Last year's conflict in the southern Serbian Presevo valley pitted Serbian and Albanian communities against each other. But mafia organisations from both sides have now found some common, lucrative ground. Trade in women sold into sexual slavery is booming in this corner of Serbia, which borders Macedonia and Kosovo.
Ruza, not her real name, is a victim of this trade. Thrown out by her family after having an illegitimate baby, the seventeen-year-old accepted a job as a waitress in a night-club in the centre of Bujanovac. Lured like many other girls by the prospect of earning German marks per month - almost four times the national average - she did not realise that her duties included satisfying her clients' every desire.
Before long, Ruza became literally trapped in her job, cowed by threats of violence from her boss. She is not alone. Groups such as the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, believe that as many as , Eastern European women are smuggled through Serbia and neighbouring countries. They say that southern Serbia is a key hub for criminals trafficking women through the Balkans.
The girls and young women - many from Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine - are tempted by newspaper advertisements for well-paid jobs in bars and clubs, often with the promise of good careers in Western Europe. Once lured to Serbia, the IOM believes the girls are divided into two groups.
They are either taken to Kosovo to serve the 60, foreign workers who arrived in the province after the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces in Or they are smuggled through Montenegro and northern Albania, destined for Italy and beyond. This trade is thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Serbian and Albanian mafia. The women can earn up to 1, marks a day working the streets of Western cities, but they see very little of this money.
