Hospital in Mitrovica - Pulse for Multiethnic Kosovo

Pristina Dec 7, 1999

AIM Pristina, 30 November, 1999

When in the end of September, physicians, nurses and cleaning women of Serb ethnic origin from the city hospital in Mitrovica threw out their Albanian colleagues, they believed that they won an important battle in the divided city on the Ibar. Their self-confidence further increased when message arrived from Belgrade that this medical institution which is the subject of heated arguments would get as a gift modern diagnostic instruments, drugs and sanitary material. However, instead of diagnostic instruments, antibiotics and other medications, as a gift of the Ministry for Refugees of the government of Serbia, they got only used curtains, children's footwear, reinforced foil... That is how, at least in ordinary people, the feeling of victory over the Albanians in the hospital in Mitrovica started to disappear. This did not prevent local leaders to add an even less tolerant stand to their policy. It is no secret that the Serb National Council was founded by a few physicians from this very hospital.

Immediately after arrival of peace forces to Kosovo, city hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica was considered to be a positive example of an institution where, although not in exaggerated harmony, the Serbs and the Albanians worked together. French citizen Francois Cremier was nominated to be the director, and Albanian medical staff were brought to work every day from the southern part of the city by vehicles which belong to humanitarian organisations. Similar was the case with patients. French soldiers were on duty at the gate of the hospital. The first serious incident occurred on 23 September. UNMIK stated that "a fight broke out between one Serb and one Albanian - driver of the bus". It was confirmed that KFOR had intervened in order to end the fight. "While the Serb was lightly wounded in the head and underwent a surgery, French gendarmerie arrested the Albanian who had hidden a gun under his clothes", it was written in the statement. This fight was the beginning of the end of multiethnic hospital. Five days after that, regional administrator, Sir Martin Garrod issued a new statement. In his statement for the journalists he was explicit: "These incidents culminated in everyday blockade of the road leading to the hospital which prevented the Albanian personnel to come to work. Then stirred up by Dr. Marko Jaksic, a new division occurred. It is quite clear to me that Dr. Jaksic is the architect of the division of the city", declared Garrod. The regional administrator expressed wonder and disbelief when he said: "How can someone who has signed the Hippocratic oath risk people's lives by provocations and organising demonstrations".

Dr. Marko Jaksic paid Martin Garrod back in the same coin. Immediately after this statement he wrote Garrod a long letter in which he criticised him for departure of the Serbs from southern Mitrovica and surrounding municipalities. Marko Jaksic is also the president of the Democratic Party of Serbia for Kosovo, and in the letter he enlarged and stuck on shop windows of northern Mitrovica, he wrote as follows: "The main motive of your hatred when I am concerned is that I did not wish to sign your paper on freedom of movement - only for the Albanians, but not for the Serbs... At the meeting in the hospital held because the employees protested against banishing of the Serbs from the post office, the out-patient clinic, the kindergarten and other institutions, your behavior was ugly and primitive. You threatened me with a raised forefinger, you shouted, banged your hand on the table, called me an extremist"...

In the beginning of November, UNMIK made a new plan according to which, step by step, the Albanian personnel should have returned to work. But it all remained just a dead letter. New demonstrations were organised in the hospital. Serb physicians organised half-hour strikes every day as a protest against the decision of UNMIK to re-establish a multiethnic hospital. Sir Martin Garrod reacted again. This time he suspended deputy director of the hospital, Milan Ivanovic, for thirty days. Although Serb physicians declared that they would "all go to jail" but that they would "not accept the decision", Ivanovic is still under suspension. Sir Martin Garrod was clear again:"I do not want political agitators in the hospital, but physicians whose main concern are the patients. This lesson is clear to Dr. Ivanovic".

One of the curiosities is that suspended Ivanovic is seeing patients in the premises of the Serb National Council... Director of the hospital Francois Cremier was physically attacked by a group of Serbs during demonstrations...

Although majority of patients, when they come sick to the gate of the hospital, are not interested in politics - it comes back to them like a boomerang. Upset medical workers are not always kind to the sick. The aggravating circumstance is that this facility is not regularly supplied with electricity and water, and that the telephone lines are often cut. The series of protests did not bring any progress. In Mitrovica which is burdened by divisions and politics, the city hospital is just another segment of unresolved problems. French soldiers in KFOR who are on duty at the entrance of the hospital grounds are probably surprised by numerous illnesses" and passions which accompany political rallyes. What is happening in front of them is something that majority of politically disinterested inhabitants of Mitrovica would be glad to forget.

AIM Pristina

Cvjetko UDOVICIC

</body>