From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 1/4/2007 10:21 AM
CHECHNYA: CHILDREN FOR SALE

Social taboos and economic desperation fuel child trafficking.

By Laila Baisultanova in Grozny

Ten years ago, I glimpsed the problem when I was riding in a taxi through the
village of Assinovskaya in Chechnya. I saw six children standing in a line
beside a wooden fence.  When I wondered why they were standing there, the taxi
driver answered, "To be sold."

The driver said that mothers were unable to take care of the children, so they
sold them to well-off people. "One girl has already been sold," he said. "She
was nice and beautiful with fair hair.  They bought her because she was very
small.  These ones are bigger and no one wants to buy them."

There was no way of verifying what he had to say, but evidence suggests that
after a decade of conflict and turmoil in Chechnya, the number of childless
families has risen drastically and people are ready to pay large sums to adopt a
newborn baby - and frequently to resort to illegal methods to acquire one.

The problem is compounded by the fact that Chechen society considers
illegitimate birth shameful and there is very little formal adoption. The
transactions are extremely secret and good data is hard to come by. However, the
Chechen prosecutor's office has registered cases of children having been sold or
illegally handed over to assumed adoptive parents.

On November 13 last year, prosecutors filed a case against an alleged criminal
group charged with trafficking minors. If convicted, the three accused, all
women, will face a sentence of between three and ten years in prison. They deny
the charges against them and have been released on bail awaiting trial.

The three are suspected of trying to sell a three-month-old girl for three
thousand US dollars to an operative from Chechnya's drugs control department,
which was carrying out an investigation.

Other cases of child trafficking were reported on last year, including the
detention of two women last May accused of trying to sell a newborn boy for
110,000 roubles (4,200 dollars).

The prosecutor's office declined to comment on the details of this alleged
crime, but prosecution official Adam Khambiev told IWPR about another case. He
said three women had been arrested in Grozny in May last year, the first two
accused of handing over a one-month-old girl to the latter in the city's
Hospital No. 2. Law enforcement officers found another baby in the apartment of
one of the women.

The women are to be charged with abducting a minor and could face a jail
sentence of up to 15 years.

An investigator from the prosecutor's office who has worked on this case said
that one reason the problem arose was that there is no proper orphanage in
Chechnya and unwanted babies were therefore looked after in Grozny's maternity
hospital or children's hospital.

"Officials hand over these children to medical facilities under someone's
personal responsibility," said the official. "The latter, in their turn, hand
them over to people like [the women accused of buying a baby] for further
adoption."

According to Elza Kusayeva, government inspector for the protection of the
rights of minors, both children are now being looked after by families and
awaiting adoption.

Kusayeva said that prospective parents have to go through strict procedures in
order to adopt a child. But she said her department was not getting enough
information about children who had been rejected and who were available for
adoption.

The department received ten applications for the adoption of rejected children
in 2006 and began processing three more in November and December.

Madina Eldarova, deputy head physician in Chechnya's maternity clinic, explained
how many children end up being abandoned.

"Because of our traditional mentality, it is shameful for a single woman to give
birth to a child," she said. "As a rule, these women deliver at home.
Afterwards, so as not to reject the child officially, they secretly hand it over
to someone else or abandon it like rubbish.  They sometimes sell them, which is
even worse."

Madina Azieva, a Grozny resident, argues that the problem of women being forced
to sell their children comes not from low morals but from irresponsible men.

"When a woman who is selling her own child is detained, they should also detain
the guilty father," said Azieva. "If he is a man, let him take responsibility
for his sins and not just put all the responsibility on the woman."

Laila Baisultanova is a correspondent with Chechenskoe Obshchestvo newspaper.