http://www.who.int/disasters/hbp/case_studies/Evaluation.htm
Transition in Eastern Slovenia (1995 - 1998) Executive Summary
As a UN humanitarian agency in former Yugoslavia from 1992, the World Health Organisation had responsibility for health monitoring, nutrition evaluation, public health interventions, support to war victims, rehabilitation of health services and provision of medical equipment and supplies. During that time strategic thinking within EHA articulated a new principle 'Health as a Bridge for Peace 'which affirmed commitment to Health for All and its Renewal.1
From November 1995 the objectives of WHO's 'health to peace' work in Croatia and occupied zones were to facilitate the reintegration of the health sector in the East Slovenia region according to the principles of the Erdut agreement and to contribute to both reconciliation and sustainable peace. During the formal transition period under the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slovenia (UNTAES), WHO chaired the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) on Health. Through the JIC, former adversaries including local Serbian leaders and the Croatian Ministry of Health were brought together to find a shared platform on improvements to the much disrupted local health system, and propose mechanisms for its absorption into the jurisdiction of Croatia.
UNTAES completed formal withdrawal from Eastern Slovenia in January 1998, and shortly afterwards WHO also left Croatia. This study seeks to evaluate the role of WHO in this period of transition and reintegration of Eastern Slovenia...... ............................
Judiciary
'All courts are now cleared of Serbs. There are no Serb judges or clerks.' For lawyers who practised outside the Croatian legal systemfrom 1991 - 1996 there is a re-registration fee of 10,000DM; this is a region of grossly high unemployment where average-to-good salaries are pegged at between 250DM and 350DM a month.
Education
It is evident that ideas of equal presentation of language and religion in primary classrooms have collapsed completely. For a start current settlement patterns deem most villages to have clear majority groups. In mixed areas returnee vengeance has been targeted on minority teachers. As per higher education, (outside the JIC remit) Croatian language exams are now a prerequisite to university entrance. Students who studied from 1991 in E.S. using Cyrillic alphabet and spoken Serbian are at an immediate disadvantage, reason in itself for some families to move across the border and look east to linguistically compatible Novi Sad or Belgrade for higher education.
Telecommunications
A OSCE survey of electrical employees for whom employment contracts were negotiated in 1996 reveals the following of the former work force:
30% have left for FRY
30% did not get Croatian documents
30 people died
24 retired
Current jobs are held generally by Croats or non-Serb minorities within openings kept for Croat returnees.
Agriculture A small NGO which had successful greenhouse projects for refugee women and expertise in market gardening was informally approached about the relevant JIC, but barred from participation by the need for permission from above. Contracts negotiated re. the state agriculture collective are in disarray, with high unemployment levels (400 workers fired in August 1998 alone). According to a lawyer at the Baranja human rights centre there is 'manipulation of dates on contracts, claiming expired or out-of-date status and non-eligibility for health insurance or benefits.'
Meanwhile, small farmers wishing to purchase segments of land from this formerly nationalised venture are met with incomplete privatisation laws, lack of procedure and/or exorbitant prices to broker informal deals.
IV. Health JIC and Activities A detailed graph on the Health JIC objectives and findings may be found in Annex C of this study. The JIC on Health was described as an 'emotional and political hot potato'. This was partly due to the national significance of atrocities at Vukovar Hospital. In public perception doctors are seen as leaders and defactopolitical leaders. The head of the Serb Executive Committee was a doctor. The exiled director of Vukovar Hospital, Dr. Bosanac was elevated to the position of deputy Minister of Health in Croatia - before returning to JIC participation in the face of Serbian opposition to her presence.
The politics of health were highly personalised, and epidemiological data became acutely sensitive in light of propaganda and ideological usage. An outbreak of trichinosis in a local market, for example, was decried as conspiracy to poison the local population by a certain ethnic group. Data about the limitations of Serb-provided health services in Eastern Slovenia, prior to UNTAES, were interpreted by local Serb providers as an attempt to undermine their efforts to act professionally and maintain services despite hardship.
Just prior to the transitional period hard line Croat leadership announced on state media that they would 'clear all Baranja schools and hospitals of Serbian scum staff.'
Nothing short of personal animosity had to be overcome at the first meetings. (At one of the first meetings a Croat health worker said that the only Serb he would talk to would be one floating in the river.) Following this, the idea of 'counterparts' and eventually co-operation was established for agreed activities.
Community-based Physical Rehabilitation
With WHO support a centre for physical rehabilitation was opened in Osijek Hospital. But the strongest indictment against attempts at joint work in community-based physical rehabilitation is the fact that to date no such provision or centre exists in either Baranja or Srijem. A veteran in need of a prosthesis or a civilian disabled through land-mine injury (40 such cases in the village of Bjelo Brdo alone) is not likely to seek treatment on what is still perceived 'the other side.' Emotional blockages and physical transportation questions loom. This is another reason why many either move back to Serbia or seek treatment at centres in Belgrade.
V. Employment Rights
Nostrification is a term used to describe the process of ratifying earlier training in order to assure employment at level equivalent to training. It is argued that the nostrification system is employed by Croatia in order to screen those trained in other countries; now including FRY and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. It should be noted that prior to 1991 all training institutions in the former Yugoslavia had essentially the same programme and their degrees were accepted in all parts of the country. In the aftermath of the conflict, however, this requirement for nostrification, for degrees and training to be recognised, was seen as a mechanism for screening out Serb health professionals. A complex set of regulations and requirements is associated with the nostrification procedures.
In particular, nostrification affects young people who were not employed before 1991 and who took their state exams or higher diplomas in FRY. It is therefore perceived as being designed as a barrier 'specifically for the Serb population.' To re qualify, an individual must apply to three state institutes (professional, legal, and insurance) and sit exams in their main subject area, Croatian language, Croatian constitution, the law on health insurance, citizenship law and entitlement, etc. Undergoing this process requires time and money (fees) investment, with no guarantee of employment at the end of it. Another incentive to leave, to seek employment where qualification is already honoured and recognised.
Eighty-nine of the 620 staff at Vukovar hospital must undertake 'nostrification' (at the end of the two year general agreement, November '98) if they are to keep or obtain future jobs.
Likewise, all staff who wished to stay were absorbed into the new system as a result of the general agreement, albeit with 'temporary' contracts, six month renewable, for E.S. resident health workers (generally Serbian or minority).
Whereas in West Slovenia, (according to a UK Embassy official) 'At Packrac Hospital qualified Serbian nurses are not employed. Under qualified Croatian nurses are used instead.'
