Book review by Dr B. Hug

Nato Crimes in Yugoslavia

Documentary Evidence

All in all, the Western media barely commented on the bombardment of Yugoslavia, an event which on the one hand violated international law and on the other hand lacked any justification. The European NATO partners and the EU willingly assisted in the appalling destruction of civilian institutions and the merciless killing of the civilian population. They destroyed the economic lifelines of the country in a systematic way. They aided the slaughter of thousands of the aged and infirm, of children, women and complete families. NATO's jet fighters showed no mercy. They did not only destroy individual lives but left behind a ruined environment, impassable bridges and whole areas contaminated with uranium. NATO member states laid mines on agricultural land. The white paper at hand - compiled at the same time as the bombardment took place - is an appalling document.

The two volumes provide evidence of the destruction of small villages, roads, factories, railway tracks as well as the bombing of refugee columns. The books are based on statements of victims who themselves experienced the cruelties, on autopsy reports and forensic inquiry. They describe how hospitals and medical centres in the countryside were destroyed. Many Yugoslavian schools were razed to the ground. From the point of view of cultural history, the bombardment of historically important buildings such as churches and monasteries, as well as treasured city centres is disastrous. In addition, farming families were killed while working in their fields. A specialized clinic for lung patients in Surdulica, which had also served as a reception centre for refugees from Croatia, was targeted by NATO bombs. The pictures show people completely disfigured and suffering from horrifying burns, the result of the unrelenting bombing. They show torn off human limbs and children's shoes lying in the uranium dust. The final report of the expert pathologist after the bombing raid on the Surdulica hospital speaks for itself. We therefore print it in full length:

That is the war led by NATO and EU member states. If someone still believed in the humanitarian cover of a war, they would understand its cruel reality better after having read both volumes and seen the great number of documentary photos.

Nato Crimes in Yugoslavia. Documentary Evidence. Ed. by the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, May/July 1999. Two volumes including a rich collection of photographs, ca. 900 pages. ISBN 86-7549-124-7/ISBN 86-7549-134-4

On 30 May 1999, at 12:05 a.m. (after midnight), the NATO aggressor bombed the hospital buildings in Surdulica. On that occasion two separate buildings were bombed, which are departments of the Specialized Clinic for Treatment of Pulmonary Diseases.

Only civilians were killed in this bombing of the hospital buildings since there were no police or military troops in them.

The NATO warplanes released 4 highly destructive missiles from the air. The bombing took place within a very short time and many people were killed.

The destructive missiles almost completely tore down several floors, burying many corpses and body parts, since the destructive explosions tore bodies into pieces. Due to the intensity of the explosions, pieces of clothes, construction material, and crushed body pieces were hurled onto the surrounding branches and the site looks horrific. One cannot grasp that the allegedly civilized western countries can commit such brutality. Unfortunately, it is a reality. The crews from many TV networks shot these dreadful scenes (French, Greek, Chinese, and others, as well as CNN).

It took three days to pull out the bodies and body parts from the debris since the strong blasts buried some of the bodies and body parts and they couldn't be pulled out in a short time. Because of this the identification took more time to complete.

The bodies that had been relatively close to the explosions have been mostly preserved and were first identified. All the available corpse identification procedures were applied. The identification of body parts was postponed until all or almost all tissue is found and grouped for identification. The identification was difficult because most of the victims were asleep at the time and had no IDs on them, and because the bodies were destructed and with many wounds on the head which change one's appearance. The identification of the corpses and groups, which were marked with numbers, started with the description of the clothes. The bodies that had been pulled out from under the rubble, as well as body parts found on different locations, were marked as groups. The sex, age, description of the body, and description of the injured regions were given for the relatively preserved bodies. I made sure that all the injuries on the head, thorax, abdomen and limbs be described, and that the whole body, as well as the larger and characteristic lethal wounds, be photographed.

After the clothes had been shown to the relatives and hospital staff, and the characteristics on the bodies described, the bodies were shown. On the basis of this the identity was established and identification was finished.

The following 16 corpses have been recognized in this manner:

1. Milena Malobabi, 19 years old; pieces of the parietal bones and occipital bone are missing; the brain tissue has leaked out; fractured bones in the thoracic cavity.

2. Bosiljka Matobabi, about 45 years old; the bones on the top of the head are missing; the brain tissue is missing; the left arm is missing.

3. Djordje Pavkovi, about 60 years old; the bones on the top and sides of the cranial cavity are missing.

4. Rade Žigi, about 50 years old; the superior region of the occipital bone is missing, as well as most of the brain tissue.

5. Mila Slijepevi, about 65 years old; parts of the parietal bone are missing as well as a superior part of the occipital bone.

6. Danica Malcševi, about 65-70 years old; the whole body is present.

7. Milanka Vuckovi, about 60 years old; a part of the left femur is missing as well as the pelvic bones which form this joint.

8. Dušan Manojlovid, 70 years old; only the head was identified because it is separated from the body which hasn't been found.

9. Stana Raši, 65-67 years old; the whole body is present.

10. Bosna Miladinovi, 69 years old; the whole body is present.

11. Desanka Velikovi, 60-65 years old; the whole body is present.

12. Stamen Rangelov, about 60 years old; the whole body is present.

13. The left arm of a younger person.

14. The right forearm of a younger person.

15. The right lower leg, parts of the dura mater and brain.

16. Dragi Napijalo, 70 years old; the whole body is present.

17. Bogdanka Janjanin, 70 years old; the whole body is present.

18. Slavko Popovi, about 70 years old: the whole body is present; burns; broken spinal column.

19. Petar Budisavljevi, about 75 years old; burns; piercing wound on the head; destructed leg.

20. This group consists of destructed and torn body pieces belonging to one or several persons. The parts belong to one or more males of younger age.

21. This group contains destructed and torn body pieces of both young and elderly persons.

The corpse groups ranging from 9-12 have been pulled out from the rubble on the right side of the path leading to the building of this special hospital department.

The corpse groups ranging from 1-8 and from 16-19 have been pulled out from the building to the left of the path.

The groups marked with Nos. 13, 14, 15, 20 and 21 represent destructed and torn body parts.

Group No. 13 is an arm of a young male, who was not older than 20, completely torn.

Group No. 14 consists of a right forearm that didn't match with any of the remaining corpses.

Group No. 15 represents a destructed and torn right lower leg, as well as pieces of the dura mater and brain tissue. None of them match with the already described corpses. They all belong to elderly persons. The groups marked with Nos. 20 and 21 consist of torn and crushed soft and hard tissue belonging to 3-4 persons; two younger and two elderly.

These groups consist of hard and soft tissue which couldn't be identified using methods such as photographing, taking fingerprints, or showing them.

It was even difficult to establish the sex of these groups because the soft tissue is very torn and amorphous, there is not only no intact skeleton, but not even any intact bones. They are all torn and destructed.

There are no male or female breasts in these groups which could tell the sex of the person whose torn and destructed skin were found. The sex was established on grounds of the hairiness and appearance of the skin.

It was difficult to establish the age even in cases of intact bodies because of the pressure they were exposed to and from the concussions, which significantly change a person's appearance. The lacerations and destructions of the soft and hard tissue made the whole procedure even more difficult. In the cases with lacerated and destructed tissue, the age was determined on grounds of the bone pieces, the artery blood vessels, width of the lumen, and changes on the inferior calf. The lumen in the blood vessels of young persons is normal and the vessels are flexible, and in the elderly persons they are less flexible, with rough and yellowish inner wall surfaces. The reduced flexibility tells us that it is a vessel of an elderly person.

Among the bone pieces were pieces of the flat bones with involutive changes on them, which indicate that they belong to elderly persons. The bone length could not be used as a parameter because the bones in the groups 20 and 21 were very destructed and fractured. The cartilage boundaries also couldn't be used as a parameter in some groups. In such cases the age of a group was determined by other parameters and it was found whether a group contains bones of a person or persons younger than 20 or over.

The methods for identification of bodies and body parts have been used to establish the number of people killed in the bombing. There were difficulties in doing this, such as those mentioned in establishing the sex and age of a body, especially in cases where the soft and hard tissue were severely torn and destructed. After this the bodies and clothes were described, they were shown, and photographed both in their entire length, the major injuries and the regions with destructed soft and hard tissue within the groups 13, 14, 15, 20, and 21 were also photographed.

All the injuries are mechanical, in the form of wounds and injuries, or physical, in the form of burns.

In this destructive bombing all body parts were injured, in particular the head, thorax, pelvis and limbs, and the injuries were usually in form of lacerations, torn off tissue, and ripped off limbs.

The destructed and torn off tissue cannot be attached to other corpses nor can they be reconstructed.

Sixteen victims of the NATO bombing of the hospital have been identified, but there are three or four that cannot be identified because the explosions had been so strong that the anatomic structure of the soft and hard tissue has been completely destructed.

Dr Dragan TrajkoviSpecialist in pathology