by Sheri Fink
—Months after the fall of Srebrenica, Eric Dachy reached out to nurse Christina Schmitz, who he felt completed the job he started in Srebrenica. The two became close friends.
Christina and her colleague Dr. Daniel O’Brien testified about Srebrenica at a French parliamentary hearing and provided written testimony to the International Criminal Tribunal. Christina is glad that she was there to witness the events and testify about them; she believes MSF made a difference. She also struggles to come to terms with what she experienced.
It has been until today incredibly difficult to cope with the memory, to cope with what happened. But… I believe we have to continue to fight, to speak, to argue, to talk on behalf of people in danger.
Srebrenica has only strengthened my resolve and my motivation to stay with this organization,” she said in an interview several months after Srebrenica fell. “It may sound strange, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss the experience of Srebrenica, however sad it was. I still fully embrace MSF’s approach: to go to or stay in places where others leave.
Christina has kept in touch with Srebrenicans, including Ilijaz. She and Daniel are considered heroes by many Srebrenicans. One of the male staff members whose life Christina helped save said of her: “She fought for us like a lion.”
—Dr. Fatima Klempić-Dautbašić completed her training after the war and is now an obstetrician/gynecologist in Tuzla. In the days and weeks after Srebrenica’s fall, she and Ilijaz, hand in hand and looking tired and worn, testified before numerous television cameras and investigators about the events of the fall of Srebrenica. Several months later, the two parted ways for a final time.
Fatima feels that the war, which took so much away from so many, gave her several things. For one, the suffering she witnessed instilled in her an empathy for people’s pain that has made her a better doctor. Working without diagnostic equipment also honed her medical intuition, and that also serves her patients well. But for Fatima, the primary lesson is that life’s most important gifts are family and friends.
Fatima married Smail Klempić, the gentle lawyer she’d first noticed at Srebrenica Hospital caring for his injured brother. She calls Smail her “smile.” They have two young children, a boy and a girl.
—The love for surgery that Dr. Ilijaz Pilav discovered in Srebrenica led him to undertake years of formal training, which he successfully completed in 2001. He applied for a job as a surgeon in Sarajevo and waited. Two years later it came. In the meantime, he fell in love with and married a woman from Sarajevo. They have two young children. Ilijaz helped found a humanitarian organization, “Drina,” which provided computer training and English language courses for Srebrenica survivors. As for Ilijaz’s patients: The drummer whose arm he helped amputate in 1992 disappeared after helping drive Srebrenica’s patients to safety on July 11, 1995. The patient he miraculously saved after the helicopter crash by performing a brain craniotomy recovered well from his injury. When Srebrenica fell, he took to the woods and is credited with saving the lives of several dozen men. The school teacher whose surgery brought Ilijaz to the point of fainting on July 7, 1995, survived the fall of Srebrenica. Ilijaz’s protective older brother, Hamid, who went to Potočari with his family, never arrived in Tuzla. Years later, his body was recovered and then identified through DNA matching. Ilijaz and his family buried Hamid at the first mass funeral for Srebrenica victims, held in April 2003 at a cemetery and memorial built across the road from the former Dutchbat compound in Potocari.
In July 2004, Ilijaz said that he was finally feeling optimistic about his future. In the years after the war, he had struggled with depression and pessimism over his, his family’s, and his country’s uncertain future. In those years, he was often startled awake by nightmares of the minefield and its victims who begged for help.
“The war ended a long time ago,” he wrote in a letter to me in November 2002, “but I still carry it in me; I live with all the consequences it brought and I live through it again and again. The war ended, but time hasn’t made the pain go away; it hasn’t even lessened it. The war is over but its effects live on, persisting and accumulating and growing ever stronger.”
PHOTOGRAPHS
The town of Srebrenica lies in a valley.
The Srebrenica hospital, the clinic, and the building used by Doctors Without Borders during the war.
The main road leading north from Srebrenica toward Potočari and Bratunac.
General Philippe Morillon atop armored personnel carrier in front of Srebrenica Hospital, March 1993.
Dr. Eric Dachy of Doctors Without Borders on a visit to Vukovar, December 1991.
In the pharmacy, filled with new donations. From left to right: hospital director Dr. Avdo Hasanović, Belgian MSF surgeon Dr. Thierry Pontus, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav, Dr. Fatima Dautbašić, and head nurse Zilha Abdurahmanović.
First attempted helicopter medical evacuation from Srebrenica, March 24, 1993.
A young child mortally injured in the shelling of the helicopter landing ground on March 24, 1993, wrapped in gold foil for warmth and held in the arms of a nurse, awaiting an evacuation helicopter.
In the Srebrenica hospital “emergency room,” an exhausted Dr. Fatima Dautbašić (in profile, right) and other medical workers treat five girls injured in a grenade attack while playing outside, April 2, 1993.
Srebrenica was flooded with displaced villagers who camped outdoors in early April 1993.
Srebrenica’s amputees march through town, demanding to be included in evacuations of the wounded, April 1993.
Local soldiers shoot into the air to prevent thousands of civilians from filling empty UN trucks and leaving Srebrenica with a departing aid convoy, April 1993.
Injured patients lie on the floor and benches of the Srebrenica Hospital lobby in the wake of the Easter Monday shelling attack, April 12, 1993.
Dr. Nedret Mujkanović after returning to Tuzla from Srebrenica, April 1993.
Because of a severe paper shortage, doctors wrote prescriptions on old medical records and other scraps of paper that could be found around the hospital.
In the Srebrenica hospital operating theater, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav (right foreground) learns to perform surgery under the tutelage of Russian MSF surgeon Dr. Sergei Zotikov (far right), with assistance from instrument nurse Jusuf Sulejmanović (far left) and Lithuanian MSF anesthesiologist Dr. Andrei Slavuckij, September 1993.
MSF party with hospital staff at the hotel Domavija in the summer of 1994. Front row, from left to right: Dr. Ejub Alić, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav, Naim Salkić (leaning forward), Dr. Fatima Dautbašić, Aida Hasanovic, Samira Hodžić. Back row, from left to right: Eldina Selimovic, unidentified MSF worker, Jusuf Sulejmanović, Abaz Tabaković, Besima Sulejmanović, unidentified MSF worker, Ajka Avdić, Nijaz Salkić (the “Professor”).
The “Ljiljanijade” sports competition at the Srebrenica school playground, organized in 1994. Dr. Ilijaz Pilav (center, in uniform) marches between Srebrenica military leaders Smajo Mandžić and Safet Omerović to raise the flag over the opening day ceremony.
Bosnian Serb army physician Boro Lazić greets his daughter, Dunja, as he arrives home from offensives on Srebrenica and Žepa, late July 1995.
NOTES
This narrative account was reconstructed from hundreds of hours of interviews with doctors, nurses, patients, and others involved in the events, and informed by visits to the region and the use of existing videotapes, photographs, hospital records, and diaries as well as books, maps, temperature records, testimony at war crimes trials, and documents produced by militaries, humanitarian agencies, governments, and other sources listed below. Believing that work labeled nonfiction should not knowingly incorporate fiction, even to fill in details that are hard to find, I tried hard to ensure that what is printed on these pages is true. “Truth” is a charged word in any war, especially in a place like the Balkans, and people’s memories aren’t always accurate and don’t always dovetail with those of others. When significant differences arose that
could not be clarified using existing records, I tried to indicate the discrepancies in the text or in the endnotes that follow.
I wish to explain my choice to use two techniques somewhat less typical for the written genre known as narrative nonfiction. First, the use of present tense to relate events from the summer of 1992 forward: Some of the main characters spoke in the present tense when deeply immersed in telling their stories. Replicating this in the book, while trying to provide only information that was available to the characters at the times being depicted, seemed like natural ways to convey the progress of the story and an appreciation of the difficult-to-imagine situations confronting the main characters.
Secondly, inclusion of characters’ thoughts and feelings, which are nearly impossible to document: Psychologists have shown that people are often poor at divining what motivations underlie their actions. On the other hand, to not include what interviewees said was going on in their minds at the time of the events would have been to leave out valuable insight into their personalities. When thoughts or feelings were attributed to a character, that person either shared them with me in a plausible way, recorded them close to the time of the events, or expressed them to someone else, whom I then interviewed. Their presentation in italics or paraphrase, rather than in quotation marks, was meant to reflect their unsubstantiated nature.
Any errors that have wormed their way into this book are mine alone. None of those acknowledged here are responsible.
SOURCES
CHAPTER 1: FIRST DO NO HARM
Interviews
Dr. Ejub Alić, Dr. Eric Dachy, Dr. Avdo Hasanović, Dr. Fatima Klempić-Dautbašić, Hakija Meholjić, Dr. Nedret Mujkanović, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav
Published Literature
Bellamy, Ronald, and Zajtchuk, Russ (eds.) Conventional Warfare: Ballistic, Blast and Burn Injuries (used throughout this book as reference); Bosnia Country Handbook, p. 10–3; Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2002, Columbia University Press. As cited in http://www.bartleby.com/people/Lister-J.html, accessed 12/1/02; Coupland, Amputation for War Wounds, pp. 1–26; Emergency War Surgery, pp. 5, 273–279; Hoffer, The True Believer, p. 11; Médecins sans Frontières, Techniques Chirurgicales de Base, pp. 115–140; Naythons, The Face of Mercy, pp. 39–69; Orić, Srebrenica, p. 224; Silber and Little, Yugoslavia, p. 256; Zajtchuk and Grande (eds.), Anesthesia and Perioperative Care of the Combat Casualty, pp. 2–42 (excellent overview of history of military medicine).
Other Materials
Amateur videotape of this operation was made at Srebrenica Hospital, imprinted with date and time. Begins July 17, 1992, 2:50 P.M., video recorder was reportedly powered by a car battery. Another videotape, taken by Dr. Ejub Alić (date unknown), depicts the line of burnt houses and is narrated with the names of their pre-war owners.
Notes
Based on the name given on the videotape, the patient whose surgery is described in this chapter was first treated by Dr. Fatima Klempić-Dautbašić in an area near the village of Sase. She reports that he later died of his wounds. However, his death is listed in Orić, Srebrenica, as having taken place July 14, 1992, three days before the video imprint. This was most likely the date of his injury, not death.
CHAPTER 2: ERIC
Interviews
Françoise Bouchet-Saulnier, Dr. Eric Dachy, Senator Alain Destexhe (Belguim), Glenn Hodgson, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Dr. Jean-Pierre Luxen, Martin Zogg
Published Literature
Aeberhard, “A Historical Survey of Humanitarian Action,” pp. 30–45; Agence France-Presse October 25, 1991 (“Truce in battle for Dubrovnik but no letup on other fronts”); Associated Press, October 19, 28, 1991; Berger, The Humanitarian Diplomacy of the ICRC and the Conflict in Croatia, pp. 22, 66; Bouchet-Saulnier, The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law, pp. 359–360; Brauman, “When Suffering Makes a Good Story,” pp. 153–154; Council of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, “Guiding Principles on the Right to Humanitarian Assistance,” pp. 519–525; d’Atorg, Bernard (writing in Espirit); Destexhe, “From Solferino to Sarajevo,” pp. 46–59; Eknes, “Blue Helmets in a Blown Mission?”; Groenewold, World in Crisis, p. xxi; Hermet, “Humanitarian Aid Versus Politics,” p. 110; Holbrooke, To End a War, pp. 27–28, 32; Le Soir, December 21–22, 1991 (p. 2, interview with Dr. Vesna Bosanac; Van Velthem, Edouard, “Sur le siège de Vukovar et la guerre en Croatie: Dr. Vesna Bosanac”); Jelavic, History of the Balkans, pp. 267–269 (history of “Chetnik,” Tito), 295–297 (creation of Yugoslavia after World War II); Malcolm, Bosnia, pp. 229–230; Moreillon, “The Promotion of Peace and Humanity in the Twenty-First Century,” pp. 595–610; Pollack, The Threatening Storm, p. 51; Rieff, “The Humanitarian Trap,” p. 3; Russbach, “Humanitarian Action in Current Armed Conflicts”; Sandoz, “‘Droit’ or ‘devoir d’ingérence’ and the right to assistance,” pp. 215–227; Silber and Little, Yugoslavia, pp. 58–69 (rise of Slobodan Milošević), 204 (deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Croatia); UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees: In Search of Solutions, pp. 117–118; UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees: The Challenge of Protection, pp. 84–85, p. 182; Vincent, “The French Doctors’ Movement and Beyond,” pp. 25–29.
Documents
Belgrade Tourist Map, Tourist information Center; Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, June 8, 1977; UN Doc. S/RES/688(1991), April 5, 1991 (the text of UN Security Council Resolution 688). UN Doc. S/RES/743(1992), February 21, 1992 (text of UN Security Council Resolution 743 establishing UNPROFOR). Information on Kalemegdan fortress from http://copernico.dm.unipi.it/~milani/belgrado/node7.html accessed 1/20/03, and an example of Kalemegdan’s continuing influence can be found in Radovan Karadžić’s poem, “Kalemegdan,” an English translation of which is in Post and DeKleva, “The Odyssey of Dr. Radovan Karadžić”; Eric Dachy’s unpublished chronicle of his experiences in the former Yugoslavia; International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Case IT-95-13a-I, amended indictment December 2, 1997, “The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Mile Mrkšić, Miroslav Radić, Veselin šljivančanin, Slavko Dokmanović.” Information on the history of the ICRC in Biafra and in Vukovar, Croatia, from the International Committee of the Red Cross’s yearly reports 1967–1971; 1991–1992. The information on Eric Dachy’s activities in late 1991/early 1992 is taken from “Ex-Yugoslavia, Summary of MSF activities,” a seven-page fax document about the activity of the Belgrade and Zagreb offices on letterhead of the MSF international office in Brussels, Belgium. “The Referendum on Independence in Bosnia-Hercegovina, February 29–March 1, 1992,” a report by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1992.
Other Materials
Visnews, Vukovar rushes (videotape footage), November 20, 1991
Notes
PAGE 13 Although some came to consider… Vincent, Anne. “The ‘French Doctors’ Movement and Beyond.” Health and Human Rights. Vol. 2, No. 1. 1996, pp. 25–29.
PAGE 13 “The age of the ‘French doctors’… ” Brauman, Rony. “When Suffering Makes a Good Story.” In Life, Death and Aid: The Médecins Sans Frontières Report on World Crisis Intervention. New York: Routledge, 1993, pp. 153–154.
PAGE 18 He closed his eyes and thought of Vukovar… From Eric Dachy’s unpublished chronicle of his experiences in the former Yugoslavia.
CHAPTER 3: ILIJAZ
Interviews
Dr. Ejub Alić, Dr. Sabit Begić, Muhamed Duraković, Dr. Avdo Hasanović,
Dr. Fatima Klempić-Dautbašić, Dr. Petar Lončarević, Dr. Irfanka Pašagić,
Dr. Radomir Pavlović, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav, Ibrahim Purković
Published Literature
Anić, Sanitetska Služba u Narodno Oslobodinaćkom Ratu Jugoslavije 1941–1945; Duizings, History, Memory and Politics in Eastern Bosnia (extensive history of the Srebrenica enclave), chapters: 1 (ethno-religious geography of the region), 3 (Srebrenica and its surrounding villages
in World War II; Duizings relates stories of atrocities against Serbs in places such as Bjelovac, Podravanje, Rašića Gaj, Zalazje, and Kravica, and against Muslims in places such as Sebiočina and Srebrenica, but he also provides examples of neighbors of various ethnicities protecting one another and conveys the impression of elderly townspeople and villagers that World War II was “not as brutal and inhumane” as the conflict in the 1990s), 4 (pre-war economy and ethnic migrations), 5 (elections, provocative use of nationalist symbols), 6 (one of several sources for the story of the Muslim driving patients from the spa who was killed on April 11, 1992; an accompanying Serb staff member was released in Serbia and survived); Golemović, Narodna Muzika Podrinja, pp. 534, 587–90; Jelavic, History of the Balkans, pp. 62–273 (Yugoslavia during World War II); Kreševljaković, “Stari Bosanski Gradovi,” pp. 12–13; Magaš, Branka, The Destruction of Yugoslavia, pp. 48–73 (rise of nationalism); Malcolm, Noel, Bosnia, pp. 24–25, 249; Maletić, Mihailo, Znamenitosti i Lepote, pp. 51–52; Medecinska Encikopedija, pp. 89–90; Bosnia: Echoes from an Endangered World—Music and Chant of the Bosnian Muslims (liner notes); Treasures of Yugoslavia, pp. 273–274 (Bratunac), 321–322 (Srebrenica). Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, Srebrenica A ‘Safe’ Area (the 7600-page document is henceforth referred to as “NIOD report”), Part II/Chapter 2/Section 3 concerns the April 1992 negotiations to divide Srebrenica into Serb and Muslim parts. Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance, pp. 149–150.
