Medicine Under Siege in the Former Yugoslavia: 1991-1995

"Ethnic cleansing" and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia have affected the normal functioning of hospitals and clinics and the delivery of medical care to civilian populations. Hospitals and clinics in or near conflict zones, such as Sarajevo and Mostar, have been deliberately and often repeatedly attacked. Patients and medical staff have been shot by snipers and forcibly removed from hospital wards and summarily executed.

Since October 1992, PHR representatives have interviewed dozens of health professionals and medically examined victims of torture and other forms of abuse in Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia. PHR forensic teams have also exhumed mass graves associated with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. In addition to calling for the prosecution of these war crimes, the report calls on medical associations in the region to adhere to ethical duties and obligations set forth by the World Medical Association (WMA), and urges the WMA to develop the capacity to conduct rapid assessments at the onset of conflicts and to develop mechanisms to protest blatant violations of medical neutrality.

May 1996, 197 pages