Compulsory Medical Treatment

Alongside that, she is enforcing order on tram stations close by amongst the few passengers, especially amongst those who are standing close to the containers. Slaps in the public city transport have become a normal occurrence in Belgrade, and teams who provide help to the endangered citizens by phone are only left with the possibility to, for example, announce to the beaten up wife of an alcoholic that they can not put him into a mental institution because addicts are treated exclusively by personal will.

"Enforced hospitalization is an extremely delicate issue and in accordance with the current regulations, it is only applied to people whose mind has been seriously altered (alienation, psychosis or paranoia for example) and who, due to their illness, are endangering the lives and property of others.

It is also applied to people who are endangering their own lives. Contemporary psychiatry claims that more than 99 percent of suicide attempts are caused by motives which arise out of illness, while an insignificant number is listed under so-called altruistic dreams, heroic deaths or some self-sacrifices. "Naturally, we do not claim that we shall stop them from taking their own lives at one point or another, but we have to help them", says psychiatrist Dr. Jovan Maric, professor at the Belgrade University, for VREME.

Dr. Maric claims that Belgrade citizens aren't threatened by mentally disturbed people in the more immediate sense of the word: "Those whose conditions are most serious aren't allowed out of medical institutions, despite the difficult conditions which exist there. It is not true that those whose illnesses are grave are easily dismissed from hospitals. However, there is something else, such as the general dissatisfaction of the people and widely spread depression which goes hand in hand with aggression. Just think of the lines in front of the groceries in 1993. The government called them stoic. While those were sad lines in which sparks would easily fly as well as aggression. In certain instances people were seriously hurt. Even today people's reactions are totally unpredictable. Aggression is absolutely present. Our day clinic mainly admits young people between 30 and 35 years. They are suffering from schizophrenia, fears, phobias. Older patients suffer from depression. A few medical institutions in town are treating war veterans. It is interesting to note that in most cases it is these young men's own initiative to apply for treatment. All of that will last for a very long time. Almost four years have passed since the destruction of Vukovar, and I still have patients who cannot forget the images of mutilated bodies, demolished houses..."

The recent tragic case of the murder of a young man in Zvezdara, who was killed by another young man who didn't even know his victim, and who has, on top of that, just been released from prison, has made the citizens of Belgrade, who have become almost immune to pre-arranged hits and mob retributions, come face to face with a new fear: the loss of life without a single reason or motive. The killer was not classified as a disturbed person in prison in order to pronounce security measures, control or protection for him.

"Things such as these aren't specially regulated. For example, there is no obligation that a person who has just been released from prison, even if such a person has committed murder and it has been estimated that such a person is not mentally deranged, contacts a certain social institution at least for a while, as preventive measures. We shall try to make that a part of the new penal law, whose enactment is in progress at this moment", remarks Dr. Maric, adding a note of warning that it could introduce mistreatment in psychiatry: "Sometimes it is better for some of the murderers to, instead of a prison sentence which isn't short, receive security measures instead, complete with treatment at a prison mental institution. Hoping that the doctors will release them as cured after five years. There are a minor number of legal assessors in pre-ordered murders."

In contaminated societies, in which murders have become numbers, it is logical that only repression exists. Nobody has time for prevention and welfare issues. Citizens are usually "protected" when they can no longer be helped.

In the civilized world you can do as you please as long as you are not threatening anybody. In England, for example, the first aggressive act, even in case of a slight blow, introduces a life control of the perpetrator as a consequence. All of that, naturally, implies a state which exists for its tax paying citizens. Here we have neither defeat nor protection.

Miracle Workers: Socialists Treat Aids

by Filip Svarm

The Union of Doctors and Pharmacists of Serbia announced on September 23 charges against the Ministry of Health of Serbia "which is consciously committing a criminal act" and against the Serbian Society of Doctors "as an accomplice, since it is not taking the measures which it should". This is about "false propaganda which can bring about fatal consequences upon the health of the nation". More precisely: of the announcement of the Deputy Republic Minister of Health, Zoran Kovacevic, of September 9 that Yugoslavia is on the way to becoming the first country in the world which has found the cure against AIDS.

Kovacevic made this statement at the meeting of the Young Socialists and also added that the Institute of Nuclear Science in Vinca has also been engaged "in finding the cure". The seriousness of his statement was confirmed by the presence at the same meeting of the long-time standing socialist Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Vice President of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and member of the Presidency of the Serbian Doctors Association, who had failed to deny it in any manner in her speech. This Association failed to react to Kovacevic's claim even later, and as is stated in the Union, the medical committees of the federal and republican assemblies have not made a single statement, same as the School of Medicine. And very soon it appeared that they had reason for such an act.

"I know nothing of our drug against AIDS", said Dragan Ilic, director of the Student Polyclinic and first man of the Yugoslav Association in the Fight Against Aids, directly following the spectacular discovery of the socialists. "It is not a question of a cure for AIDS, but rather of a treatment which until now in practice has prolonged the life of those who suffer from it", explained Branko Djuric, assistant to the director of the Institute of Nuclear Science in Vinca, and stated that the Ministry of Health had approved funds for this project.

However, Kovacevic's statement was broadcasted by, besides the most important - state TV - all other TV stations in Serbia, as well as by the daily press. The interested public, those who suffer from AIDS and their families, received word from a high and authoritative official, and therefore a signal of hope that this illness does not have to be fatal due to the credit of the current government. Why change it when it is attaining such fascinating results and all that on a global level as well? Later explanations - like the above mentioned, mainly in independent media - do not amount to much without the clear denial of the authorized ministry.

"Today thousands of institutions in the world are working on the problems of AIDS and on finding the cure for it. Huge financial sums are granted them. Unfortunately, it has not brought any results so far", says, among other things, the announcement of the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists which is signed by a doctor of medical science, Radmilo Roncevic. "Why was this lie necessary to the current regime and ruling party? Prior to the forthcoming elections, people should be deceived by false pretenses that we have found something extraordinary which the whole world is searching for. If we were to become owners of such a drug, we would, in a certain manner, become the center of the world. With such a cure, we would become a greater power than if we were to have a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. Therefore, people should be duped, so as not to worry, to be patient, to support the current government, and tomorrow the whole world will kneel in front of us. This "discovery" has another purpose. The unhappy, poverty ridden, psychologically depressed and disorientated youth, a youth devoid of all prospects, should, so as to save it from exploding, at least be released

of its fear of AIDS and sex and should be directed towards free sex, devoid of fear, since the cure against AIDS is - here. While all over the civilized world, which cares for its progeny, its youth, the future of the nation, propaganda against AIDS appears on all media each day and is more important than any political, economic and other propaganda, our topsy-turvy government, without any reserves, subordinates the future of a nation to its personal interests, and all towards maintaining its positions." Dr. Vuk Stankovic, a doctor from Belgrade, evaluates Kovacevic's statement, from the standpoint of medical ethics, as a case of totally unacceptable and shameless manipulation.

"In principle", says Dr. Stambolic for VREME "only researchers have the right to speak of the results and success of their research. No one has the right to aspire towards ownership of their work, therefore, over them as well. However, the regime has introduced into our milieu an arrogant vulgarity which has become part of the image of the people in power, all in keeping with the image of Slobodan Milosevic's private government. It is inadmissible to treat researchers and people who with high hopes are waiting for any news in connection to the suffering which has overcome them in such a manner".

"Young socialists shall most likely at their future meeting continue to propagate the 'cure' against AIDS", says Dr. Roncevic for VREME. "There are still no denials which would enlighten the matter. In such a way, they are deluding young people, that is they are lessening their fear of aids, since the cure is just around the corner".