A surgeon writes from Belgrade

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Prof Miroslav Milicevic, Chief of Surgery at Belgrade University
Hospital, has lived through the bombing of Belgrade. These are 
extracts from a letter to a colleague in London:


Believe me that what you see in the news has nothing to do
with how really terrible things are. More than 80 per cent of the
bridges have been destroyed, most railroads and roads. Both
refineries have been destroyed, there is no gasoline at all, and we
practically do not drive cars any more. More than 300 schools and
university buildings have been damaged. More than 1 million pre-
school, school and university students do not go to school any more.
        The semester has been concluded one month ago. My daughter
has not learned to read properly in first grade and she is already in
the second grade. The whole generation will be crippled. Believe me,
I have lived through some of the most difficult days in my life, I am
tough and I do not break and will not break.


       Last Thursday was one of the worst days. My teams were on
duty again and at around 01:30 they rocketed the same building
twice again and the army headquarters only 800 metres away. The
rockets flew over our heads, the explosions were terrible.
        When we left for the casualties there was some in the air, dust,
the smell of chemicals and flames all over the place. Like in a lousy
war movie. In fifteen minutes the attack was repeated and all the
people that went into the building to look for the injured were
blasted out.
        In that one night our teams amputated three legs (two in the
same patient), one in another and one on the spot of the bombing.
Can you believe that this is happening in the main street of Belgrade
several hundred metres from the hospital? For the past few weeks I
have really aged. Then they bombed the TV station only 900 metres
from my flat. In that attack 17 people were killed and crushed.
Another leg amputation had to be done on the spot.
        A few days ago they used special carbon dust and fibre bombs
and shorted the electrical power grid so that 80 per cent of Serbia
was without electricity the entire night, part of the next day ...
 
   In Belgrade practically no one sleeps at night any more, since the
main bombings take place from 22:30 to 04:30. It is enough to hear
enemy planes fly over your cities, the cruise missiles (they fly low
and slow), to hear and feel the explosions. When planes do not fly
you still think you hear them. It is hard to stay sane.
        Imagine seeing buildings you grew up next to crumble and be
turned to dust. It is like someone is erasing a part of your life.



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                   ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608     Tel: 1-514-933 2539    
Westmount/Montreal PQ/QC         Fax: 1-514-933 6445 
Canada H3Z 2G8              e-mail:agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca 

My Personal/Professional Home Page> http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html
My NATO/Kosovo Page> http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/nato_kosovo/       
My professional/personal conclusion is the same as Pogo's - 
            We have met the enemy, and it is US 
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