Serbia:Years After the War, Veterans relive Nightmares

Years After the War, Veterans Relive Nightmares
Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade 17 June 2009 By Nidzara Ahmetasevic, Merima Husejnovic, Goran Jungvirth and Zelimir Bojovic

Many ex-fighters in the Yugoslav conflict now suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Some are working together, fighting to recover their mental health and their rights.


Ivan J, aged 52, and Milan, aged 54, may well have fought each other in 1991. What they have in common is their past life in the same country and the war that brought them to the frontlines.

Today, Ivan from Croatia and Milan from Serbia have other things in common: nightmares and a syndrome known a post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD.

“The worst thing is dreaming about my friends being shattered to pieces,” Ivan explains. “At one stage everything was fine. The weather was sunny and we were playing card games… but a moment later there was shooting and explosions… and then we were carrying their shattered bodies wrapped in canvas.”

Milan’s traumas started shortly after he returned from the battlefields in Vukovar, eastern Croatia.
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