DID THE WAR CRIMINAL’S TRAINING IN PSYCHIATRYINFLUENCE HIS GENOCIDAL PRACTICES?

AWARD-WINNING WRITERSDr Ruairi HanleyDr Juliet BressanDr Simon Mills

INSIDE THEMIND OFDr Radovan Karadzic

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The arrest of fugitive psychiatrist andgenocidal leader Dr RadovanKaradzic in Belgrade in July 2008

proved, if nothing else, that the Balkan tradition of extremism, grandiosity andabsurd gestures still thrived. Workingopenly as an alternative practitioner guruunder the teasingly alliterative title of DrDragan David Dabiç, Karadzic promoted aweird theory of bioenergetics. His familiarjut-jawed face obscured by a dense beard,hair bound in a pony tail, looking like nothing less than an aging hippy running amarket stall selling dope paraphernalia, heorganised group meetings and spoke on alocal radio station. Showing that old habitsdie hard, he had a close association with anattractive divorcée who coyly denied anyinvolvement and promptly became amedia celebrity.

Karadzic’s arrest after nine years on therun was no accident. Serbian authoritiescould have picked him up years ago, but itrequired a change of government commit-ted to joining the EU to send over a fewpolicemen to snatch him off a suburbanbus. At the police station, Karadzic request-ed to be shorn and from the hairy chrysalisemerged the familiar blustering figure who

harangued reporters about protecting fel-low Serbs from Turks (Muslims) whileshelling the hapless burgers of his hometown Sarajevo. Blog sites described it asKaradzic’s bad hair day.

Promptly shunted off to a cell at TheHague to face charges of crimes againsthumanity, Karadzic commenced with thepredictable set piece that he did not recog-nise the jurisdiction of the court, was a vic-tim of an international conspiracy and, inany event, had been promised an exemp-tion from prosecution by the Americans.Having learned their lessons from theMilosevic trial, the court simply ignoredhis Giuoco Piano gambit, no doubt theirRuy Lopez will be produced before long.

The unveiling of Karadzic redividus set offa frenzy of speculation, exhuming traumat-ic memories on which the dust has scarcelystarted to settle – as if it ever will for his vic-tims. The media had some enjoyment withthe idea of the former President of theRepublika Srpska living in reduced circum-stances in a Belgrade backwater, but thereal questions remain unanswered: whatled Karadzic, who, in addition to practisingpsychiatry, was poet, troubadour, soccercoach, chicken farmer, businessman, ecolo-

gist and petty criminal, to run an horren-dous genocide; why did Karadzic make psychiatry his chosen profession; and whateffect did his training in psychiatry have onhis genocidal practices?

To explore these issues, it is necessary to delve into the turbulent history of theBalkans. Radovan Karadzic was born on 19June 1945 in a mountain village calledPetnjica, which is in the Savnik district ofMontenegro. His father Vuk Karadzic isdescribed as a vagrant with a history ofincest and theft. During World War II hejoined the Chetniks, Serb partisans whofought against both Nazi occupiers andTito’s communists. He was sentenced todeath, but this sentence was commuted afterthe war and he was jailed until Karadzicwas eleven. Many of the extended Karadzicfamily were killed by the Ustashe, Croatianpartisans, a legacy that must have beenhard for him to ignore when growing up.

At 15, Karadzic moved to Sarajevo, mix-ing comfortably with Serbian, Croat andMuslim neighbours. He seems to have beenpopular, if not endearing; neighbours gavehim free haircuts, baklava and shoe repairs.His striking looks – he was over 1.8m tallwith a Byronic shock of hair – attracted

Dr Robert Kaplan examines the life, career and motives of psychiatrycolleague Dr Radovan Karadzic, the alleged author of Bosniangenocide who is currently standing trial at The Hague for a series ofwar crimes, including the murder of 7,500 Muslims in Srebrenica

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Inside the mindof a monster

We warned what would happen in the event of demands for an independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland would be like a holiday camp compared to Bosnia.

Radovan Karadzic

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attention, and he became a serial seducer.Karadzic studied medicine at the Universityof Sarajevo, receiving his degree in 1971and going on to qualify in psychiatry. Hejoined and left the Communist Party, thenmarried Ljiljana Zelen, a psychiatrist froman upper class Sarajevo family. Clearly hewas on the path to upward social mobility.

From his student days, Karadzic wrotechildren’s stories and Serbian folk songs,giving performances on the gusle (a one-stringed Serbian instrument) in public andon radio. Karadzic published several vol-umes of poetry and received state prizes.His work included apocalyptic and rebar-bative images of violence, such as thecharmingly titled Let’s go Down to the Townand Kill Some Scum (1971). The self-fulfillingpoem Sarajevo described the city burning ina ‘blood-soaked tide’. The local literati, how-ever, did not share Karadzic’s opinion of histalent. Writer Marko Vesovic recalled: “Wehad considered his case hopeless as far asliterature is concerned.” Never one to payattention to adverse reviews, Karadzic’sfourth volume (1990) “revealed an obses-sion with blood and violence”, the shiningexample being The Morning Hand-Grenade.

Karadzic the psychiatrist worked atKosovo Hospital in Sarajevo. He was super-vised in psychotherapy, studied neuroticdisorders and depression in Denmark andhad Tavistock Group Therapy training. Inthe mid-1970s, Karadzic went to study poetryand psychotherapy at Columbia Universityfor a year – although there is no record ofhis enrolment. It was rumoured that KOS(the Counterintelligence Agency of the former Yugoslavia) had sponsored him.

Another example of Karadzic’s bound-less confidence in his own ability, despitehis complete lack of sporting experience,was his appointment as team psychiatristfor the Sarajevo and the Belgrade Red Starsoccer teams. Despite bombarding the play-ers with mass hypnosis, they failed to win.

With a preference for Scotch whisky andgambling heavily in casinos, he was alwaysseeking extra income, selling medical certificates to those who wanted state pen-sions. In 1985 he was sentenced to threeyears in prison for misappropriating a$100,000 grant to build his chicken farm innearby Pale, the ski resort town 16km fromSarajevo. Karadzic claimed he was a politi-cal prisoner and used his contacts to ensurethat he spent just eleven months in prisonbefore returning to work at the hospital.

In 1989, Karadzic became head of theSerbian Green Party, a grim irony in view of

his later despoiling of large tracts of Bosnia.In 1990, he unexpectedly emerged frompolitical obscurity as head of the SerbianDemocratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina(known as the SDS). His aggressive nation-alism and vicious anti-Muslim rhetoric sur-prised many who had regarded him asunscrupulous but apolitical until then.

You want to take Bosnia and Herzegovinadown the same highway to hell and sufferingthat Slovenia and Croatia are travelling. Do not think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and do not thinkthat you will not perhaps lead the Muslimpeople into annihilation, because the Muslimscannot defend themselves if there is war. How will you prevent everyone from being killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Dr Radovan Karadzic, demonstrating the skills

acquired from years of psychotherapy training

In 1990, the SDS proclaimed a network of‘Serb Autonomous Regions’, orchestratingthe removal of all Muslims and Croats from

Serbs’ territories. As Yugoslavia movedtoward dissolution in the following year,Karadzic warned that Bosnian Serbs wouldseek union with Serbia if Bosnia andHerzegovina declared independence.Karadzic became president of the RepublikaSrpska in Pale in 1992. An horrendous warfollowed.

Why not? It’s all strange here, nothing is normal.

Psychiatrist Dr Ferhid Mujanovic,

after the Serbians shelled Kosovo Hospital

By December 1992, Serbs had seizedapproximately 70% of Bosnia andHerzegovina. Karadzic authorized the siegeof Sarajevo, shelling the homes of his col-leagues and killing patients at the hospitalwhere he had worked until recently.

After Milosevic signed the Dayton peaceaccord on December 1995, the political tideturned and an international arrest warrantwas issued against Karadzic, who resignedin July 1996. Surrounded by heavily armed

Clockwise from left: Red Star Belgrade’sfamously nationalist supporters holdingbanners at their Markana Stadium hailingthe year 1389, when the famous battle ofKosovo between Serbia and the OttomanEmpire took place. Karadzic worked at the club as an official psychiatrist. Karadizc as soldier, and as politician.Inset: Karadizc at his arrest in July in bearded disguise. Headlines announce the capture of the former Bosnian Serbleader

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bodyguards, Karadzic ensconced himself ina remote mountain fastness in EasternBosnia, swearing he would never standtrial. After the fall of Milosevic, he wentunderground in Serbia. Despite being onthe run, he could not resist the temptation tosend Christmas greetings to admirers, publish another book of poetry and loveletters to his wife, a roman à clef that musthave amazed those who knew his usualdevotion to marital fidelity.

As a mass murderer, Karadzic must beassessed in terms of his profession. Doctorsmurder more than any other professionalgroup, the assumption being that thepower over life or death attracts them tothe field in the first place. Dr Jean-PaulMarat, the bloodthirsty intellectual behindthe French revolution, was a political serialkiller. During the 20th century, doctors haveplayed a leading role in genocide, com-mencing with the Armenian Genocide, and followed in short succession by the promi-nent role of psychiatrists in the Nazi“euthanasia” programme that led to theHolocaust and the Japanese germ warfareexperimenters.

Since the Second World War, participa-tion of psychiatrists (and psychologists) instate abuse and genocide has been some-thing of a growth industry. The growingrole of psychiatrists in human rights abusemay arise from the changing nature ofracism. Dr Mehmed Resid referred toArmenians as ‘dangerous microbes’, whomit was the duty of the doctor to destroy.Hitler, a delusional syphilophobe, wasobsessed with the idea of Jews carrying dis-ease, particularly syphilis.

After World War II, the enemy had to bedehumanised in more sophisticated waysThe concept of total warfare required newstrategies involving psychological warfare,propaganda, torture and mass terror to tar-get the civilian population. In EasternEurope, China and Cuba, dissidents andperceived enemies of the state were subject-ed to abusive ‘treatment’ in state psychi-atric hospitals. Absolute and murderouspolitical leaders include Papa Doc Duvalierof Haiti (a tropical medicine specialist), DrHastings Banda of Malawi and Dr ErnestoChe Guevara in Cuba. More recently, wehave seen the prominent role of doctors,notably paediatricians and cardiologists, inmurderous terrorist and state organisa-tions. Such noteworthies include: SouthAfrican cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson;paediatrician Dr George Habash, who washead of the Palestinian Liberation Front;

and surgeon (with training in psychology)Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, described as Osamabin Laden’s right hand man.

We do not know why Karadzic chosemedicine and psychiatry but, noting hisgrandiose view of himself, it is likely he sawthis as a way to demonstrate his superiorityto the world. As a psychiatrist, Karadzic’swork was ‘ordinary’. His colleagues wereaware of his grandiose, if unrealistic, plans;the frequent assertions that he wouldbecome a famous psychiatrist or poet wereregarded with scepticism. Patients com-plained that he was not interested in theirproblems while colleagues said that he pro-voked psychotic patients. The ease withwhich he took to selling fake medical cer-tificates and prescriptions indicates con-tempt for professional standards and lackof scruples in attaining his goals. His drink-ing, womanising, gambling and indiscrimi-nate spending is indicative of a grandioseand reckless nature with strong elements ofopportunism.

Karadzic’s trajectory from ordinary hos-pital psychiatrist to genocidal murderershows an uncanny resonance with that ofHitler. Both came from a rural backgroundto spend their early youth in multi-ethniccosmopolitan surroundings – Hitler inVienna, Karadzic in Sarajevo – over-com-pensating for their marginal origins byadopting a super-nationalistic posture. InVienna, Hitler mixed with people of allbackgrounds including Jews, his murder-ous racism only coming to the fore in 1919.In Sarajevo, Karadzic socialized withMuslims, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Croatsand Jews. His Muslim friend and colleagueDr Ceric mentioned how Karadzic sentbirthday greetings to his mother in 1990,when already promoting the ethnic cleans-ing of Bosnian Serbia.

Hitler, who failed to get into art or archi-tecture school, regarded himself as an artist.While able to qualify as a psychiatrist,Karadzic had a similar grandiose andromantic vision of himself. His ambiva-lence about finding a suitable role toexpress his abilities was pervasive; inter-spersed with ecology, chicken farming (anoccupation he shared with HeinrichHimmler), fraudulent money-makingschemes, soccer coaching and a stint in jail,he continued to work as a psychiatrist (andintended to write a book on depression)until 1992, when the war broke out and hisgenocidal career reached its apogee.

It is inevitable that questions will beraised about Karadzic’s mental state. Marko

At a time when Germany can expel tensof thousands of Jews and Russia can shiftmillions of people from one part of thecontinent to another, the shifting of a fewhundred thousand Albanians will not leadto the outbreak of a world war.Vaso Cubrilovic, Predicting the use of ethnic cleansing in the 1930s

IN 1937, SERB philosopher and nationalistVaso Cubrilovic, who had taken part in theplot to kill the Archduke Franz Ferdinand,anticipated ethnic cleansing by proposingto remove Albanians from Serbian landsby “the creation of a suitable psychosis” –that is, to drive them away by intolerableterror.

The 1992-1995 Bosnian war arose fromthe break-up of Yugoslavia. Nationalistleaders in Croatia (Tujman) and Serbia(Milosevic) were determined to expand

their territories.The multi-ethnicstate of Bosnia-Herzegovina wasthe prime goal asthe two statesmanoeuvred toredress ancient

scores and expel nationals of other ethnicgroups. Serbian President SlobodanMilosevic used the Serbian DemocraticParty of Bosnia-Herzegovina (the SDS) asproxies for his goal to create a GreaterSerbia.

The war heralded the return of thespectre of mass murder to Europe. It isestimated 250,000 people died and a million more were uprooted from theirhomes, forced to become refugees. Anew word entered the lexicon ‘ethniccleansing’, the use of brutal force toremove Muslims from territories claimedby the Serbs. Bosnian Serb forces commit-ted numerous atrocities, chiefly againstMuslims, including mass execution, rape,torture and forced removal. Concentra-tion camps, not seen in Europe since theNazis, were re-established.

THE BOSNIAN GENOCIDE

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Vesovic described him as a psychopath, ‘aman without a core’. Dr Ceric said, “He doesn’tlive in reality.” Warren Zimmerman, thelast US ambassador to Yugoslavia, regardedhim as barking mad, obsessed with vio-lence and in need of psychiatric treatment.What cannot be denied is Karadzic’s capac-ity for gross denial, at times reaching delu-sional proportions. Almost anyone whospoke to him during those times was awareof the “mechanism for the falsification ofreality” as his most distinctive quality. Hisresponse to the killing of 68 civilians by amortar shell at the Markale marketplace ischaracteristic, insisting that the corpseshad been taken from Sarajevo morgues –indicated by the presence of ice in their ears– and blown up by Muslim forces to gainthe sympathy of the world press.

Here comes the story of the Hurricane,The man the authorities came to blameFor somethin’ that he never done.Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a beenThe champion of the world.

Hurricane, (Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy)

At The Hague, Karadzic faces a trial care-fully adjusted to ensure quick convictionand deny him opportunities for grand-standing, followed by jailing, almost cer-tainly for the rest of his life. This willenhance his cult status and provide himwith yet another stage to demonstrate hisversatility to the homeland cheer squad.The circumstances will be eminently suit-able for him to portray himself as a nation-alist martyr, more volumes of execrablepoetry will surely follow, worship of hisbrave wife will escalate to the level ofMariolatry and, with the passing of time, hewill surely segue into his final character:the Balkan Nelson Mandela.

These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.

Judge Fouad Riad, reviewing the Srebrenica killings

As a result of atrocities committed duringthe Bosnian Civil War 1992–1995, Karadzic,who remains a member of the Royal Collegeof Psychiatrists, stands indicted as a sus-pected war criminal for crimes againsthumanity and genocide, the first doctor soindicted since the Nuremberg Doctors’Trial in 1946. These crimes include theindiscriminate murder of civilians, killing68 civilians in the shelling of the Markalemarketplace on 5 February 1994, the use of

248 United Nations peacekeepers as humanshields, and the murder of up to 7,500 people under UN protection at Srebrenica.

In 1993, the American PsychiatricAssociation passed a motion condemningKaradzic for “brutal and inhumane actions”.The condemnation was issued with “partic-ular offence, urgency and horror because,by membership and training, Dr Karadzicclaims membership in our profession”.

Dr Radovan Karadzic’s short reign asPresident of the Bosnian Serb Republicleaves an appalling legacy. The full extentof killing and destruction wrought by hisforces during the war will never be fullyknown. The casualties, survivors and victims of shooting, torture, rape andforced relocation, many now dispersed

around the world as refugees, will suffer forthe rest of their lives. While many aspectsof Karadzic’s personality remain deeplyenigmatic, he displayed an extraordinarydegree of reckless opportunism in whichthe instincts of an extreme gambler wereunchallenged by any restraint or fear of the consequences. His most enduring characteristics are his grandiose self-image,reckless and profligate nature, boundlessopportunism and grotesque capacity forself-deception. If nothing else, they disqualifyhim as a candidate for political theoristHannah Arendt’s “banality of evil”.

Robert M Kaplan is a forensic psychiatrist,writer and historian at the Graduate School ofMedicine, University of Wollongong, Australia

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THE ROLE OF PSYCHIATRISTS in the Bosnian War is unique. Serbian psychiatrists took aprominent role in nationalist politics, probably a reflection of the lack of an intellectualclass of any size.

The Serb Democratic Party was established in Croatia in 1990 by psychiatrist Dr JovanRaskovic. It included many doctors among its members, Karadzic being the most egre-gious example. An early protagonist of ethnic cleansing, Dr Raskovic wrote in The MadCountry that anally fixated Muslims were disposed to gather property and behave aggres-sively. In this fashion, Raskovic used psychoanalytic jargon to justify Serbian aggression,while simultaneously dehumanising the Muslim opposition. Raskovic became a publicfigure, addressing meetings and using demagoguery to stir up the crowds. He fell outwith Tudjman, the Croatian leader, and had to stand down.

A leading Belgrade psychiatrist blamed non-Serbs for the “pathological hatred for allthat is Serbian which stems from a guilt complex which is anesthetized precisely by hating”.

In 1993, Serbian psychiatrists published The Stresses of War in collaboration with government departments documenting the effects of the war on the Serbian people.The book alleged that the international media “satanised” the Serbian people, preparingthe way for genocide against them. While condemning war crimes and genocide, theauthors’ bias was evident in their discussion of the rape of non-Serb women. The num-ber of victims was greatly understated; secondly, the tendentious allegation was positedthat officers could not have ordered rapes – because no soldier can get an erection oncommand. In a ironic reversal of Dr Raskovic’s writings, the psychiatrists alleged that psychiatry was being misused to “spread hatred against the Serbian people”. TheStresses of War and Sanctions (1994) portrayed international sanctions as a prelude toSerbian genocide.

The Serbian psychiatrists, while ostensibly presenting their case in a balanced andobjective fashion, were both publicizing the Serbian case and seeking to justify ethniccleansing practices in the Bosnian War. By ignoring the aggressive role of the Serbiangovernment, Serbian psychiatrists acted as genocide apologists.

THE ROLE OF SERBIAN PSYCHIATRISTS

The business card of Karadizc’s alter ego,Dr Dragan David Dabiç under the companyname of “Human Quantum Energy”