But in July last year, I suddenly found my throat had tightened. I couldn't speak. I lost 22 kilos in 18 days. If I hadn't been sent to the radiation specialists in Belgrade and been admitted to the military clinic, I would have died. Mr Simic is right about the lack of documents.
Scientific inquiry has little scope in time of war.
The semi-autonomous Serb Republic is already reporting a fivefold increase in cancers over the past five years, with Banja Luka, heavily bombed in 1995, among the worst affected. The medical authorities there say cancer cases climbed from 816 in 1999 to 1,800 in 2000. Dr Branko Dabovic, the silver-haired head of the infection department, has never seen such a rise. In the one year after, we had more herpes zosta virus cases than in the 30 years I've worked here. We treated 200 cases here and 7,800 at their homes.