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BALKANS: Images Bring the Wars Back
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Mar 10, 2009 (IPS) - The guns have been silent in the Balkans for more than ten years now, but their
images and echoes continue to torment thousands, the first study on health
among war veterans in Serbia shows.
The two-year study among 2,399 soldiers in 40 municipalities shows that 84
percent of war veterans have chronic health problems, most frequently
coronary and blood vessels diseases, and 54.1 percent have mental health
issues.
A third of veterans are fighting depression and alcoholism. The average age
of the surveyed veterans is now 45.7 years.
An estimated 400,000 Serbs participated in the 1991-95 wars in Croatia and
Bosnia and the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. Serbia has a population of 7.5
million.
"War veterans are a vulnerable section of the population," Serbian minister for
work and social affairs Rasim Ljajic told reporters. "However, they are not
socially recognised, and their needs were long neglected."
The public is deeply divided over Serb role in the wars. Many believe the wars
were fought in defence of Serbs living outside of Serbia; others say the wars
were a political mistake and a crime, and consider the veterans losers.
"Their health problems are serious and are here to stay for a long time,"
psychiatrist Zeljko Spiric, co-author of the study told IPS. Dr Spiric is from the
Military Medical Academy (VMA) that conducted the study together with the
Medical Faculty in Belgrade and the Ministry for Work and Social Affairs.
The study titled 'Health Status and Health Needs of War Veterans in Serbia'
says the veterans surveyed spent on average seven-and-a-half months on
the front. Some 52.5 percent fought in Croatia and Bosnia, 37.3 percent in
Kosovo, and 10.2 percent in more than one conflict. All of them witnessed
violent deaths, severe injuries and destruction of all kinds.
Most have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the anxiety
disorder that develops after exposure to traumatic events. It is a severe and
long emotional reaction to extreme psychological trauma.
The survey shows that 8.8 percent of war veterans still suffer from PTSD, and
that an additional 20 percent suffered from PTSD in the past.
"PTSD is a serious problem, and the study showed it was rarely treated, with
patients trying to overcome it on their own," Spiric said. "International studies
show that a third of people suffering from PTSD overcome it on their own, a
third seek treatment, while a third remains somehow stuck in it forever."
PTSD is a problem across the region. Last weekend, a war veteran in Croatia
killed four people after a family dispute over a piece of land. His friends and
relatives said he had suffered from PTSD for years.
In Bosnia, an association of Muslim war veterans from the town Tuzla recently
announced that 518 of its members had committed suicide since 1995, and
that about another 300 had attempted it. The association asked the Bosnian
public to pay more attention to PTSD and other problems of veterans.
In Bosnian capital Sarajevo a local association of war veterans has reported
that one in five of 55,000 demobilised fighters suffer from PTSD but were
unable "to find adequate help and understanding in society for their
problems."
According to the independent Centre for Non-Violent Action (CNA), about
800,000 people participated in wars in former Yugoslavia on all sides. The
population of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia is together around 16 million.
"This is a deeply traumatised region, and the veterans are not the only ones
who have suffered trauma," Nenad Vukosavljevic from the CNA told IPS.
"There were at least three million civilians on all sides (Bosniaks, Croats,
Serbs, and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo) who left their homes - some
temporarily, some for ever. Some 200,000 people were forced into one or the
other form of detention camps, and they have many problems they're trying to
overcome either on their own or with little expert help. This is a region where
a lot has to be done in order to provide peace for minds and souls of people
and bring reconciliation. And that will be a long process."
(END)
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