Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Balkan Syndrome

More and More People Suffering from Cancer, But...

AIM Sarajevo, January 23, 2001

“Danger comes from military testing range”, “Uranium ammunition dust more dangerous than radiation”, “Death of the Sarajevan who worked for KFOR confirmed”... these are just some of the information published in the past few weeks in the newspapers, heard on TV and radio. And while in Republika Srpska catastrophic data are published on people dying of cancer, medical experts and state agencies in B&H do not deny a certain increase of the number of persons suffering from cancer especially of the stomach and lungs, but they do not link them to the "Balkan syndrome".

"Our government is exceptionally concerned by the knowledge that depleted uranium ammunition was used in Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as by the information that the illness and death of the soldiers of peace forces are in connection with their stay in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Our concern is even greater because we were not informed in any way (neither the public nor the official institutions) about the use of these missiles", these are the words of Prof. Dr. Booze Ljubic on this extremely topical issue. Dr Ljubic who is still the minister of health in B&H Government (instead of Edhem Bicakcic the Government got its new temporary prime minister - Martin Raguz), confirms that a certain increase of the number of cases of malignant diseases has been registered, but he mentions that they must be treated with caution, because the Federation, indeed like the whole of Bosnia & Herzegovina, has not the cancer register.

And the least that was expected of the minister and other official institutions after the information that, according to the data from the Pentagon, about 10,800 missiles which contained depleted uranium had fallen on B&H, was to either confirm or deny the cause-result connection of this information and the increased number of cases of malignant diseases in general, but especially of the haematopathic tissue, that is, of the blood producing organs. This is because these illnesses are linked to the effects of these missiles. The data that it is possible to get hold of indicate that in B&H Federation 2,571 persons suffered from malignant diseases in 1999, in other words that there were 10.40 sick persons among 100 thousand inhabitants. When diseases of blood producing organs are concerned which are in this context treated as especially significant, in 1999 there were 87 cases or 3.38 per cent. If only these data were taken into account, it would be impossible to establish a connection between the ailments of the population in B&H Federation and the use of ammunition with depleted uranium.

However, these data cannot be considered as relevant, because they are incomplete, as Dr. Ljubic admitted. At the same time, Dr. Zlatko Robovic, head of the Haematology Clinic of the University Clinical Centre in Sarajevo (the clinical hospital where all leukaemia and similar cases on the territory of five cantons of the Federation are treated, but often from the whole of B&H) says that in 1999 they had only 16 newly diagnosed cases o leukaemia, in the previous year 17, and in 2000 ten cases.

To what extent sources differ is illustrated by the report of the Sarajevo Canton Public Health Institute (it is claimed that these are the most reliable data since they are verified pursuant all the rules of health statistics), according to which in 1999 there were 1,457 cases of malignant neoplasm on the territory of Sarajevo Canton, and out of that number 68 were cases of malignity of the lymphatic tissue. As Dr. Fahrudin Kulenovic, director of the Institute, comments these figures are on the level of frequency of these diseases anywhere else in the world, and perhaps even lower. That is to say, director Kulenovic does not establish a connection between the cases of malignant neoplasm of the blood-producing organs and the effects of depleted uranium ammunition.

On the other hand, there is a considerable number of medical experts who claim that the effects of depleted uranium ammunition could cause certain other cases of malignant neoplasm, for example of the lungs, among persons who were in the vicinity of action with the said ammunition, so there was the possibility that they breathed in the particles which later caused severe ailments. This is corroborated by data that the cancer of the lungs is spreading (about 200 cases in 1999), so that it already ranks second by frequency of all illnesses in the Sarajevo Canton. Of course, it is still generally believed that the cancer of the lungs and breathing organs is the most frequent malignant disease here and in the world, especially among men, and that it is directly linked to smoking cigarettes.

The number of women suffering from breast cancer is also increasing. In 1999 there were 272 registered cases, the year before that 283, and in 1997 there were 268, and in 1996, 139 cases. Although breast cancer among women is the leading malignant disease in the world, in some cases a connection can be established with the effects of uranium. When speaking of the mentioned data, experts are cautious, because they were obtained in a special campaign of early detection of malignant diseases among women, which was not carried out in the past, especially during the war years. In Sarajevo Canton, the number of malignant diseases of digestive organs has increased, which is directly linked to the effects of the war. Not to that of depleted uranium, but to the fact that Sarajevo has lived under siege for three and a half years. There was not just the food shortage, but the doubts about the quality of food distributed as humanitarian aid – the notorious cans that even the starving dogs in deserted Sarajevo streets would not eat – are proving to be true in their worst possible version. The people were forced to eat what was arriving as humanitarian aid from various parts of the world which was mostly neither analysed nor checked. The people looked with disbelief at the dates of manufacture from the distant 1965, for instance, and ate guided by the rule: either die of hunger now or hope that you will not fall ill some day.

Prof. Dr. Mehmed Gribajcevic, head of the Clinic for Gastroenthrology, states data according to which an increase is also registered of the number of persons suffering from malignant diseases of the digestive organs. In 1990, 80 patients were treated for malignant diseases at the Clinic headed by Prof. Gribajcevic; in 1991 there were 89, and in 1997 there were 108, a year later 122 of them; in 1999, 159 and in 2000 187 patients. These diseases are more frequent than cancer of the breathing organs. Professor Gribajcevic stresses the increase of the number of patients suffering from primary cancer of the liver, which physicians have not encountered in earlier years. But as it could be assumed, nobody in this country investigated to what extent the food people ate during the war affected their health and what harmful consequences it left. Officials and experts have just started to talk about it now.

According to the data of the Public Health Institute for the territory of the Sarajevo Canton, malignant neoplasm of the mouth cavity, the pharynx and the digestive organs together with the cancer of the stomach ranked the first with 254 cases in 1996, 301 a year later and 223 in the year 2000. All these are incomplete, the so-called raw data. Prof. Dr. Ivan Selak, head of the Institute for Pathology and Histology of the Medical School in Sarajevo, the institution where practically every diagnosis is confirmed or denied, declared for AIM that he could not state any firm evidence on the frequency of malignant diseases. However, he stressed the cancer of the digestive organs –not a single day passes without him having to sign a diagnosis of a case of colon cancer...

Therefore, everything speaks of the number of malignant diseases of different organs increasing every day. However, the Cancer Register as a special institution does not exist in B&H which is an extremely big failure of the health service. Because both the Law on Health Protection and the Law on Health Records prescribe the obligation of introducing such a register. The fact that in the war and the post-war period health workers devoted more attention to medical treatment than to health statistics is no pretext. That is why it is nowadays impossible to find a competent interlocutor who would confirm or deny what is written about the Balkan syndrome. Indeed, the impression is that it would rather be denied than confirmed. Even Atif Dudakovic, commander of the Army of the Federation, is doing it claiming that “NATO did not use depleted uranium ammunition in the Una-Sana Canton”. He is joined in “pacification” on the same page of Dnevni avaz daily of January 13 by Dr. Zlatko Robovic who says that he has not provided the data that a considerable number of patients suffering from acute leukaemia at his clinic in Sarajevo had arrived from Bihac. “Maybe these data have arrived from the Oncology Department”, says Dr. Robovic. There are even “black-humour” versions of defence, so even reactions such as the following are published: “Who cares about uranium, let them give us electricity and water”, say the people returning to villages at the foot of mount Ozren near Doboj which were bombed by NATO in 1995. The information published in Germany that 300 Serbs in Hadzici (Sarajevo Canton) died of cancer due to radiation is denied by a specialist of social medicine in the Canton, as stated by Oslobodjenje daily: “In Kasindol hospital there is not a single service that could offer valid findings on the illness of these people” (?!)

Instead to immediately investigate what possibly exists, according to some old habit in B&H it is hushed up. According to the words of Prof. Dr. Lejla Saracevic, head of the Department for Radioactivity Control and Environment Protection of the Institute for Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo, which did research even for the former Yugoslav People's Army, nobody even thought about them. Nobody even thought of entrusting them with the job of investigating data in order to really prove whether radiation is really increased in any region of B&H.

If there has been any deviations – increased radiation, it would certainly have been felt. And it would not have been felt only in RS, that is, in Pale which is just 12 kilometres from Sarajevo, and not in the city! By the way, it was Prof. Saracevic who had proved that the death of 17 persons suffering from cancer in Sarajevo was the result of the Chernobyl catastrophe. And Chernobyl is thousands of kilometres away from Sarajevo.

Amina AHMETASEVIC

(AIM Sarajevo)