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Blaskovich J.
Anatomy of Deceit. An American Physician's First-hand
Encounter with the Realities of the War in Croatia.
New
York: Dunhill Publishing, Co., 1997. pp. 247, hard cover.
Price: US$24.
ISBN 0-935016-24-4
During
the last couple of years, several books on the war in former
Yugoslavia were published in the United States. However,
all those books offered only one-sided descriptions of the
war. Blaskovich's book is the first one to present the other
side of the story.
Dr Jerry
Blaskovich was born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1960, he started
studying medicine at the Zagreb University School of Medicine.
He specialized dermatology in the United States where he
also got his master's degree, but in a completely different
field - the history of Islamic art. Until 1994, he lectured
on dermatology at the University of Southern California.
He is a veteran of the Korean War and the field of his special
interest is chemical warfare. Since the beginning of the
conflict in former Yugoslavia, he visited combat zones several
times, evaluating the medical services, visiting the refugee
camps, and talking to the victims of rape. He wrote numerous
letters and articles on the war in Croatia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina, which were published in American journals and
newspapers, and he held many lectures. On the basis of his
own experience, he wrote a book "Anatomy of Deceit
- An American Physician's First Hand Encounter with the
Realities of the War in Croatia", published in the
United States in July 1997.
"Anatomy of Deceit" is divided in fourteen chapters,
and the Croatian edition has a special preface written by
Prof. Andrija Hebrang, MD, PhD, Minister of Health during
the war. It is written for an American reader - short, straightforward,
"CNN-look-a-like". However, the Croatian reader
will find it interesting, too. It shows how facts about
the war in Croatia can be stated in a simple and well-documented
way, and discloses some, previously unpublished, facts about
the work of international community.
In the
introductory chapter, "My Rude Awakening: December
15, 1991," Blaskovich remembers his first "war-time"
visit to the homeland of his parents (although the first
few paragraphs are too dramatic). Blaskovich was invited
by Foreign Press Bureu to evaluate the work of medical services
and to investigate the rumors about the use of chemical
weapons. He reviews the news on the situation on the territory
of former Yugoslavia those days, as well as the situation
in Zagreb - the first air raids, sniper fire, bombing of
the Banski dvori (Office of the President).
At the
beginning of the following chapter, "Legend-Induced
Paranoia of the Serbs and the Hits and Myths of the Croats,"
Blaskovich criticizes the lack of well-designed media promotion
of Croatia. Croatia's politicians wasted a lot of energy
retelling the Croatian history to the foreigners "from
the seventh century", instead of answering the simple
question: "What can we do?" or "What would
you like us to do?" Since the book was written for
the American audience, Blaskovich summarizes historical
facts, crucial for the understanding of events in former
Yugoslavia, as well as the development of the idea of "Greater
Serbia" from Garašanin's "Načertanije", through
murder in Parliament, up to the SANU Memorandum ("the
Serbian equivalent of Mein Kempf").
The
third chapter, "The Road to Voćin", describes
Tito's Yugoslavia with special focus on the late 1980s and
the beginning of 1990s. Blaskovich criticizes the blindness
of the international community, and especially the Bush
administration which, believing in the survival of Yugoslavia,
reacted mildly on the conflict in Slovenia and the foundation
of the Serbian Autonomous District in Croatia. One part
of this chapter is dedicated to the siege of Dubrovnik in
October 1991, when the media started asking questions on
the motivation of the Serbian military activities.
The
following two chapters, "What Happened in Voćin"
and "Post Mortems of Slaughter: The Autopsies,"
deal with the best forensically documented crime perpetrated
on the territory of former Yugoslavia. On December 13, 1991,
the members of "Beli Orlovi," Serbian para-military
troops, destroyed the eight centuries old church of Our
Lady in Voćin and massacred the civilians. The post-mortal
remains (I choose not to use the word "body")
of 58 victims were found, while the remains of many others,
including children, were missing. Blaskovich's description
of autopsies begins with the statement that "even the
toughest pathologist is on his knees when he deals with
burned victims." The summaries of the forensic reports
are given. Tomislav Martinković, Katica Martinković, Marija
Šimić, Ivan Šimić, Marija and Franjo Mataneia, and Stojan
Nenadović (a Serb!) were horrendously tortured before they
were burned alive. The only comfort is the fact that the
tragedy in Voćin was the first massacre noticed by the media,
after four dozen previous slaughters were ignored.
In chapter
6, "The Devastation of Osijek and the Smoldering Ashes
of Vukovar," Blaskovich remembers his visit to West
Slavonia. He witnessed the fight for Osijek, and the heroic
work of the staff in the Osijek General Hospital. Four fifths
of the hospital as ruined and the staff was moved to the
cellar. However, they managed to maintain the rate of secondary
wound infections below 1.7%*. Perhaps
the most tragical fact is that the Yugoslav People's Army
severely devastated the hospital during the seize of fire
(sic!) in September 1991, bombarding from the neighboring
base.
Blaskovich
reconstructs the siege of Vukovar, the turning point of
the war, on the basis of his conversations with eyewitnesses.
He describes the work in the basement of the Vukovar General
Hospital. I would like to point out two, almost unbelievable,
acts of enemy troops: artillery attacks to the central sterilization
facility (guided by the "insiders"), and the attacks
on the vehicles which were taking away the dead to the cemetery!
Part of the chapter describes forensic work on the identification
of the corpses of the wounded who were taken to the concentration
camps after the fall of Vukovar. Many of them didn't survive
the torture.
Chapter
7, "The Media Deception," deals with the role
of the media in the war in Croatia. We can learn that the
authors of numerous articles on the war in the Balkans,
published between 1990 and 1995, were "in love"
both with former Yugoslavia and everything it represented.
Press agencies used those articles as a basis for a number
of their reports published in the early 1990s. In addition,
Blaskovich describes the excellent work of Serbian propaganda
including hiring many independent public-relations companies.
For example, General Lewis MacKenzie, the highest ranking
United Nations officer on the territory of former Yugoslavia,
was donated USD 150,000 by SerbNet, the official Serbian
lobby association in the United States, during his talks
with the representatives of the United States Congress.
In the
eighth chapter, Blaskovich tries to answer the question
from his introduction: "Who committed a greater crime
- the one who actually did it or the one who ignored it?"
Trying to expose different lies published in foreign press,
Blaskovich visited many medical institutions in Croatia.
He describes his experience in working with refugees and
displaced persons. The crucial part of the chapter is the
testimony of Fadila, a woman from Brčko, about the destruction
of that Bosnian city and the massacre of civilians in Brčko
carried out by the Serbian troops.
"The Infant Democracy's First Steps" is the title
of chapter 9. Here, Blaskovich deals with the confusion
of the Croatian press in 1990 and 1991, and with the work
of the Foreign Press Bureau - "the only bright spot"
in Croatia those days. Although the Foreign Press Bureau
contributed significantly in fighting prejudices against
Croatia that were present in the media, it became the victim
of the conflict of interests of Croatia's officials. After
that, Blaskovich describes the work of Croatian associations
in the United States whose differences eventually led to
the loss of both resources and energy in the fight for domination.
Chapter
10, "Physicians, Leaders by Default", deals with
physicians and their role in the war in Croatia and Bosnia
and Herzegovina. It is very unusual that in such a short
period several physicians made it to the top of Croatia's
politics. For example: Zdenko Škrabalo, Branimir Jakšić,
Ivica Kostović, Andrija Hebrang, Mate Granić, Goran Dodig,
Juraj Njavro, Ivica Kračun, Franjo Golem … It is unbelievable
coincidence that, at the same time, some leaders in other
parts of Yugoslavia were physicians too: Milan Panić, Milan
Babić, Radovan Karadžić … Moreover, Lord David Owen is a
physician himself. But, one must agree with Blaskovich that
Owen and Karadžić must have been absent when it was time
to take the Hippocratic oath.
Chapter
11, "Conflicts of Interest", contains some facts
not so known in Croatia. Lawrence Eagleburger, former United
States Minister of Foreign Affairs, was very intimate with
Yugoslav financial circles. Lord Peter Carrington became
manager and representative of "Kissinger and Associates,"
which transferred hundreds of millions of American investments
in Yugoslavia. However, neither of them thought that their
financial interests would interfere with their ability to
make objective judgments about former Yugoslavia. Blaskovich
explains the basis of the embargo on the import of weapons
to Croatia and characterizes it as one of the most pervert
political decisions during the war in Croatia and Bosnia
and Herzegovina. He also describes the economic sanctions
against Yugoslavia imposed by the United Nations, as well
as Russia breaking the sanctions and shameless role of Russian
peace keeping forces in Croatia. One of their most profitable
actions was smuggling oil. The United Nations ignored the
smuggling, afraid that the Russians might withdraw from
the forces. While talking about the United Nations, Blaskovich
describes the slaughter of Muslims in Goražde, the center
of the UN security zone. He cites the article from the Los
Angeles Times, describing how the UN gave the Serbs UN uniforms
and vehicles. Disguised as UN soldiers, the Serbs caught
Muslims hiding in the woods after they fled from Srebrenica.
All those refugees were executed!
In the
12th chapter, "Croatia's Growing Pains," Blaskovich
analyzes the failure of the UNPROFOR mandate in Croatia
and the Z-4 Plan. He analyzes events in 1995, the military
actions "Flash" and "Storm", which brought
down the Serbian autonomous district "Krajina,"
and the importance of the failure of the siege of Bihać
as well as Croatia's involvement in the war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In introductory paragraphs, he reviews the
history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, "the small Yugoslavia."
He deals with the blindness of the Bosnian state politics
and its total unpreparedness for the conflict. Although
he is not trying to minimize the sufferings of Muslims during
the war, he explains why the Croats are the main loosers
in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also analyzes the
reasons Muslims turned against the Croats. At the end of
the chapter, all the sufferings of the people of Bosnia
are summarized in poem by Enes Kišević, "Hava's Plea".
In the
final, fourteenth chapter, "Dayton: Peace for Our Time?"
Blaskovich describes the Dayton Peace Agreement. He characterizes
the Agreement as a requiem for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
defines Serbs as the only winners. He accuses the international
community and the West for horrors committed on the territory
of former Yugoslavia.
Although
it is written for the American audience, I can recommend
"Anatomy of Deceit" to the readers from Croatia
and neighboring countries. It is simple, but interesting.
Blaskovich dissects the way politics and media can manipulate
the information. He discloses all the hypocrisy of the international
community which didn't stop the war, although it was able
to, because it was partly seduced by the ancient myths about
the Serbian military glory and partly corrupted with Serbian
money.
Ivan Krešimir
Lukić
Croatian Medical Journal
* Janoš K, Lovrić Z.
War Surgery in Osijek During the 1991/92 War in Croatia.
Croatian Medical Journal 1995; 36(2):104-107.