Hard Times

The people of forsaken promises is one of the "poetical" descriptions of refugees; they however, do not have any privilege in being described thus. Looking at figures and data, the local citizens here are victims too. The annual percentage of certain illnesses and sociopathic occurrences in 1993, give some idea of the catastrophe which has hit us. Compared to 1986, a "normal" prewar year, the number of suicides has increased by 22.8% and the number of murders by 49%. Regular reports show great achievements by the police and the percentages a drop in the rate of violent crimes.

But what is even more appalling, is the death rate of the elderly in 1993, which compared to 1986 is greater by 567%. Those who couldn't believe their eyes were told that this was not a printing error. Psychologists and psychiatrists were also surprised, even though they do have a simple explanation. The death rate refers to persons over 65 who are less capable of dealing with problems, and when they get ill have no will to fight. Milan Popovic, a professor of Social Pathology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, said that the custom of killing off the old, albeit in a different form, has returned. Popovic is now a consultant with the Program for the Psycho-Social Rehabilitation of Refugees sponsored by the International Organization of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and is also President of the Ethical Committee of the Serbian Society of Doctors.

Tranquilizers (Bensedin) head the list of medicine consumed by Belgraders during 1994, to be followed by Ranisan - medicine which alleviates the pains suffered by ulcer patients, typical cases of a physical manifestation of stress. The widest tranquillizer in use is alcohol, and the liquor industry is the only one in Yugoslavia which has shown a steady growth, in spite of the anti-Serbian conspiracy and sanctions.

Our reactions to a traumatic experience generally depend on what we were like prior to the trauma, and of our capacity of dealing with the trauma either passively or actively. Child psycho-therapeutist Tamara Popovic-Stajner said that the time factor plays a very important role. "If the crisis caused by the trauma is not resolved in six weeks, it turns into a chronic traumatic experience and becomes a first degree psychiatric risk".

These six weeks ran out a long time ago, while we were still trying to guess if the war in Slovenia was a deal, an operetta, real or make-believe.

In the meantime, over three million citizens of the former Yugoslavia have become refugees, while 200,000 are dead, killed or missing, and the same number of people have become invalids. Either psychologically or physically. "The main driving force of the risk factor in psychopathology is passivity, i.e., the impossibility of the individual to do something constructive", said Tamara Popovic-Stajner.

"A person's state of spirit, is that which sociologists call a state of anomy - when normative standards of conduct or belief in society are weak or lacking, and there are no new ones or they are unacceptable - this is a state of apathy, a lack of interest in anything other than mere survival", said Milan Popovic. "The choice of standards is reduced to a minimum; the fact that the straitjacket is back in use in psychiatric institutions may seem drastic, but let's not forget that there was a period when hunger appeared on the scene.

The Yugoslav state, or rather Serbia, is fighting bitterly against all forms of international aid, even that concerning mental health. To be precise, the state is not against the aid as such, but wants to control its distribution. As time passes, we have forgotten the checking up of names on food packages sent to Sarajevo via the Adventist Church's humanitarian organization ADRA, or the real reason for the clash with the Soros foundation. In both cases the matter concerns the same thing: both organizations were helping people but not the system.

The number of bitter memories is practically limitless: one of the first specialist conferences on the specific psycho-traumas suffered by members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and members of their families was held in early October 1992 on Mt. Zlatibor by the Psychologists' Conference of Serbia, and attended by barely thirty people. The round table chairman concluded that this was because of a wish by the members of the profession to distance themselves from "unpleasant subjects".

All those with problems, and this covers practically the whole population, have been forced to live with them under the shadow of daily politics. "We" have the greatest number of refugees, "we" have the greatest death rate among babies and the old, nobody supports "us", "we" are ignored... Those in the deepest shadow are never mentioned anywhere: ordinary people. Milan Popovic believes that "aid should be given to normal people who have found themselves in an abnormal situation". Ms Popovic-Stajner's patients are children and she said: "We are witnesses to the killing of a future; the fact that this is murder out of negligence, is not a mitigating circumstance".

Aleksandar Ciric

The Rule of Alcohol and Drugs

Military practice proved long ago that alcohol is the only antidote when crouching in a muddy trench, with a cold November rain falling and shells exploding every few minutes somewhere nearby

The drunken unit commander was relaxed. Whether or not he will answer radio calls from headquarters, depends on his whims. The amount of bad liquor which has been consumed determines if the officer in charge will start swearing when his superior comes with new orders or if he will offer him a drink. Usually both happen. Then orders are greatly simplified: "everything is easy", "there are no problems", all that matters is to "fire away"...

There is a school of thought which holds that soldiers are really soldiers only when drunk. In the trench all are brothers. Before all the booze has been drunk, there are squabbles over how many days were spent on the front line, who pulled strings to get days off, whose brother is on the other side, etc. Commanding officers believe that drunk soldiers have the right attitude towards the enemy. They do not doubt that the other side consists of "shit and cowards" and doped criminals. Drunken soldiers are also brave. A 19-year-old who vomited with fear while sober, screams bravely at every explosion: "Good", "Short", "Far out".

Wounded men do not affect drunken soldiers much. Someone is saying that a Brauning bullet took off his neighbor's head while he was sitting on a transporter last month. The story results in general laughter. The medical teams are gayest. They will push a wounded man into a car and take him to hospital and then they don't have to face the shells for a few hours. Those who remain tell them not to come back without a new round of booze.

But alcohol is not omnipotent. Cleansing operations and the capturing of villages require additional sedatives, like the green Apaurin pills. Strung up dogs, butchered corpses, prisoners shot in the back of the head and similar sights destroy the nerves and produce insomnia and nightmares, when sleep finally comes. This is true of those who do the hanging, butchering and killing, and of most of the others who watch and do not find the strength to stop it. Apaurin pills are good for the long hours spent on watch, and all those days when nothing is happening. Men then have the unsoldierly habit of thinking of their families, missing children and parents, demolished houses which they cannot repair, the untilled land... It's easier with sedatives. At the hospital they give them out in unlimited quantities.

City children use grass in the war. If nothing makes sense, then a joint and a helmet can give one the illusion of Vietnam as seen by Hollywood and a bit of a Rock 'n' Roll image. To sit relaxed and cool at an observation point while listening to loud music is not a bad image. If something explodes in the vicinity, stress is under control; if somebody walks in front of the gun, it's easier to press the trigger.

Heroin or cocaine are associated with members of special units with special tasks, even though this is not the rule. These are the men who first enter a settlement and "liberate" banks, post offices, luxury cars. Their eyes are dead, they don't speak much and they don't make friends. They are never the leaders, only the executors. They don't care what the order is - to butcher or prevent butchering. Thanks to this they never suffer crises. They get their doses regularly.

And finally, there are soldiers who don't drink, swallow tranquilizers, who don't smoke grass or take dope. Who knows, perhaps they are the only normal beings in the whole war, or maybe the war is a normal state of affairs for them.