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Posted Sunday, April 20, 2003; 14.23 BST
When Svetlana C, a 28-year-old mother of two and former sex slave, decided to come forward with her story, she could hardly have anticipated the response. Since October last year, when Svetlana escaped her captors and went to the Montenegrin authorities, she was repeatedly interrogated for hours and torn apart by local press. During her ordeal the onetime athlete tried to kill herself, went on hunger strike and was sent to the hospital and force-fed. But her nightmare served a noble purpose: her courageous testimony thrust a needed spotlight onto the nasty world of sex trafficking, a field in which tiny Montenegro is a European leader.
Svetlana came to the former Yugoslavia four years ago, lured from her native Moldova by promises of a decent job. Instead, the sex traffickers stole her documents and possessions and locked her up, threatening to kill her if she resisted or tried to escape. Over 31/2 years, she was sold from one pimp to another until she ended up in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. One night, when the police raided the club she was forced to work in, she managed to slip away. Bruised, beaten and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she finally appeared on the doorstep of the Women's Safe House (WSH) in Podgorica. After counselors there treated her wounds — which included bite marks and cigarette burns — sheltered and comforted her, she went to the authorities with explosive allegations that judges, police officers, civil servants and government members were heavily involved in the sex slavery by accepting money or freebies from the pimps.
The police investigation soon hit an invisible wall. The Deputy State Prosecutor was arrested, along with a handful of police officers who were quickly released, pending trial. Meanwhile, Svetlana's interrogation turned more and more hostile, and details of her statement were leaked to tabloids. Western diplomats and international observers believe that the government was attempting to block the investigation from probing further because higher officials were involved. "It's highly political," said Helga Konrad, who chairs a Balkan task force on people trafficking in the International Organization for Migration (IOM). "The investigating magistrate has had the case taken away from her. I suspect [ it] won't be investigated further."
Svetlana was finally placed under the care of the IOM and shipped off to a safe house in Western Europe, where she is recovering from physical and mental wounds. Her identity and whereabouts are kept secret for security reasons. But her story has left a deep mark. "It's one thing when something is a public secret, and yet another when it comes into the open," says Ljiljana Raicevic from the WSH, who was the first to talk to Svetlana after her escape from the pimps. "Thanks to this brave woman, the politicians and the judiciary are finally forced to deal with the issue."
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Playing to the Crowd [May 06, 2002]
Britain's latest comedy, Bend It Like Beckham, is scoring big in cinemas across the U.K.. TIME's Jumana Farouky spoke with director Gurinder Chadha about family, football and the perfect aloo gobi.
A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing [Nov. 18, 2002]
Journalist Mazher Mahmood went undercover to break up the Posh Spice kidnapping
Mend It Like Beckham [April 22, 2002]
A fractured bone in David Beckham's foot puts his — and England's — World Cup ambitions at risk
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