Q: Is prostitution allowed here?
Katarina: It is indeed not allowed, but the way we work here is different. If everybody would run his club like we do, there would be no problem. Should be everywhere like this. The girls treated right and not like animals...
Q: You know about such things...?
Katarina: Yes, I know about this. Too much... All the stories I hear from my girls - women treated worst then dogs, without place for sleeping, eating... This really touches me. This is heart-rending.
Q: What kind of idea have all those traffickers and pimps about women?
Katarina: I think they see only the money in the woman, nothing else... Just a job... Wherever you turn, nobody can help you – everybody is just after your money, after the years of your life. When it's about money, it's like that. That's something they understand . Money, just money. The women get abused, just to earn as much money as possible...
Q: What do you know about the pimps? Where are they from?
Katarina: Most of the guys running this business here are Albanians. Who in my opinion are not born of a mother, but of something much worst... Like they never have any own children or wifes at home. They seem never to think, that what they do to this girls could happen to their own girls as well... One should think there is a God. The Albanians are the strongest power in this business here in Macedonia.
Q: You said this club is of a better kind. What do you know about the bad...?
Katarina: Unfortunately I had here girls, those who've been looking for a second chance – who came here and said that it looks like heaven on earth for them. The things they told me I couldn't believe until I saw it myself. I wish you could see it with your own eyes: 15 or 20 girls sleeping in one room. Not beds but on the floor. Fed with tin cans. Potatoes, beans... Held in custody against their will. All kidnapped, forced to work in sex business for somebody's money and really not for their health. What can I say?
Q: ...
Katarina: I know it from so many stories my girls told me and also from other people, johns coming here. If you just hear it from someone you maybe don't believe it, but once you've heard it from dozens of girls and other people – who saw it and sometimes made it... For those guys the girls have no value... They are like a glass of water. Once you break it, you buy another one... They treat them like garbage cans. Does it work or does it not work? They don't ask themselves: did I make right or not. It seems to me like they are doing this their whole life, since their birth... Maybe they learned from their parents to be like that... This is very bad...
Q: What is known about minors?
Katarina: Of course there are minors here. I can't tell you names and places. I would risk a lot then and I am still young and want to live. But sure they are here. More than 1000 girls that not even achieved the age of 15 or 16. They get used to make money...
Q: Why are minors so important here
Katarina: In our business you can't use a woman who's old or who looks old. You need young woman here to make money... Those who are under 16. Somebody who is in possession of those girls can have a lot of clients from his own people to use the girls... But also others. But to reach such various clients, he needs young girls, who don't know yet what life is about.
Q: What about the soldiers here?
Katarina: Well I think, there should be official places, where they easy can go in their spare time, so they don't need to do it secretly. So they don't need to go to such bad places. They should become more aware where they are going and with who they are speaking. If a soldier is aware of the fact that the girl is forced to do it, he should report it to some higher authority. The army should do something for their soldiers and create a safe place where they can spend their time. Where everything is allright and you can be together with a woman without doubts and fears. Where they can talk with the girls and go to bed with them.
Q: How is it here?
Katarina: This is an unusual club. The girls feel like at home here. They are not used to such circumstances. I wish there would be dozens of those clubs here.
Q: What about condoms?
Katarina: Without condoms nothing goes on here. Not here... That is the rule for the women... Hygienic...
Q: Do the girls respect that?
Katarina: As far as I know, many girls come here and have no clue what it is a condom. They often haven't even heard the word before. And they are already working for months in this business...
Q: ...
Katarina: It's dangerous for the girl. Also for the client. Mostly for a 15 or 16 years old, at the beginnig of her life. Who maybe thinks to have children one day. This is quite unlikely under such circumstances, after comeing home again... Well if she comes home again.... I don't know what to say. It's difficult to talk about this...
Q: ...
Katarina: I would like to change this, make things better... But we here, in this club, are quite alone. We have no power comparing with the others. The others do whatever they can to keep living their way and not to change anything.
Q: There are many minors here. Why do the soldiers not recognize them?
Katarina: The way the girls are smartened up and sent on the street, well I guess only a man with a very big heart could understand it and realize who he's looking at. If someone has a soul, he realizes it in the first second. That depends on the person who comes to such locations.
Q: Can you see it?
Katarina: As a woman yes. And if I would be a kid myself I could see it. They see it in the first moment.
Q: And the girls have no choise...
Katarina: Yes, that's true. Something has to be done for the girls and for the soldiers. I think if someone would really want to help, he could help. I mean there has to be a place where a german soldier who serves his country can come in. Where he feels no danger and needs not to think about the tomorrow, if he will catch a disease... Where he can come in with trust. I mean this is the truth: a soldier has his needs. Every man has...
Q: But does you boss not keep the girls under arrest?
Katarina: They will all be sent home again...
Q: Do the girls have a lot of trust in you?
Katarina: O yes, very much. They have nothing else than trust...
Q: Is this all a modern slavery?
Katarina: Oh yes, that is true. The women are treted like a piece of flesh: you buy it, you eat it. I think that says everything. Don't know what they cost. I don't want to know it. Enough that I know that they get bought and sold. For me a woman has no "price". She's God's gift and should be treated like a doll in a show-case.
Q: How do you make the girls trust you?
Katarina: First the tell me where they come from and what happened to them. I want a new girl to feel like my daughter and until now all really did. That's what I think...
As a cross reference you can read the
interview with Lena who was imprisoned as a whore in this brothel.
source: Inge Bell archive (Radiovision.info)