When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How
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Psychiatrists and Genocide
Two Serbian psychiatrists carry major responsibility for the genocidal killing of more than 100,000 people during the military conflicts of the 1990s associated with the breakup of the Yugoslavian Republic. After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, Yugoslavia was formed from the merger of a number of southern Slavic states including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia. Despite this forced geopolitical melding centuries-old conflicts between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians and between Christian and Muslims frustrated attempts for true national unity. After World War II, Josip Broz Tito, a national hero, recreated Yugoslavia as a multi-national communist State made up of six republics: Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro. Under the strong dictatorship of Tito, the simmering mutual resentments between the various ethnic and religious groups were largely kept in check under an official program of Brotherhood and Unity.
With the death of Tito in 1994, the Yugoslavian Federation started to unravel at the seams and the various Republics split apart along religious and ethnic lines.
Conflicts soon broke out, the most highly publicized and lethal arising between Serbia and the Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, a southern province within Serbia that was seeking independence. The ensuing war claimed tens of thousands of lives and resulted in the massive displacement and flight of Bosnian and Kosovoan Psychiatrists and Genocide
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Muslims creating more than a million refugees. Acts of genocide have been well documented and the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic became a regular feature on the nightly news. Less well known are the actions of two psychiatrists pulling the strings behind the genocide.
Dr. Jovan Rascovic laid the ideological groundwork for the genocide. In the 1980s and 1990s Raskovic, a Croatian-born Serbian psychiatrist, practiced at the Neuropsychiatric Clinic in Sibenik near the southern border of Bosnia–
Herzegovina. In his clinic he was known to prefer to treat depression with electroshock therapy, particularly if the patients were Croatian women and children.
He was a member of the Communist Party (renamed the Serbian Socialist party) and earlier in his career had publicly supported Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin against Tito. Raskovic was also an ardent Serbian Nationalist and he helped draft a document entitled The Memorandum in 1986. This publication described in detail how a greater Serbia was to be carved out from portions of Yugoslavia.
In 1990, Raskovic published a manifesto entitled Luda Zemlja (A Mad Country).
The book opens with a description of the genocide campaign carried out against the Serbs during the Second World War and tries to explain its roots based on psychiatric findings. Raskovic expounds upon his psychoanalytical theories pertaining to the different ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, theories he claimed were based on his psychiatric practice (but which could not be supported by any objective or credible scientific proof). “Serbs by nature possess the qualities of authority with certain aggressive and open elements … Muslims are fixated on the anal phase … Their character tends to appropriate things, dominate like a boss, value people by their possessions, their money, their social position, etc.… [Croats] are fixated on the castration complex … under perpetual fear of castration, losing something that belongs only to himself.” It follows that given their fear of castration the Croats would be afraid of everything, and therefore could not assert themselves or exercise authority or leadership. They must therefore be “guided” and he knew just who should be leading them.
Raskovic claimed that the Serbs “by nature possess the qualities of authority with certain aggressive and open elements” dictating that they were best suited to rule and dominate the other Yugoslavian people. He further asserted that the Serbs are the only people ever to overcome the Oedipus Complex and dare to stand up to and “kill” the father (the Oedipus Complex is, according to Freud’s theory, a deeply repressed sexual urge of a son to kill his father and marry his mother). Raskovic heavily advertised his unproven and inflammatory psychiatric theories throughout the country in newspapers and on television as part of a media campaign in which he presented himself as a psychiatrist of worldwide stature. His propagandistic activities solidified and legitimized the Croatian Serbs’ support of secession into a Greater Serbia and further enflamed the hatred toward non-Serbians. His thoughts and actions created the backdrop against which the horrors of the Yugoslavian wars were soon to occur.
In January 1992, a few months prior to his death and only 2 months before the start of the Bosnian–Herzegovinian conflict, Rascovic had an apparent change of heart. In a public television interview he recognized his nefarious role in fanning 126
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the flames of ethnic and religious hatred that had facilitated the burgeoning genocidal wars. He stated,
I feel responsible because I made the preparations for this war, even if not the military preparations. If I hadn’t created this emotional strain in the Serbian people, nothing would have happened … My party and I lit the fuse of Serbian nationalism not only in Croatia but everywhere else in Bosnia–Herzegovina. It’s impossible to imagine an SDP (Serbian Democratic Party) in Bosnia–Herzegovina or a Mr. Karadzic in power without our influence.
Of course, you have to remember that doctors have an overinflated sense of importance.
While Raskovic certainly played a role in this tragedy, it also would have likely played out without him.
Dr. Radovan Karadzic was a much more interesting and multifaceted personality than Rascovic. He was not only a medical doctor but also a dark and nationalistic poet, ecologist, soccer coach, businessman, chicken farmer, genocidal activist, and, finally, a War Crimes fugitive who spent several years avoiding justice. Dr. Karadzic was born in a stable in the village of Petnijca in the mountains of Montenegro during the last days of the Second World War. He was the son of a Chetnik, the Serbian nationalist guerrillas who fought both the Nazi occupiers and Tito. When he was 15-years old, Karadzic moved to Sarajevo, a major Bosnian city, where he eventually graduated as a medical doctor and specialized in psychiatry with a special interest in the treatment of depression. He also studied abroad researching neurotic disorders and depression at Næstved Hospital in Denmark in 1970; in 1974–1975 he spent a year pursuing further training at Columbia University in New York. During the 1970s and 1980s Karadzic worked at various medical posts including the Zagreb Centre for Mental Health in Croatia, the Health Centre in Belgrade, and as official psychiatrist for the Sarajevo national soccer team. Who knew that soccer could be so stressful? Although not particularly active in politics during the days of the Yugoslavian State, Karadzic was nevertheless an ardent Serbian nationalist.
He wrote numerous dark, enigmatic poems calling for violence and evoking graphic images of cruelty, destruction and war. He later claimed his writing foretold of the debacles in Bosnia and Kosovo. We forgot to mention that physicians are prophets as well as demigods.
With the impending breakup of Yugoslavia, Karadzic’s political activities inten-sified and he rapidly climbed the pyramid of political power. He spoke eloquently on numerous occasions on the rights of the Bosnian Serbs to independence using his poems as a tool to agitate and motivate his audiences. In March 1992 Dr.
Karadzic declared the formation of the Serbian Bosnian secessionist state of Republika Srpska and he was “elected” its president. His party, supported by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, created a genocidal military machine to fight against the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats. Karadzic’s military was behind the infamous siege of Sarajevo that lasted for almost 2 years. Thousands of civilians died, many of them deliberately targeted by bombs or sniper fire. In fighting Kosovo’s Muslims, Karadzic attempted to cement the support of Christian Serbs by emphasizing repeatedly that “our faith is present in all our thinking and decision, Psychiatrists and Genocide
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and the v
oice of the Church is obeyed as the voice of supreme authority.” He essentially created a Holy War.
Hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks and Croats were driven from their homes in a brutal campaign of “ethnic cleansing.” Numerous atrocities were documented, including the widespread rape of thousands of Bosniak women and girls. This was all done under orders by a physician. The Bosnian Serb forces also operated “punishment camps” where prisoners-of-war were starved and tortured. The European Union, United States and NATO eventually attempted to stop the hostilities and find a political solution but they dragged their feet. It took almost 3 years of genocide prior to direct military intervention by the West before the combatants were effectively separated. The carnage claimed the lives of more than a hundred thousand people and the displacement of more than 1.7 million others.
By 1995, The Hague International Tribunal of Justice had issued an arrest warrant for both Dr. Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, his Bosnian Serb military commander, for genocide and war crimes. In 1996, Karadzic resigned under pressure from his post in Republika Srpska and in 1997 he went into hiding with a $5 million bounty on his head. Dr. Karadzic assumed the identity of Dragan Dabic, a Serb killed in battle near Sarajevo, and started to work in a private clinic in New Belgrade as a practitioner of alternative medicine. He presented himself as a
“human quantum energy” expert and alternative medicine guru. He wrote for a local health magazine and gave many lectures but he never got his own cable television show. He was able to evade capture for over a decade in spite of his fairly numerous public appearances. When he was finally arrested in July 2008
while getting out of a city bus, he was virtually unrecognizable with a head crowned with long white hair fashioned in a top-knot and a long bushy white beard. He looked more like a refugee wizard from the Lord of the Rings than a fugitive from The Hague.
He was charged by the UN war crimes tribunal with six counts of genocide and complicity in genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and violating the laws of war. His breaches of the Geneva Convention included setting up concentration camps and organizing the torture, rape and massacre of civilians; desecrat-ing places of worship; and taking UN peacekeepers hostage and using them as human shields. As of 2008, his trial had not started. It should be noted that in spite of the very serious criminal charges brought against Karadzic, many Serbs still remain his ardent supporters and have publicly protested his detention and pending trial.
A number of physician-politicians who initially appeared to be honest and caring were elected democratically according to due process of law. Unfortunately, they later turned into cruel dictators who ordered the death of thousands and lined their pockets with money robbed from their country’s treasuries. It is uncertain whether they were corrupt from the very beginning or became so as a result of the inexo-rable temptation of power. Perhaps some insights can be gleaned from the reigns of Papa Doc Duvalier, the former dictator of Haiti, and Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the President of Malawi.
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“Papa Doc”
Dr. François Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc” (1907–1971), was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death. He was born in Port-au-Prince, the capital and the largest city on the island, the son of a teacher, journalist and Justice of the Peace.
His mother was a mentally unstable woman who worked in a bakery and eventually had to be hospitalized in an asylum where she died in 1921. The invasion of Haiti in 1915 by the United States Marines followed by the ruthless repression of any political dissent by the ruling class significantly impacted upon the political views of young Duvalier. He was also acutely aware of the deep resentment that the poor Black majority bore towards the small but powerful Haitian elite, a class composed predominantly of mulattos.
He studied medicine at the University of Haiti and graduated in 1934 with his M.D. degree. After completing his training he worked in several local hospitals as a staff physician. His adoring patients called him “Papa Doc,” a nickname he liked and continued to use in later years when he saw himself as the father of his nation.
By 1938, Dr. Duvalier had developed a deep interest in the African roots of Haitian culture, even helping to found “Le Groupe des Griots,” an enclave of writers committed to Black Nationalism (negritude) and religious mysticism. Duvalier became involved in both activities and personally conducted an ethnological study of Vodou (a mixture of West African beliefs and Roman Catholicism), Haiti’s native religion.
Negritude and Vodou (anglicized to Voodoo) would eventually become the horses that would carry his chariot of ambition to ultimate political victory.
In the early 1940s, Dr. Duvalier became involved in a U.S.-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases in Haiti. He even spent a year in training at the University of Michigan studying public health. He was praised for his commitment to reducing the human devastation caused by a variety of infections among Haiti’s poor including malaria and yaws. Yaws is an infectious disease of the skin, bones, and joints caused by a bacterium related to the micro-organism that causes syphilis; it is not sexually transmitted. Later in his political career, he was quick to bring up his selfless dedication to his poor and sick patients. Though he was prone to exaggerating his contribution to public health, at least this was not a bald-faced lie (as many of his later pronouncements turned out to be). In 1946, Duvalier joined the government of President Dumarsais Estimé becoming Director General of the National Public Health Service. Two years later he was promoted to Minister of Public Health and Labor. However, in May 1950 President Estimé was overthrown in a military coup and Paul Magloire became President of Haiti.
Dr. Duvalier left the government and returned to medical practice but behind the scenes he became very politically active and by 1954 he was the leader of the opposition faction. Pursued by the military-sponsored government for his defiance Duvalier went underground, hiding in the interior of the island and practicing medicine.
In December 1956 the military relinquished power, President Magloire resigned, and a general political amnesty allowed Duvalier to come out of hiding. Haiti’s political instability persisted unabated and no less than six provisional governments succeeded each other in the following 10 months. With army backing, in a shameless,
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rigged election, Duvalier was elected president for a 6-year term in September 1957. He promised to fulfill his populist vision to end the domination of the mulatto elite and bring political and economic power to the black Haitian majority. Shortly after being sworn into office, Duvalier revived the traditions of Vodou which he then uses to strengthen his political control. The principal belief in Haitian Vodou is that there are various deities, or Loa, who are subordinate to a greater God, known as Bon Dyè (a vitiation of the French words Bon Dieu – the Good Lord).
The Loa may reward, harm, abduct or enter the soul of believers and possess them.
Papa Doc claimed to be a Vodou priest and among the masses of Haiti’s supersti-tious poor he was greatly feared as a practitioner of black magic. Over his career he certainly amassed a number of souls.
After a botched attempt to overthrow him in 1958, Duvalier rapidly moved to consolidate his power. Believing that the army was planning to depose him (as it had done to previous leaders) he disbanded all law enforcement agencies in Haiti, executed all high-ranking generals, reduced and crippled the military forces, and closed the military academy. For good measure, he also banned all political parties and night curfews were ordered. To keep law enforcement completely loyal to his own ruling family he created his own private security force in 1959.
With his chief aide Clément Barbot, Papa Doc organized the Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale or VMSN (Volunteers’ Militia for National Security), a private militia consisting of 9,000–15,000 recruits from the slums of Port-au-Prince.
This militia, popularly know
n as Tonton Macoutes, was ruthlessly used to smother dissent and terrorize and murder opponents. The Tonton Macoutes were granted automatic amnesty through Duvalier’s powers for any crime they committed.
The name Tonton Macoute (literally translated as “Uncle Gunnysack”) originated from Haitian Creole folklore. It was the name of a bogeyman that walked the streets after dark kidnapping children who stayed out too late and stowing them away in his burlap sack never to be seen again. Similar to the climate of Stalinist Russia, those who dared to speak out against Duvalier would disappear in the night and would never be seen or heard from again. Anyone who mentioned the MSVN
risked their own abduction. The Macoutes had no official salary and made their living through protection rackets, crime and extortion schemes.
On May 24, 1959 Duvalier, a diabetic since early childhood, suffered a massive heart attack and was subsequently unconscious for 9 hours. There has been some speculation that his may have been brought on by either an accidental or intentional insulin overdose. Many believed that some brain damage received during this episode affected his mental health and made him paranoid and irrational or, to be perfectly accurate, more paranoid and irrational than he had been. While incapacitated, Duvalier’s presidential powers were delegated to Clement Barbot, his chief aide and leader of the Tonton Macoutes. Upon his recovery, Duvalier accused Barbot of trying to replace him as president and threw him in jail. In 1961, Duvalier manipulated the elections to have his term extended to 1967 and, not-surprisingly,
“won” decisively with an official tally of 1,320,748 votes to zero. “Latin America has witnessed many fraudulent elections,” the New York Times reported the day following the election, “but none will have been more outrageous than the one which has just taken place in Haiti.”
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