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Copyright 2002 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
MAIL ON SUNDAY
February 3, 2002
HEADLINE: ELLIE, 20, WAS RAPED BY 300 MEN IN KOSOVO AFTER BEING
KIDNAPPED. SHE IS ONE OF COUNTLESS VICTIMS, SOME AS YOUNG AS 13, OF A
GROTESQUE 21ST CENTURY TRADE IN SEX SLAVES.
HER TORMENTORS? PEACEKEEPERS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS...
BY: BOB GRAHAM
SHE will never know the names of the hundreds of men who raped her.
As
Ellie Milutinovic lay on her back she closed her eyes and tried to
shut her mind to the savage reality of her ordeal - for her rapists
were the men who had been sent on a humanitarian mission in the name
of Britain, America, Europe and the rest of the civilised world.
Each time Ellie, a trainee nurse, from Belgrade, was forced to have
sex with another 'client' she saw the uniforms and the emblems of the
United Nations and K-FOR soldiers.
The men - of many nationalities - can have had no doubt that they
were
raping this 20-year-old girl who wanted to be a children's nurse.
To those who could speak English she made it clear: 'I am being held
as a prisoner.' Others, unable to understand or unwilling to hear her
desperate pleas, saw only the tears as they had their way with her.
The men each paid 100 Deutschmarks (about GBP 30) to have sex with
Ellie, although she received none of it. Each time she was forced to
submit to one of the K-FOR soldiers or contract work-ers, or one of
the UN police officers, it was against her wishes.
Ellie - and countless hundreds of other young women, some as young as
13 - are part of the shocking 21st Century white slave trade that has
forced them into prostitution in Kosovo.
The UN humanitarian effort to restore peace and freedom to the area -
after Nato's bombing campaign ended in June 1999 - is being
undermined
by the collective turning of blind eyes to the extent of this vile
human trade.
Ellie, the daughter of a professional footballer, was kidnapped 18
months ago and raped over a period of nine months before escaping
last
March to a British-controlled zone.
Her life was then threatened as she was due to give evidence in court
in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, against the men who had kidnapped
and abused her.
She was provided with round-the-clock security and worked as a UN
interpreter for the British. When the case ended, she was given a new
life in the West as part of an unofficial witness protection
programme.
In Britain she received help in piecing together her shattered life
and now has a new identity. She plans to settle in a small town in
southern Germany and pick up her studies as a nurse.
Ellie, her voice still quivering, remembers every detail of the
humiliation: 'Each day the nightmare of what happened comes into my
head. Even when I'm here, in this safe little community, I close my
eyes and see the faces of the men.
'I know I must be very careful because there are people out there who
are looking for me.
'My suffering will always be with me. Here, I am isolated. I will
always be running away.'
In Kosovo the majority of the sex trade involves women, like Ellie,
who have been kidnapped or duped by the promise of a better job, then
sold into a life of sexual slavery.
The girls are mainly from poverty-ridden former Communist states such
as Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The pimps are
part of a giant web of organised crime gangs.
Although the UN administration enacted new laws to prohibit
trafficking of women in January, the reality is there have been few
prosecutions and those that have taken place have been tainted by
accusations of corruption.
Inside the sleazy bars and nightclubs that have sprung up throughout
Kosovo in the past two years, the scene seldom changes, with the
dimmed red lights, loud music, cheap booze and the girls - often
semi-comatose from being drugged - draped over the men who have
become
known locally as 'The Internationals'.
OFFICIALLY, the UN, K-FOR and international aid agencies have
produced
lists of bars and clubs banned to the international brigade.
Kristine Brubacher, a Canadian police officer who headed the
Trafficking and Prostitution Unit set up by the UN to target the
bars,
admitted: 'The Internationals have created and contributed to the
problem because they bring in so much money to what was previously a
very poor region. Because of the money, thousands of girls are now
forced to work in prostitution.
'By the time they end up in Kosovo they will have been beaten, raped
repeatedly and imprisoned.
'Their pimp has their home address and their travel documents. They
are told that if they try to escape they will be beaten or killed and
their families back home will suffer.'
Much of the trade centres around addresses in Belgrade. There, girls
are paraded in front of potential buyers - Serbs, Albanians,
Macedonians and Montenegrin organised crime groups. Britons have been
among those invited to 'view and test the girls'.
The Trafficking and Prostitution Unit, backed up by armed Military
Police, frequently raid the banned bars. However, on several raids on
which I accompanied them, K-FOR personnel found in them were given a
quiet lecture and told to leave.
In a staggering double standard, the focus of attention is on
prosecuting bar owners and the girls.
Only on rare occasions are the details of The Internationals
revealed.
Last year, a senior British Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew
Buxton, a married 43-year-old father of two, was caught in a grubby
brothel which police intelligence files showed included girls who had
been trafficked.
Buxton, a liaison officer with the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of
Fusiliers, was immediately relieved of his duties in Kosovo and
returned to the UK.
A spokesman for the Army refused to disclose what action had been
taken against Buxton.
In Kosovo, where K-FOR has 39 countries supplying more than 44,000
soldiers - nearly ten per cent of them from Britain - guidelines on
'brothels and prostitution' have been issued to all contributing
countries. Additionally, there are 7,000-plus UN staff as well as
workers with more than 260 western aid agencies.
K-FOR spokesman Squadron Leader Roy Brown said: 'Any involvement of
K-FOR personnel with the victims of trafficking or prostitution that
is brought to our attention, will be thoroughly investigated.'
However, the publicly stated policy is not matched by performance. I
have seen state-ments taken from girls rescued from brothels which
indicate how they have been forcibly taken into K-FOR camps.
The statements point to widespread abuse of trafficked women by K-FOR
soldiers - particularly the 3,000-plus Russian K-FOR troops -
including occasions when girls were imprisoned inside the Russian
camp. Despite the K-FOR edict, Russian camps have not been searched,
nor have Russian soldiers been questioned about the accusations.
The reason for the lack of intervention is because it is 'politically
too sensitive' to do so.
But Ellie Milutinovic's case highlighted the extent of the K-FOR
abuse. After being kidnapped in a street near her Belgrade home,
Ellie
emerged from her drug-induced sleep and was raped before being told
she had been sold to a bar owner for 4,000 Deutschmarks (GBP 1,250)
to
work as a prostitute. If she refused, she was told, she would be
killed.
'We were taken to a place near Devic Skenderaj, to the Russian
military camp there.
'Two Russian soldiers came into a tent and told us to take off our
clothes. They had sex with us, then we were forced to have sex with
lots of soldiers. Twenty had sex with me.
'I could not believe what was happening to me, my mind had stopped
working. I could not eat or drink. I thought of escaping but I knew
they would kill me.
'The men were Internationals - Africans, Asians, a Pakistani who was
a
senior officer, and Russian soldiers including one who had three
stars
on his uniform. These men should be the ones helping me.
'I did not believe I could trust the police because there were police
officers who came in and had sex with us, knowing we were being held
as prisoners.'
Ellie estimates she was forced to have sex with at least 300 men
during the six weeks she was held - almost every one of them an
International. None of them, she says, was British.
When, eventually, she was rescued by a team of British police
officers, she agreed to give evidence in court against the five men
who had trafficked and abused her. It was the first case to be tried
under the new trafficking regulations in Kosovo.
But it was a case tainted by scandal with one of the accused offering
the international prosecutor, Peter Korneck, a 500,000 Deutschmark
(GBP 150,000) bribe to drop the charges. He refused it.
TWO days after the men - three Serbs and two Kosovars and all known
members of a crime gang - were found guilty and jailed for a total of
11 years, a local judge ordered their release 'pending an appeal'.
The likelihood of the five returning to court is small.
Ellie said: 'After the war I thought there would be better times.
Then
I was kidnapped and the nightmare just got worse. But the British
soldiers treated me well and with respect. It helped me build trust
again in people and in men.'
Today, Ellie still longs to return home but realises it is impossible
and is surprisingly pragmatic. 'I know it cannot be,' she says.
'Maybe
it's right I should not think of the past because when I do, it is of
the many men. I must only think of the future and try to forget.'
When, eventually, she was rescued by a team of British police
officers, she agreed to give evidence in court against the five men
who had trafficked and abused her. It was the first case to be tried
under the new trafficking regulations in Kosovo.
Copyright 2002 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
MAIL ON SUNDAY
February 3, 2002
HEADLINE: ELLIE, 20, WAS RAPED BY 300 MEN IN KOSOVO AFTER BEING
KIDNAPPED. SHE IS ONE OF COUNTLESS VICTIMS, SOME AS YOUNG AS 13, OF A
GROTESQUE 21ST CENTURY TRADE IN SEX SLAVES.
HER TORMENTORS? PEACEKEEPERS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS...
BY: BOB GRAHAM
SHE will never know the names of the hundreds of men who raped her.
As
Ellie Milutinovic lay on her back she closed her eyes and tried to
shut her mind to the savage reality of her ordeal - for her rapists
were the men who had been sent on a humanitarian mission in the name
of Britain, America, Europe and the rest of the civilised world.
Each time Ellie, a trainee nurse, from Belgrade, was forced to have
sex with another 'client' she saw the uniforms and the emblems of the
United Nations and K-FOR soldiers.
The men - of many nationalities - can have had no doubt that they
were
raping this 20-year-old girl who wanted to be a children's nurse.
To those who could speak English she made it clear: 'I am being held
as a prisoner.' Others, unable to understand or unwilling to hear her
desperate pleas, saw only the tears as they had their way with her.
The men each paid 100 Deutschmarks (about GBP 30) to have sex with
Ellie, although she received none of it. Each time she was forced to
submit to one of the K-FOR soldiers or contract work-ers, or one of
the UN police officers, it was against her wishes.
Ellie - and countless hundreds of other young women, some as young as
13 - are part of the shocking 21st Century white slave trade that has
forced them into prostitution in Kosovo.
The UN humanitarian effort to restore peace and freedom to the area -
after Nato's bombing campaign ended in June 1999 - is being
undermined
by the collective turning of blind eyes to the extent of this vile
human trade.
Ellie, the daughter of a professional footballer, was kidnapped 18
months ago and raped over a period of nine months before escaping
last
March to a British-controlled zone.
Her life was then threatened as she was due to give evidence in court
in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, against the men who had kidnapped
and abused her.
She was provided with round-the-clock security and worked as a UN
interpreter for the British. When the case ended, she was given a new
life in the West as part of an unofficial witness protection
programme.
In Britain she received help in piecing together her shattered life
and now has a new identity. She plans to settle in a small town in
southern Germany and pick up her studies as a nurse.
Ellie, her voice still quivering, remembers every detail of the
humiliation: 'Each day the nightmare of what happened comes into my
head. Even when I'm here, in this safe little community, I close my
eyes and see the faces of the men.
'I know I must be very careful because there are people out there who
are looking for me.
'My suffering will always be with me. Here, I am isolated. I will
always be running away.'
In Kosovo the majority of the sex trade involves women, like Ellie,
who have been kidnapped or duped by the promise of a better job, then
sold into a life of sexual slavery.
The girls are mainly from poverty-ridden former Communist states such
as Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The pimps are
part of a giant web of organised crime gangs.
Although the UN administration enacted new laws to prohibit
trafficking of women in January, the reality is there have been few
prosecutions and those that have taken place have been tainted by
accusations of corruption.
Inside the sleazy bars and nightclubs that have sprung up throughout
Kosovo in the past two years, the scene seldom changes, with the
dimmed red lights, loud music, cheap booze and the girls - often
semi-comatose from being drugged - draped over the men who have
become
known locally as 'The Internationals'.
OFFICIALLY, the UN, K-FOR and international aid agencies have
produced
lists of bars and clubs banned to the international brigade.
Kristine Brubacher, a Canadian police officer who headed the
Trafficking and Prostitution Unit set up by the UN to target the
bars,
admitted: 'The Internationals have created and contributed to the
problem because they bring in so much money to what was previously a
very poor region. Because of the money, thousands of girls are now
forced to work in prostitution.
'By the time they end up in Kosovo they will have been beaten, raped
repeatedly and imprisoned.
'Their pimp has their home address and their travel documents. They
are told that if they try to escape they will be beaten or killed and
their families back home will suffer.'
Much of the trade centres around addresses in Belgrade. There, girls
are paraded in front of potential buyers - Serbs, Albanians,
Macedonians and Montenegrin organised crime groups. Britons have been
among those invited to 'view and test the girls'.
The Trafficking and Prostitution Unit, backed up by armed Military
Police, frequently raid the banned bars. However, on several raids on
which I accompanied them, K-FOR personnel found in them were given a
quiet lecture and told to leave.
In a staggering double standard, the focus of attention is on
prosecuting bar owners and the girls.
Only on rare occasions are the details of The Internationals
revealed.
Last year, a senior British Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew
Buxton, a married 43-year-old father of two, was caught in a grubby
brothel which police intelligence files showed included girls who had
been trafficked.
Buxton, a liaison officer with the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of
Fusiliers, was immediately relieved of his duties in Kosovo and
returned to the UK.
A spokesman for the Army refused to disclose what action had been
taken against Buxton.
In Kosovo, where K-FOR has 39 countries supplying more than 44,000
soldiers - nearly ten per cent of them from Britain - guidelines on
'brothels and prostitution' have been issued to all contributing
countries. Additionally, there are 7,000-plus UN staff as well as
workers with more than 260 western aid agencies.
K-FOR spokesman Squadron Leader Roy Brown said: 'Any involvement of
K-FOR personnel with the victims of trafficking or prostitution that
is brought to our attention, will be thoroughly investigated.'
However, the publicly stated policy is not matched by performance. I
have seen state-ments taken from girls rescued from brothels which
indicate how they have been forcibly taken into K-FOR camps.
The statements point to widespread abuse of trafficked women by K-FOR
soldiers - particularly the 3,000-plus Russian K-FOR troops -
including occasions when girls were imprisoned inside the Russian
camp. Despite the K-FOR edict, Russian camps have not been searched,
nor have Russian soldiers been questioned about the accusations.
The reason for the lack of intervention is because it is 'politically
too sensitive' to do so.
But Ellie Milutinovic's case highlighted the extent of the K-FOR
abuse. After being kidnapped in a street near her Belgrade home,
Ellie
emerged from her drug-induced sleep and was raped before being told
she had been sold to a bar owner for 4,000 Deutschmarks (GBP 1,250)
to
work as a prostitute. If she refused, she was told, she would be
killed.
'We were taken to a place near Devic Skenderaj, to the Russian
military camp there.
'Two Russian soldiers came into a tent and told us to take off our
clothes. They had sex with us, then we were forced to have sex with
lots of soldiers. Twenty had sex with me.
'I could not believe what was happening to me, my mind had stopped
working. I could not eat or drink. I thought of escaping but I knew
they would kill me.
'The men were Internationals - Africans, Asians, a Pakistani who was
a
senior officer, and Russian soldiers including one who had three
stars
on his uniform. These men should be the ones helping me.
'I did not believe I could trust the police because there were police
officers who came in and had sex with us, knowing we were being held
as prisoners.'
Ellie estimates she was forced to have sex with at least 300 men
during the six weeks she was held - almost every one of them an
International. None of them, she says, was British.
When, eventually, she was rescued by a team of British police
officers, she agreed to give evidence in court against the five men
who had trafficked and abused her. It was the first case to be tried
under the new trafficking regulations in Kosovo.
But it was a case tainted by scandal with one of the accused offering
the international prosecutor, Peter Korneck, a 500,000 Deutschmark
(GBP 150,000) bribe to drop the charges. He refused it.
TWO days after the men - three Serbs and two Kosovars and all known
members of a crime gang - were found guilty and jailed for a total of
11 years, a local judge ordered their release 'pending an appeal'.
The likelihood of the five returning to court is small.
Ellie said: 'After the war I thought there would be better times.
Then
I was kidnapped and the nightmare just got worse. But the British
soldiers treated me well and with respect. It helped me build trust
again in people and in men.'
Today, Ellie still longs to return home but realises it is impossible
and is surprisingly pragmatic. 'I know it cannot be,' she says.
'Maybe
it's right I should not think of the past because when I do, it is of
the many men. I must only think of the future and try to forget.'
When, eventually, she was rescued by a team of British police
officers, she agreed to give evidence in court against the five men
who had trafficked and abused her. It was the first case to be tried
under the new trafficking regulations in Kosovo.