In the West, people are able to grow up and live their lives with the belief that the world is fundamentally a decent, safe place. Certainly in the U.S. there are rumored to be child abductors roaming the streets in their vans, prowling through mall parking lots, waiting to snatch some unsuspecting person into their cars.
Yet, in other parts of the world not fortunate enough to have a political system that attempts to keep life governed by a rudimentary fairness and the rule of law, such beliefs are not reasonable. That is especially the case in Eastern Europe and in most of the countries that Americans refer to as the “Second” or “Third” world, setting aside how offensive such a statement and belief is for now.
Children,especially girls, are subject to abduction, rape and transportation into sexual slavery. This heinous reality is what most likely lies behind the case of the blond young 5-year-old girl “Maria” who turned up as the ward of a Roma, or “Gypsy” couple, in Greece. No one knows, even the young girl herself, who she is. The Roma couple remain under lock and key but it seems likely that she was abducted from someplace unknown.
This reporter has a special familiarity with this topic because I spent six years writing a novel “The Butcher of Leningrad” that addresses this subject:
“Russia has a terrible problem with abandoned children who live in the sewers. The Russian Mafia uses these homeless kids for organ transplants. An American reporter in St. Petersburg discovers what the Russian Mafia is doing but he only succeeds in bringing their fury down on his own head.?In this fast-paced thriller, you will enter the raw underbelly of modern Russia. You will see depravity and vicious cruelty– things you cannot believe one human could do to another. You will see things that will shake you to the core of your being. By the time you come out on the other side of this thrilling odyssey into the dark heart of Russia, you will be changed forever.“
In the case of the novel, however, the 60,000 homeless children in St. Petersburg Russia are used as donors for organ transplants, among other heinous things. Children around the globe, but especially in countries such as Russia, are looked on as a raw material for money making.
The abduction of young women as sex slaves is well known but the use of children for their organs is so heinous it remains hidden in the shadows. The six years of research and writing that went into “The Butcher of Leningrad” gave me a unique familiarity with this subject. When I see yet another example of it manifesting itself, I am left to shake my head and say: “Not again”.
Indeed, apart from the tragic case of “Maria”, another recent case described a young Somali girl who was smuggled in the United Kingdom for the express purpose of having her organs “harvested”. This is a huge problem, and since it goes on in the shadows and is controlled by the mafia, especially the Russian mafia, it is and will be difficult to stop.
Edited by SS
