
“Dr. Fink has taken on a mighty task here… She executes it with an artist’s ear and a journalist’s quiet authority. In the process, it’s possible that she’s delivered one of the most memorable chronicles of the Balkan conflict.”
—American Book Review
“Just as a life-or-death difference in ordinary existence may be made by a medical professional, so a life-or-death difference has been made, in some of the recently-devastated places of the earth, by medical volunteers. Sheri Fink’s work repays some of the debt that is owed to them. It also makes a direct and vital connection between Hippocratic idealism and the wider struggle, which is against the gangrene of ethnic and religious fascism. A powerful read.”
—Christopher Hitchens
“A moving account of one of Europe’s worst modern tragedies. This heroic story of a small group of seemingly doomed doctors skillfully raises questions about medical ethics, international aid, and human nature itself. Humanity captured at its worst and its best.”
—David Rohde, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica
“Sheri Fink, a doctor herself and someone with profound experience of practicing battlefield medicine, has a remarkable insight into this tragic and complicated story. Her book is an invaluable contribution to understanding what happened in Bosnia, above all in doomed Srebrenica, as well as a fascinating account of what it is to try to uphold (or fail to uphold) one’s medical oath in the midst of a genocide.”
—David Rieff, author of A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis
“Sheri Fink’s book, which you won’t put down until the last line, is tough and unforgettable…. [It] is a lesson in courage.”
—Dr. Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders, the recipient of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize
“This is an important, gripping book about doctors in wartime… Like a special episode of ER, but with our cast operating in a very real dilapidated hospital without adequate equipment or supplies, War Hospital makes you care about Bosnians, makes you feel, see, and smell the fear, despair, humor, bravery, betrayal, and confusion that permeate war… Go get War Hospital and read it now.”
—Robert K. Musil, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility
“Sheri Fink, a physician with the ears of a reporter and the touch of a novelist, tells the unshakable story of ill-prepared medical volunteers in genocidal Bosnia with sensitivity and grace. She has given us a book about heroism, principle, compromise, triumph, and failure that respects them all.”
—David Hajdu, PEN American Award Citation
INDEX
Afghanistan
humanitarian-military cooperation in
neutral aid worker targeting in
“Agreement for the demilitarization of Srebrenica” (April 17, 1993), Bosnian war ceasefire from
Ahmetović, Sadik
Boro Lazić and
postwar years of
self-injury of
Srebrenica evacuation and
Srebrenica Hospital and
Žepa evacuation and
Air Defense System
Airdrops. See also Operation Provide Comfort; Operation Provide Promise
Akashi, Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General Yasushik
Albright, Madeleine, Serbian atrocities and
Alić, Denis
Alić, Dr. Ejub
atheism of
Denis (Deno), son of
early career of
education of
family of
father’s death of
lack of surgical experience of
leg amputation by
literature, poetry and song of
Mubina, wife of
postwar years of
Srebrenica escape of
Srebrenica Hospital and
Tuzla Hospital and
war attitudes of
war’s effect on
youth of
Alić, Mubina
Ejub Alić and
mother’s death of
Alići
Amputations
priority of
war difficulties in performing
Amputees, major causes of death of
Anesthesia. See also Ketamine
history of
unavailability in Bosnia of
Annan, Kofi
as head of U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations
as U.N. Secretary-General
Wahlgren, Morillon and
Anterior tibial artery
APC (armored personnel carrier)
Apparatchiks, Communist-style
Arkan. See RaŽnjatović, Željko (Arkan)
Article 51 of U.N. charter
Association of Victims’ Families
Atrocities, war
in Bosnia
in Croatia
Atropine
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Avdić, Ajka
Bakalović, Dr. Avdo
Baljkovica forest
Balkans
Bečirović, Ramiz
Dutchbat and
Srebrenica evacuation and
as Srebrenica’s acting commander
Begić, Dževad
Begić, Sabit
Belgium
Belgrade
description of
U.N. refugee mission in
UNPROFOR in
Biafrans
Bijeljina
Bio-131-S
Birth control
Birtley, Tony (ABC news)
Bjelovac, battle of
Bojna hill
Bosanski Brod
Bosnia and Herzegovina. See also Bosnian Muslims; Bosnian war; Sarajevo; Srebrenica
annexation from Yugoslavia of
entry into U.N. by
government loyalists of
history of
hunger strike of
interethnic tensions in (1990)
medical supplies shortage in
military disadvantages of
Milošević’s economic blockade of (1991)
Muslim-Croat Federation of
Operation Provide Promise and
peace protests in
Serb land takeover of
Serb Republic of
Serb sanctions and
starvation in
U.N. and
U.N. arms embargo of
U.N. evacuations of
United States and
Bosnia international stabilization force
Bosnia radio
Bosnia-Herzegovina. See Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnian Army Second Corps
wartime health service reinvention of
Bosnian Army’s Twenty-Eighth Division
Bosnian government forces. See also Bosnian Muslim ad hoc troops; Srebrenican forces
Croatian forces teamed with
Serb attacks of
Srebrenica aid/arms smuggling of
Srebrenican evacuees and
Srebrenican forces and
Bosnian Muslim ad hoc troops
Serb nationalist forces v.
Bosnian Muslim nationalists
Croats v.
genocide of
mass graves of
oppression of
retributions on Serbs by
Serb ethnic cleansing of
Bosnian Serbs. See Serbs, Bosnian
Bosnian war. See also Bosnian government forces; Milošević, Slobodan; Serb nationalist forces, Bosnian; Srebrenican forces
1995 end of
beginnings of
ceasefire (April 17, 1993)
citizens involvement in
communication problems in
international reluctance to intercede in
Sarajevo and
Boutros-Ghali, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Bosnian concerns of
Bratstvo-Jedinstvo (For Brotherhood and Unity)
Bratunac
Srebrenican prisoners in
Bratunac health clinic
Srebrenican atrocity claims of
Brauman, Rony
Bosnian military intervention request of
MSF-France and
Britain
Afghanistan and
Bosnian war combat reluctance of
Contact Group peace proposal and
genocide prevention failure of
Broz, Josip. See Tito
Brussels
Budak mountain
Buljim plateau
Camp Bravo
Canada
peacekeepers of
UNPROFOR soldiers from
Canadian House
Canbat M113
Caplan, Arthur
Catch-22, UNPROFOR and
Catholicism
Croats and
Slovenians and