Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010809/1/1aqld.html Thursday August 9, 11:42 AM You pay for the night, she pays with her life PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Aug 9 (AFP) - Kosovo is never mentioned when they are offered a well-paid job in Italy, accompanied by legal-looking contracts for baby-sitters, cleaners and waitresses. They accept the offer, and the often dangerous journey starts for hundreds of women, some of them just girls, from their homes in eastern European countries. But it usually ends in one of 33 bars throughout the UN-administrated Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where forced prostitution has been documented by international organisations. The women come from Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania and Russia, a report prepared by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said. Between February 2000 and May this year, the IOM has registered and helped some 160 women, whose testimonies were the basis for the organisation's report on growing prostitution in Kosovo, the agency spokeswoman Tamara Osorio said. The IOM has code-named its campaign "You pay for a night, she pays with her life." In January, the UN administration of the province published new regulations banning human trafficking and providing punishment for those aware of trafficking, and even those asking for sexual services. Jail sentences from five months to 15 years were laid down. But regulations are barely enforced. >From the notorious Miami bar on the road near the northern Kosovo town of Podujevo to luxury private houses in the Suny hill residential area in the capital Pristina, the women are forced into prostitution, most of them never seeing the money they have earned. An IOM official estimated that more than 80 percent of the women "never see the money," which is paid to the pimps, with prices ranging from 100 to 500 German marks (45 to 225 dollars) -- a huge amount in a province where most of the population still relies on humanitarian assistance. Since June 1999, when Belgrade troops left the province at the end of a 78-day-long NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, Kosovo has been administrated by the United Nations while more than 40,000 NATO-led peacekeepersprovide security. The official, who has worked with the women, said they were "bought from traffickers for between 1,500 to 5,000 German marks (675 to 2,250 dollars), depending on their age, appearance or if they are virgins." Girls were usually abused during their transit, and sometimes were "bought and sold three to six times until they reach Kosovo." "Sometimes when, for example, a pander from Macedonia tries to sell the girl to a pimp in Kosovo, the price will depend on whether she has a 'good reputation' -- and whether she has a way with clients," said the official, who asked not to be named. The IOM report showed that 56 percent of the 160 women the agency has registered were aged between 18 and 24, while 69 percent had lived with their families in their home countries. And more than 86 percent of them said the reason for leaving home was "to find a better job," the report showed. "When a woman finally comes to us, she is frightened, with no passport and no money, and her medical condition is usually bad," the source said. Most of the women suffer from sexually-transmitted diseases, since they "are forced to have unprotected sex." "Some of them had up to nine clients per night," the official said. Their living conditions in Kosovo are "terrible," their testimonies showed. Often they live in the bars where they work, sleeping on chairs or sharing a sofa between three of four of them. Food is limited and they have no freedom of movement, often facing beatings and rape by their pimps, the report said. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
