The Doctors of Srebrenica

Only 10 miles from the Serbian border, Srebrenica became a hostage in the savage ethnic war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. Bosnian Serb nationalists aimed to separate Serbs from Bosnia's other ethnic communities—Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Croats—and to eliminate the border along the Drina River separating Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs' self-proclaimed Republika Srpska. The Bosniak majority population of the Drina Valley (the population of Srebrenica itself on the eve of the war was 75 percent Bosniak) posed a major obstacle to the achievement of these objectives. When the war began in April 1992, the Bosnian Serbs embarked a campaign of forcible transfer (ethnic cleansing). The city of Srebrenica was occupied by Serb/Serbian forces. It was subsequently retaken by Bosniak resistance groups. Refugees expelled from towns and villages across the central Drina valley sought shelter in Srebrenica, swelling the population to 50,000.

Before the war, the hospital in Srebrenica had been a maternity hospital and was not equipped for surgery. The handful of doctors who had to cope with the medical needs of tens of thousands of refugees had no experience with war medicine, let alone surgery.

 For almost a year, these doctors had no medical supplies other than a small amount of local anesthesia that they found in a dental clinic and the basic surgical equipment and medical supplies that Nedret Mujkanovic had brought in his backpack. The doctors realized that in performing surgery without anesthetics, they were effectively committing torture, even though they had no other choice and were doing so with their patients’ consent. 

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The Srebrenica hospital, the clinic, and the building used by Doctors Without Borders during the war. 

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Boro Lazić with his daughter Dunja​ (July 1995)

Because of a severe pager shortage, doctors wrote prescription on old medical records and other scraps of paper that could be found around the hospital. 

The involvement of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, in the crisis in Srebrenica was initiated by Dr. Eric Dachy, head of MSF in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Dachy arranged, despite repeated opposition from the Serbs, to accompany a UN convoy to Srebrenica in March 1993. He stayed in the city for three days and then worked to establish a semi-permanent international medical presence in the city. In July 1995, as Bosnian Serb forces took over the city, the last of the rotating MSF volunteers—Daniel O'Brien, an Australian doctor, and Christina Schmitz, a German nurse—both witnessed the entire sequence of events during the Serb takeover of Srebrenica, including the deportation of women and children to Bosniak-controlled territory and the removal of men to execution sites. 

The story of the medical crisis in Srebrenica also includes Boro Lazić, a Bosnian Serb physician working in the surgical department of the hospital in Zvornik—as well as a member of the Bosnian Serb army. Lazić was one of two Serb physicians chosen in April 1993 to oversee a three-day helicopter evacuation to the Bosniak-controlled city of Tuzla of Srebrenica’s most severely wounded patients—and to ensure that none of the evacuees were “war criminals” (Bosniak combatants) trying to slip out of Srebrenica. When he arrived in Srebrenica, Lazić discovered that several of his medical school friends were working in Srebrenica: Nedret Mujkanović, Fatima Dautbašić and Sadik Ahmetović.

 That evening, Lazić, who returned to Zvornik to spend the night, crossed over into Serbia and bought fresh fruits and vegetables, coffee, chocolate, cigarettes and alcohol to bring back to Srebrenica, along with special suture for surgery on damaged liver that he stole from the hospital in Zvornik. He issued a certificate so that a former school friend could be included in the evacuation. Later, he worked with Nedret Mujkanović to propose negotiations for mutually beneficial exchanges between both sides in the Bosnian War—a proposal personally endorsed by Radovan Karadzić, the President of Republika Srpska, in a face-to-face meeting with Lazić, but never put into effect.

1992 (May) Srebrenica encircled by the Bosnian Serb Army, the beginning of a siege that would last for more than three years

1992 (5 August) Dr. Nedret Mujkanovic, a pathologist by training, arrives in Srebrenica after walking from Tuzla through Serb-held terrority. Despite his lack of surgical training, he had more experience than any of the six other doctors working in Srebrenica's 100-bed hospital.

1993 (13 March) General Philippe Morillon, who led a relief convoy into the besieged city, is appalled by the condition there, promises the people of Srebrenica, "You are now under the protection of UN forces. I will never abandon you." Dr. Eric Dachy of MSF, who accompanied the convoy, begins to establish an MSF presence in Srebrenica in June. 

1993 (16 April) UN Security Council Resolution 819, passed unanimously, establishes Srebrencia and its surroundings as a "safe area which should be free from any armed attack and any other hostile act" - the first declaration of a civilian "safe area" in history.

1993 (18 April) Beginning of a helicopter evacuation of Srebrenica’s most severely wounded patients arranged through a cease-fire agreement 

1995 (July) Srebrenica captured by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of General Ratko Mladic. Close to 8,000 males of fighting age (from age 12 to 65) who fell into Bosnian Serb hands were massacred in a series of summary executions - a massacre that court decisions have confirmed as genocide.

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(From left): Dr. IIijaz Pilay at the July 11, 2013 ceremony in Potocari commemorating the victims of the 1995 massacre; Dr. Fatima Dautbašić-Klempić; Dr. Eric Dachy; Dr. Nedret Mujkanović

Davies, Dave.  “Interview with Sheri Fink, author of War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival.” Fresh Air, 19 Aug. 2003.  http://warhospital.net/interview.htm

Fink, Sheri.  War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival.  New York: Public Affairs, 2003.

Sadović, Merdijana.  “Unsung Heroes of Srebrenica.” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, July 12, 2013.  Retrieved from:  https://iwpr.net/global-voices/unsung-heroes-srebrenica

 “War Hospital.” Book TV. C-SPAN2. National Cable Satellite Corporation, Washington, DC. 17 Oct. 2003. https://www.c-span.org/video/?178739-1/war-hospital