-
-
- >(from The Sunday Mail (Brisbane)
26.9.99)
- >
- >Organ Snatchers
- >
- >Within hours of Turkey's horrific
earthquake, the evil harvest of human
- >kidneys began . . . while the
victims were still alive
- >
- >by Daniel Foggo
- >
- >MID the rubble that was once a row
of homes, the slaughterhouse is
- >strangely untouched by the
earthquake that ravaged a nation. A plain
- >building, it stands out because
its walls are intact, an unusual sight in
- >this part of Turkey.
- >
- >But this building in the small
town of Ginarcik may hold the key to a
- >deeply disturbing and illegal
practice that is coming to light as the
- >secret legacy of Turkey's terrible
tragedy in which up to 15,000 have
- >perished.
- >
- >Less than a month ago the floors
here ran not with animal blood but with human blood as it catered for the overflow of
corpses from nearby towns.
- >
- >And as the bodies of the
earthquake victims were laid out in rows on the main 15m-long workspace, then stacked on
wooden pallets in the adjacent cold room, a doctor and other workers made a horrifying
discovery.
- >
- >A number of corpses, -
particularly of teenagers - had had their abdomens carefully cut open and all their
internal organs removed.
- >
- >"One of the victims was maybe
12 or 14," said the doctor, who asked not to be named.
- >
- >"I suppose someone had
decided to get in on the organ trade. I tried to report this but no one paid much
attention."
- >
- >Slaughterhouse manager Erol
Kaplan, who also witnessed the gruesome scene, said: "There were four or five bodies
like it. The intestines were intact but all the organs were gone."
- >
- >Human kidneys and livers are
valuable commodities in Turkey, where the trade in body parts by the "organ
mafia" is threatening to get out of control. Anyone in Turkey without a kidney must
be prepared to pay
- >handsomely for a transplant or
remain on a dialysis machine for the rest of his or her days.
- >
- >The money up to $A250,000 per
organ - is paid to the donor by the would-be recipient, a practice illegal in Turkey and
throughout the world.
- >
- >Sometimes organs are transported
to buyers in countries such as the US,Israel and Greece.
- >
- >There is now evidence to indicate
that the unscrupulous Practitioners of bodypart selling have taken their black art to new
depths.
- >
- >Accusations of badly injured
earthquake victims having their organs removed while still alive or within minutes of
dying on the operating table have surfaced.
- >
- >Others speak of kidnappings where
confirmed survivors later vanished and other bizarre incidents.
- >
- >Worry over the situation has grown
so intense that the Turkish government has issued a formal warning to citizens to look out
for vulnerable people who may be targeted by the organ gangs.
- >
- >I have interviewed and obtained
extensive statements from a number of
- >surgeons who saw evidence of
non-medical organ removal after the
- >earthquake. The doctors requested
their names and identities be protected.
- >
- >One witnessed the following scene
while treating patients at lzmit, 140km south of Istanbul. He said: "When heavily
wounded victims turned up two and three days after the earthquake, something began to
catch my attention. A number of doctors I didn't recognise came into the operation
unregistered. We were in such a state that anyone claiming to be a doctor could get in and
out of anywhere no one had time to check credentials.
- >
- >"I went into an operation on
someone with heavy head wounds. The patient died and was classified clinically dead soon
after but the operation did not stop.
- >
- >"The 'doctor' said the
kidneys were damaged and I saw him remove them. It was very odd and made me suspicious.
There is no medical explanation for removing the kidneys of a dead person."
- >
- >A Turkish Interior Ministry
spokesman said: "There has been word that this 'mafia' has been present in the
earthquake zone, and all police departments have been put on alert."
- >
-
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