Speaking out against corruption in Russia
A new documentary on the Litvinenko poisoning in London jogged my memory of my colleague that same year, writing about his experience in Russia which led to him being excluded. A fate he shared with venture capitalist Bill Browder .
The death of Browder’s lawyer Sergey Magnitsky would prompt the Obama administration to pass the Magnitsky Act, placing sanctions on adoptions from Russia.
Terry Hallman was researching corruption in Ukrainian childcare institutions and had previously worked in Russia to leverage a poverty reduction initiative.
“In Russia, I was threatened, harassed, poisoned, and imprisoned, for daring to speak out against corruption and human rights abuses. That’s another story. Suffice to say that it should be to Ukraine’s credit that what I’m writing about here can begin to be exposed to the world. “
His article ‘Death Camps, For Children’ would create ripples throughout Ukraine.
The following year Mykola Syrota, a member of Ukraine’s Rada would speak out against the prostitution of infants in which he claimed law enforcers were involved. His death in a mysterious RTA was reported 5 months later.
“There’s a whore-house in Odesa where 3 to 6-year old kids are used as prostitutes. Officially, it is called the Zhemchuzhyna orphanage and in which 60 boys and girls live. They are regularly raped by adult clients. Who provides a cover for it? — The law-enforcement agencies. I have to do something about it. A have a 6-year old grandson, and when I think that my grandson can be one of them, I can kill the criminals with my bare hands.”
In 2008, Terry Hallman appealed to USAID and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for support with a proposal for reform. He describes the psychoneurological internats, or Death Camps:
“Although the PN reality is perhaps the absolute worst part of all things in Ukraine stemming from RICO, it is far from the only part in the same vein. There is also the much more visible matter of kids in “regular” orphanages and kids living on the streets and in sewers. Orphanages have been another money-maker via selling “top” kids to foreign adoptions. Kids with lesser market value (over seven years old and/or serious health issues) were shunted to lesser quality, out-of-the-way orphanages. Kids with no market value were tossed aside completely, i.e., PN facilities a.k.a. Death Camps, for Children. President Yushchenko rightfully suspended foreign adoptions for a period of time because orphanages were normally operated more like livestock farms with product for sale. It’s mostly not the staff who are any sort of problem in these orphanages, although redundant independent evidence strongly indicates that sometimes arrangements have somehow been made for adults to come in and “play” with children of their choosing during the night. More often it comes down to even the best, most sincere staff having had their hands tied regarding what little they could do for the children assigned to them, because so much money was displaced as to leave comparative crumbs for caring for the kids. Once orphanage children reach the age of seventeen, they’re booted out into the world with hardly any preparation to deal with it. If kids are attractive enough, they can be (and are) taken into prostitution rings and rented out for sex work. If they got a bit of training at night in their orphanage, they are better prepared for sex work. (In Kharkiv, militia runs that operation. For Donetsk and Donbass, it’s Donetsk mafia. Variations on the same theme play out across Ukraine.) Street kids are street kids mainly because they consider living in orphanages until seventeen worse than living on the streets and sleeping in sewers. Of course they also have access to street drugs to take the edge off their miseries. That coupled with unprotected sex and inevitable prostitution produces an HIV/AIDS factory. In Ukraine at this moment, HIV is a pandemic and getting worse.”
Terry Hallman’s death in 2011 was reported by a Maidan leader who found his body and wrote of his efforts:
“The author of breakthru report “Death camps for children” Terry Hallman suddenly died of grave disease on Aug 18 2011. On his death bed he was speaking only of his mission — rescuing of these unlucky kids. His dream was to get them new homes filled with care and love. His quest would be continued as he wished.
Only after his death he allowed to publish his communication with Ukrainian and US authorities about the issue.”
Following up on his last wish, I have laboured to raise awareness in the 5 years since. I recently appealed to JK Rowling for solidarity.
