From: Nicky Molloy 
Subject: SNET:  AIDS Orphans Sold Into Sex Trade
Date: 9 Sep 2000 03:02:11 -0400
To: The Eagle Net , SNET ,
        Armageddon or New Age? 

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 AIDS Orphans Sold Into Sex Trade
Adriana Stuijt
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
http://www.egroups.com/message/RMNEWS_DAILY_EMAILS/4021


DURBAN, South Africa – With South Africa's borders left practically
unpoliced since the end of apartheid in 1994, thousands of "feral" AIDS
orphans from age 4 to 17 are being trucked in through the Kruger National
Park and Swaziland borders – and sold to the lucrative international
child-sex market, according to a report filed by the Cape Town-based child
welfare organisation Mole Songololo.
The report was presented to the 13th International Conference on Child Abuse
and Neglect on Wednesday.

Bernadette van Vuuren of Molo Songolo warned that the continent's "feral"
children – thousands of AIDS orphans roaming rural regions in sub-Saharan
countries – were being increasingly targeted for the international sex trade
because African adults so often are infected by the deadly HIV-AIDS virus
these days that sex merchants are increasingly forcing children into
prostitution instead.

Many of these children are Africa's so-called AIDS orphans, whose adult
family members have all died and who now are waging an increasingly
desperate struggle to survive without any adult help. Van Vuuren said there
had been a 400 percent increase in AIDS orphans since 1999 in South Africa
alone. She said United Nations AIDS experts estimated that by 2010 nearly 5
million children would be orphaned by the deadly epidemic, which is killing
millions of young adults throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Such children also
are the most vulnerable to trafficking and the sexual exploitation trade,
she said.

Children Sold to Pedophiles

Molo Songololo's report claims to have extensive evidence that many such
children are being abducted, sold and coerced into the child sex market
inside South Africa. Many children are being smuggled in from outside the
country's borders, from Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Nigeria,
Thailand and Eastern Europe. Most are trucked in through the Kruger National
Park or the Swaziland border, and some have been sold to pedophiles and the
sex industry.

Among those involved in and growing rich off the trafficking in children
were brothel owners, government officials, crime syndicates, former military
and police personnel and border officials inside South Africa, she said.
Sometimes family members and even parents had been involved, according to
the report.

Van Vuuren said trafficking in children had become one of the most lucrative
businesses for transnational crime syndicates including Nigerian drug lords,
the Chinese Triads and the Israeli and Russian mafias as well as the Eastern
European crime syndicates.

Crime Increase Since End of Apartheid

The South African trade in child prostitution will continue until the
country solves its urgent policing problems, the report stated. Because of
problems maintaining reasonable police staffing levels and the low morale
inside the police and defence forces – and the high level of official
corruption – many organized crime groups have increasingly managed to gain a
foothold in the country since the official policy of apartheid ended in
1994.

During the apartheid era, policing along the entire South African border was
intense to prevent counter-insurgency by guerrilla groups that were
stationed in neighbouring states such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique. For this
reason, the vast majority of cross-border excursion attempts were detected
and severely punished by the apartheid regime police. The nationalist
government had also installed a huge, high-electricity security fence
between the Mozambiquan and South African borders during the apartheid era.
However, this fence no longer is maintained.

Van Vuuren told the conference that South Africa now was emerging as a key
player in the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, together with
Nigeria. Adults scared of contracting the HIV/AIDS virus view children as
safe sex options. And many in Africa with AIDS believe that sex with
children could cure them. For all these reasons, the child-sex trade is
doing a roaring business inside South Africa.

Millions Forced Into Slavery

The United Nations has estimated that between 2 million and 4 million people
a year were traded into some kind of slavery, be it domestic labor, begging
or prostitution. Many of these are children.

"Security gaps and the lack of extraterritorial legislation in South Africa
fueled the growth of the trafficking trade in the country," Van Vuuren said.

The cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are the main centers for
child trafficking, but the phenomenon is occurring on a countrywide scale.

"Childline" representative Lyndy Mansfield earlier in the day told delegates
of first-hand reports that children as young as 8 years old were being
abducted from rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal and sold in Durban. The children
were kept prisoner in shacks from where they were sold to adults who wanted
sex. Childline was informed about this new trend about four months ago, she
said.

Many of these children were HIV-AIDS orphans whose adult family members had
all died and now were waging a struggle to survive without any adult help.
Van Vuuren said there had been a 400 percent increase in AIDS orphans in
South Africa and estimated that by 2010 nearly 5 million children would be
orphaned by the deadly epidemic.

She urged the government to develop anti-trafficking legislation and an
extraterritorial policing policy to intervene and rescue victims from other
countries.

Also see: 10% of Children Had Sex by Age 11




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