Probing the Balkans

IWPR reporters in eight Balkan countries set out to explore how human traffickers smuggle their live cargoes from Romania, south into Bulgaria and Greece, across to Albania and then north through the lands of the former Yugoslavia. Often going undercover in dangerous situations, our journalists visited clubs, hotels and brothels to speak to traffickers, pimps and the girls themselves, in an attempt to build up a picture of how a cross-border network of criminal gangs carries out their sickening trade. The investigation had great impact in the Balkans, was reprinted extensively, and led to four round tables on the issue.

DETAINEES ALLEGE TORTURE

Following the March 2003 murder of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, the authorities announced a state of emergency and rounded up around 10,000 people suspected of involvement in organised crime. However, IWPR discovered that many detainees were claiming that they had been tortured while in custody. The mistreatment allegedly included beatings, suffocation and even electric shocks, and some claimed that they had been driven to the brink of suicide as a result. IWPR looked at the powers of the police and the courts, and asked whether international monitors had been allowed to do their jobs properly. This report was reprinted widely in Serbia and prompted Amnesty International to carry out its own investigation into the allegations.

FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT - THE SCOURGE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The story of “Diana”, a vulnerable young Romanian girl who was sold into prostitution, raped, beaten, and kept chained up in a dog kennel, hit the headlines all over the region and beyond. IWPR’s joint investigation with Bucharest daily Evenimentul Zilei and the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism - and the documentary that accompanied it - told the shocking story of how our reporters were able to “buy” Diana from her pimp and rush her to safety at a women’s refuge, ending her torment and placing her on the slow, painful road to recovery. This story was reprinted across the Balkans, was the subject of numerous IWPR round tables in the region and received high-profile television coverage in the UK.

KOSOVO ATROCITY “COVER-UP”

IWPR investigated the discovery of a number of mass graves in the Batajnica police camp in Serbia, which were found to contain the bodies of hundreds of Albanians killed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. Our reporters looked into allegations that the Milosevic regime deliberately moved the bodies across country and tried to destroy them in an attempt to cover up the scale of their war crimes. They also examined claims that Serbia’s new democratic government had failed to investigate the events.

INVISIBLE CASUALTIES OF WAR

The harrowing stories of Bosnia’s raped women and the children they subsequently gave birth to were highlighted in this extensive investigation, which was produced in partnership with the Sarajevo-based Start magazine. The story had tremendous impact in Bosnia and beyond, and allowed a previously taboo subject to be discussed in the region for the first time. The hard work of the IWPR contributors was acknowledged when they were presented with the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in May 2003.

DIVISION AND DESTRUCTION IN VUKOVAR

IWPR, together with the Serbian daily Danas and the Croatian journalist Dragutin Hedl of the Feral Tribune weekly, looked at the destruction of the Croatian city of Vukovar, and assessed Serbia’s chances of coming to terms with its guilt. Our reporters spoke to residents past and present, and also to many former Serb reservists who are stricken with guilt for their role in the events. IWPR looked at how the Vukovar issue is still a bone of contention between Serbia and Croatia, and also examined the role of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, which indicted three Yugoslav army officers for the alleged killing of 200 civilians at Ovcara farm. This piece was republished extensively in both Serbia and Croatia, prompting public dialogue on the issue.