Croatia and Bosnia: the imprints of war--I. Consequences

As Serbia and Kosovo emerge from yet another European war, their people's health and the region's health care, scientific research, and medical education have been seriously damaged and disrupted. There are lessons to be learned from recent Balkan wars, lessons that might help doctors, international relief organisations, and governments to do better than they have done elsewhere during the long reconstruction period that will follow this recent savage conflict. An analysis of the medical legacies of war may also raise issues for doctors worldwide to consider as part of their role in a larger public-health community. For a week in May, 1999, I travelled to Croatia and the Croat-Muslim Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina to meet doctors working in peace but next to war. In the first part of this essay, I briefly survey some of the medical consequences of the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts. In the second part, to be published in the June 26 Issue, I consider plans for and limitations to restoration, and try to identify possible opportunities for prevention of the adverse health effects of war in a newly enlarged Europe.