posted on January 28, 2004 11:23:12 AM new
better make sure you know what your charities really do before you give them money
FOR SALE AGE 3
By Graham Johnson
With her big blue eyes and cute smile, four-year-old Angela would tug at the heartstrings of any parent.
But like her five-year-old brother Aco and their friend Jovanna, blonde Angela is up for SALE to anyone with enough cash to buy her.
Incredibly, the head of a British-funded charity is at the centre of this despicable trade.
The children, some as young as three, are snatched from their parents and sold for as little as £300. Some are feared to have been taken as child sex slaves. Others are put up for illegal adoptions by couples, including Britons, desperate to start a family.
These three youngsters all live at a former United Nations refugee camp in Montenegro, part of the old Yugoslavia.
Posing as child traffickers, Sunday Mirror investigators visited the camp outside Montenegro's capital of Podgorica run by Christian charity boss Sinisa Nadazdin to expose the sick trade facilitated.
He receives donations from the British-based evangelical charity Smile International and Catholic aid organisations which are unaware of his "sideline".
Nadazdin, 27, told our reporter: "A hundred kids were trafficked from this camp...any of the children you see here are up for sale... I am willing to do it because of my finances."
The camp was set up by the United Nations after the 1999 Kosovo war and now houses 5,000 refugees in three units.
We were shown children for sale - from £300 for a dark-skinned three-year-old gipsy boy to £3,000 for a blonde girl of four. Nadazdin works closely with two gipsy mafia bosses, Vlasnim and Arton Shkreli, who "harvest" the best-looking ones.
Locals say the brothers use violence to rule the camps and force families to hand over their children before fixing false papers and smuggling them overseas.
Nadazdin said: "Arton has a really bad reputation and you are not surprised about anything you hear. He said about feeding sharks with those girls."
Despite admitting he was aware that children could be sold to paedophiles, Nadazdin continued to negotiate with our investigators. "Last year there was a couple from Liverpool who wanted to buy a child," he said. "The year before, some people from Scotland. We don't have set prices. You must negotiate. The price least is 500 euros (£300) for a gipsy. The maximum is 5,000 euros (£3,000)." He took us to see two children whose pictures he had emailed to us in the UK. We found Angela and Aco playing on a cockroach-infested floor with other children. Nadazdin said: "This is the best family for you to buy a child. They are desperate." Angela was on sale for e3,500 (£2,500). Aco was available for e2,500 (£1,500). Their destitute mother cried: "Sometimes I sell myself to give them bread. I don't want to lose my children."
But she was quickly silenced by 6ft 5in Nadazdin who said: "She doesn't matter. This woman has no choice. Vlasnim wants to sell Angela. No one defies Vlasnim. Not if they want to be safe. He uses the knife."
One of the gang's henchmen then made a cut-throat gesture to the mother.
Nadazdin, director of a local evangelical Christian charity called Philia, claims British charity Smile International has given him e2500 (£2,000) to look after children at the camp. On its website Smile, run from Orpington, Kent, by Baptist minister Clive Doubleday and his wife Ruth, write about working with Podgorica Pentecostal Church and of visiting the camp to distribute aid and show a religious video.
Nadazdin told us he hopes to persuade Smile International to help him set up a day creche - which he would use as a "child supermarket". He then showed us more children for sale, including Jovanna, four, who was on offer for 1,500 euros (£900). Nadazdin said: "Take photos. Any of these children is for sale if you like. Pressure will be put on the parents to sell - lighter the skin, younger child, more you pay. Black gypsies are cheapest - no one wants them." Nadazdin told us he also arranges illegal adoptions for cash. After leaving the camp we got a call from Vlasnim's brother Arton, pressing us to wrap-up a child-buying deal. He said: "You like Angela? She is 3,500 euros. But you must pay 1,000 euros deposit to obtain documents. If that is good, we see about more business." We claimed we were also looking for young girls to work in massage parlours in the UK.
Arton said: "We have children for more delicate business than adoption. Have girls of 12, girls of 13, girls of 14 for you. There are 20 available now. They are pretty girls, all of them. Some are experienced in movies, some have been on internet sites. You will not be disappointed.
"Don't wait long. I have other people interested."
When confronted Nadazdin denied having sold children from the camp. "That is illegal," he said. "But it's the right thing if a white person is buying a child." He admitted a paedophile could buy a child, but added: "I wouldn't approve."
posted on January 28, 2004 11:59:38 AM new
Another very serious reason not to give to a charity you are not very very familiar with is if the charity is later found to be supporting an organization the government identifies as terrorist you can lose everything for having supported terrorism.
posted on February 11, 2004 01:59:43 PM newMontenegrin Court Indicts British Journalist, Associates With Harming Montenegro's Reputation
By Predrag Milic Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 11, 2004
PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - A court indicted a British journalist and four Montenegrin associates Wednesday on charges they fabricated a story on child trafficking.
Dominic Hipkins, 27, of London's Sunday Mirror, was charged in Podgorica, Montenegro's capital, along with a Montenegrin photographer, an interpreter and two assistants who helped make contacts for the story.
They were accused of fabricating the report to harm the reputation of Serbia and Montenegro, said court official Zarko Savic. They could face three years in prison if convicted.
The four Montenegrins pleaded innocent at a court hearing and were released from detention Wednesday pending trial, while the British journalist, no longer in the country, is to be tried in absentia, Savic said.
It was not clear when the trial would start.
The disputed article, published Jan. 25, claimed Roma, or Gypsy, children are being sold in Montenegro. The reporter said he posed as a Western child trafficker and was offered three small children.
Montenegrin police claim the entire report, which was carried in local media and caused a stir in Montenegro, was staged.
The Sunday Mirror said Hipkins is innocent and stood by its report.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders called for the release of the four Montenegrins and said the charges against them were "disproportionate."
