In the summer of 1992 a young Bosnian doctor was infiltrated into Srebrenica, a desperate enclave that was besieged by Serb troops. Nedret Mujkanovic served as Srebrenica’s only surgeon, working in 19th-century conditions because the enclave had little medicine or medical equipment; he often operated by flashlight. When he returned to Tuzla the next year he was hailed as a humanitarian hero; I wrote a story about him at the time. After the war, Nedret was elected to Bosnia’s parliament (in 1998 I wrote another story that included a few paragraphs on him) but his true home was in the medical world, so he eventually returned to full-time medicine. He was a phenomenal individual. A few days ago I heard the sad news that Nedret had died in Tuzla. There will not be another man like him.
