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Posted on 02/13/2003 2:09:10 PM PST by vannrox
'Sex slave' accuses Montenegro ministers
Ian Traynor in Zagreb
Thursday February 13, 2003
The Guardian
There is growing international concern that the authorities in Montenegro are covering up alleged government involvement in the brutal treatment of a Moldovan woman who told the police about the abuse of sex slaves in Montenegrin brothels.
Svetlana, 28, who has two children and is identified only by her first name, says she was questioned for up to 10 hours a day for four weeks after she complained to the police.
She is under protection and receiving medical treatment in an unnamed west European country, fearing for her life after telling the Montenegrin police that senior members of the government, judges and civil servants were complicit in the torture, rape, and abuse of herself and other east European women held as sex slaves.
All of the six people arrested as the result of her allegations, including Zoran Piperovic, the deputy chief prosecutor, have been released from custody.
Western officials and aid workers say a Montenegrin promise to pursue the investigation appears to be getting nowhere.
"We have been assured that the case will be investigated to the end," Zana Pavicevic of the International Office for Migration in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, said.
But a recent confidential report on the case by a European government organisation said: "There is reason for concern that the prosecution will be stopped."
Western embassies in Podgorica, NGOs and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been leaning on the government to take the case to court.
But the entourage of the prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, who is being investigated in Italy for alleged cigarette smuggling in the 90s, says that international organisations are fanning a scandal, and talk of an international conspiracy too discredit the government.
Svetlana's case has seriously damaged the government since it surfaced late last year.
"It's highly political," said Helga Konrad, who chairs a Balkan task force on people-trafficking.
"The investigating magistrate has had the case taken away from her. I suspect [it] won't be investigated further."
Svetlana is believed to have named about a dozen senior members of Mr Djukanovic's party as her "clients".
She says that after three years in captivity at various places in Montenegro, where she was routinely beaten, burned, drugged, and raped, and after several attempts to escape only to be returned by the police, she escaped in October and found refuge in a women's shelter in Podgorica.
She was persuaded to go to the authorities with her allegations that judges, police officers, civil servants, and government members were heavily involved in the sex slavery.
During her subsequent interrogation she tried to kill herself, went on hunger strike, and was sent to hospital and force-fed.
Her sister and mother said she was unable to walk and talk after the treatment and voiced the fear that she had been drugged, the European government report says.
She was taken to clubs, restaurants, and houses which she identified as places where she had been held, and was shown pictures of several males whom she identified as her torturers.
"She provided the police with names of traffickers and clients, among them high-ranking state officials and prominent Montenegrin businessmen," it says.
Svetlana's statement has been leaked to the press and used for mudslinging.
"The party representatives and the government figures obtain the information, then they deny it in the papers," Ms Konrad said.
"Comments, allegations, or even threats from government officials, party representatives etc are no substitute for a fair trial.
"Only a fair trial can bring the truth to light."
After the shit hits the fan they starts to sound more like Milosevic. But but they were the pro western forces in Montenegro ....
After placing the final nail in the state of Yugoslavian coffin by demanding total break with Serbia the government of Montenegro receives its prize from its masters.
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