By Zoran Glavonjic and Claire Bigg - April 05, 2013
Goran
Filipovic says his daughter is turning 15 this year. He still hopes to meet her
one day.
Doctors at the Belgrade hospital where she was born told Filipovic and his wife
that she had died shortly after birth.
The couple, however, believes their daughter is still alive and was in fact
stolen for adoption as part of a vast criminal scheme that included doctors and
nurses at state-run Serbian clinics.
The family's tragic tale is not uncommon in Serbia, where hundreds of parents
have made similar claims over the years.
The European Court of Human Rights last week awarded 10,000 euros ($13,000) in
moral damages to the mother of a boy who disappeared at a Serbian maternity
ward 30 years ago -- a landmark ruling that Filipovic hopes will help bring
closure to all the families still searching for their children.
"My phone is constantly ringing. I now receive numerous phone calls from
parents who felt discouraged by the state's inaction before the ruling was passed.
They all want us to unite and force the authorities to deal with our cases and
finally solve them," Filipovic says.
"I believe we will now wage one common fight for the truth, which will be
revealed sooner or later."
Belgrade Ordered To Investigate
The successful plaintiff, Zorica Jovanovic, gave birth to a healthy baby boy in
October 1983. But as she and her son were about to be released from the
hospital three days later, she was informed that he had died of unspecified
causes.
The infant's body was never handed over. Jovanovic was not given any autopsy
report or even told where he had been buried.
Both in 2002 and 2007, local officials confirmed that her son's death had not
been registered in municipal records, strengthening her suspicions that he was
smuggled out of the hospital alive.
The European Court ruled that the Serbian authorities had violated Jovanovic's
right to respect for her family life by consistently failing to provide her
with "credible information as to what happened to her son." She was
awarded an additional 1,800 euros ($2,300) in lawyers' fees and expenses.
Judges in Strasbourg noted the "significant number of other potential
applicants" and voiced hope that their decision would "help hundreds
of parents to find out what happened to their newborn babies."
They also ordered Serbian authorities to investigate each individual case and
provide wronged families with adequate compensation within a year. About 100
similar complaints from Serbian parents are currently pending before the court.
Trail Of Falsified Documents
The disappearances seemed to follow the same pattern. Filipovic says he, too,
was barred from seeing his allegedly deceased daughter. "When I went to
the hospital, I was told our baby had died 15 minutes ago. When I asked to see
her, they refused; I was not even able to lay her to rest," he says.
"I went back home deeply shaken and I buried the whole thing deep inside
me."
Despite the absence of a death certificate, Filipovic says he was too blinded
by grief and by his faith in doctors to immediately suspect foul play. With
time, however, doubts began to creep in.
"When I somewhat recovered from the shock I wanted to visit my daughter's
grave. But when I went to the cemetery I was told that the hospital had not sent
the remains of a child under that name, that they had never received any
document and that they did not have any record of her burial," Filipovic
says.
"Then I went to the hospital to find out what happened and I found
duplicate records, duplicate certificates with blank spaces where details on
the mother should have been indicated. I realized that birth records were being
faked."
Filipovic says his visit to the registry office revealed further
inconsistencies, suggesting that documents had been forged.
Forcing The Government To Act
Instances of newborns disappearing in Serbian hospitals have been reported
since the 1970s, but little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice
and end a horrifying practice that appears to have persisted until the late
1990s.
The purported discovery of several "missing" children, alive and
growing up in adoptive families, deepened the conviction felt by many parents
that their babies were snatched away after being declared dead.
Although such cases drew media attention at the time, and despite strong
pressure from parents, the Serbian authorities have largely turned a blind eye
to the allegations. More than 700 people have filed complaints over their
babies' suspicious deaths in delivery clinics, but investigators have not
solved a single case.
In the early 2000s, dozens of families joined forces to lobby for a thorough
probe. Their efforts resulted in the creation of a parliamentary committee
tasked with looking into the possible trafficking of newborn babies.
The committee, which was disbanded in 2006, concluded that the parents'
suspicions were well-founded and urged the Interior Ministry to set up a
special investigative unit including experts on human trafficking.
"We believed that we had enough cases to make such a recommendation. We
believed that the investigations were justifiable and that they should be
handled by the police, the Prosecutor-General's Office, and the judiciary, as
well as all other competent state institutions," says Zivodarka Dacin, the
committee's chairwoman.
The unit, however, never materialized.
For Jovanovic, Filipovic, and scores of other parents still searching for
answers about their children's fate, the European Court's ruling is a major
victory.
Filipovic is painfully aware that no judgment can guarantee that he will find
his child, let alone make up for the lost years together. But after decades of
inaction from the authorities at home, he says the Strasbourg court is his only
chance of ever being reunited with his daughter.