Protect the children, not desires of the grown ups!

7 February 2023

For several weeks, Croatia has been in the middle of an international scandal due to four Croatian couples accused of child trafficking. Among them are the transgender councilor of the Mozemo party, Noah Kraljevi?, who was born as a woman, and Zoran Suboši?, the guitarist of Hladni piva.

The representatives of the government are dancing on eggshells, and the mainstream media mitigates the fact that the couples cheated the legal provisions of both Croatia and the DR Congo in order to satisfy their desire for children, regardless of the best interests of those same children!

Without taking into account the safety and best interests of four traumatized children, the youngest of whom is only 15 months old and the other three are 3 years old, the croatian mainstream media tries to present the participants in illegal adoption as heroes instead of using all their strength to expose the mafia network through which they were these couples ended up 'adopting' children, and the gray areas and loopholes in the law when it comes to international adoptions that this case revealed.

What person or couple could get away with such a scandalous act without being a member of the radical left establishment? None! And rightly so!

What is happening in Croatia is the twilight of investigative and free journalism, and it is over the backs of the youngest! All for the purpose of protecting members and sympathizers of the radical left-wing party MOŽEMO, self-proclaimed defenders of human rights!

At the same time, it seems that HDZ's only concern is to cover up the omissions committed by the state institutions under their administration, and therefore they have no time to deal with the protection of the welfare of children and adoptive parents who have met the conditions for this!

Numerous foreign media reported on this scandal. It is about the lives of children who have been traumatized by illegal smuggling and placed in the hands of people who do not know their culture, their language, and the question arises as to how the adaptation of the children to potential adopters was carried out before the actual taking of the children!

How many children have gone through such a traumatic experience?

International adoptions are particularly sensitive, and it is precise because of the high risk of abduction, sale and trafficking of children that the Hague Convention was created. Its signatories, by including the judiciary and ministries of the signatory countries, wanted to prevent dramatic cases like this in which the lives of children are at stake!

Croatia is also a signatory to the Convention, so the question arises as to why potential adopters chose a country that is not one and which prohibits international adoptions since 2016 precisely because of the international trafficking of children from their country.

If Zambian officials had not demanded answers this practice would have continued! Namely, these are not the first children who entered Croatia under the nose of Croatian institutions, or rather with their permission!

The persons through whose hands the papers for the legalization of adoption passed in Croatia did not ask questions.

It is not known exactly how many children were brought to Croatia, but it is known that the lawyers from Congo who helped in bringing them earned substantial sums...

In this particular case, the potential adopters did not even meet the legal prerequisites for adoption. Only 2 of the 4 arrested couples went through the process of determining their suitability for adopting a child, and are in the register of adopters.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the documents from the Congo, based on which Croatian courts issued decisions for children from the Congo, were not legalized.

We demand an investigation into the network that facilitates illegal adoptions in Croatia in cooperation with the Congolese mafia.

We demand an investigation of all those who in any way mediated and participated in the issuance of illegal documents to potential adoptive parents.

The organizers of this work are well aware that DR Congo has banned international adoptions since 2016, and these children have not legally left DR Congo. In addition, the DR Congo expressly prohibits the adoption of children by transgender persons by law, and such adoptions are not allowed in Croatia either.

It is the duty of the state to find out who facilitated the work of mafia lawyers from the Congo in Croatia. Who made their 'deals' and acted as a mediator. How and which judges made decisions based on non-legalized documents and did they gain the material benefit or were they in a conflict of interest?

Together we can put pressure on the institutions and help the case not to be covered up, but to shed light for the benefit of these children and all children who were or are at risk of becoming victims of international trafficking... Let's do what we can so that the children can achieve their right to grow up in a family that will love them and take care of their best interests, and let's preserve the good name of all adoptive parents whose first interest is truly the welfare of children!