D A R O S U L A K A U R I

PROJECTS: ONGOING: Investigative Story on baby abductions

 

Revealing the Secrets of Georgia's Black Market Baby Trade 

A story that uncovers one of the darkest and most heinous crimes of our time: the abduction of thousands of babies that occurred during the 90s and early 2000s in Georgia, which were wrongly declared dead by hospital doctors before being sold for adoption on a black market. 

This is not just a case of a few isolated incidents, but rather a widespread criminal activity that affected thousands of families across various regions in Georgia and beyond. The victims and their families have been left without answers, justice, and closure for far too long. 

I am currently conducting an ongoing investigation into this troubling issue, which includes interviews with victims, families, and experts in the field, as well as access to previously undisclosed documents. While it is a work in progress, I have gathered compelling evidence that demonstrates the devastating effects that this crime has had on families and communities. 

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  • This is the twins first encounter through facebook:ANO    -  Hey Twin gurlTAKO  -  Hey TwinANO    -  I've been wanting to know your name for a long time                :D To make it short, I have been looking for you for a                 long time :D
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  • Former maternity Hospital in Tchiatura city, where abductions took place in the 90's and early 2000's.“Kirtskhi had a variety of babies to be sold for adoption, this woman who was involved in the black market is alive today. Even if babies were abandoned, the hospital had no right to sell the babies, this is a crime”. Says Tamuna Museridze, the founder of the facebook group called “Vedzeb”
  • Tamuna Museridze, (in the middle) is the founder of the Facebook group page {quote}Vedzeb”, the page has 226,692 members.  She founded the page during the pandemic. Tamuna was the first person to start the dialogue about the topic and founded a non-governmental organization “Vedzeb” - Translation:  I am looking for.Tamuna, who has also been sold for adoption when she was born is searching for her biological mother. She has a team of eight women who have been at the forefront of the fight for justice, and have found more than 200 adopted babies in two years. The women are not only looking for their own siblings, mothers, or relatives, but also helping thousands of families who are searching for truth and justice.
  • DNA tests play a huge part in the search.
  • Tamuna Museridze (left image) explaining how to use the DNA test to a woman who wishes not to be named, but is seeking for her lost son. On the right image, DNA test results and Ancestry.com structure.This is the DNA test that {quote}Vedzeb{quote} trusts: www.ancestry.comThe results identifies potential relatives through DNA matching to others who have taken the AncestryDNA test.CASE #6
  • Irina Otarashvili, 79 years old, gave birth to healthy twins in September of 1978 in Kvareli maternity hospital. On the next day the doctor informed her that her twins died. The cause of death was Respiratory distress Syndrome. “ I remember that my twins were crying after I gave birth” recalls Irina, “They did not give me any documents of my babies birth or death”.Hospital doctor instructed Irina husband, to bring a suitcase, so that the hospital could place the deceased babies inside to be buried. Irina’s husband went to the store and bought this suitcase. He gave it to the doctor who returned the suitcase closed with the key. He buried it in this backyard.“The suitcase was heavy, and we trusted the doctor, we never opened the suitcase to check if the twins were inside”, says Irina. Last year, on Nov 2, 2022 by accident , Irina’s daughter and granddaughter while digging a whole to plant an apple tree in the backyard found the suitcase and out of curiosity opened it by force. The suitcase was full of wine branches.That looked a lot like bones.
  • On May 18th, I brought the samples from the suitcase to LEPL- Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau for examanation -> to have a PROOF as a document what the object is. A plant? The Bureau is a government forensic agency, a Legal Entity under the Public Law and its operation is regulated by a government decree and other respective normative acts.The results will arrive 3-4 weeks. (Estimate time June 18th).
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  • LETTER:Mother's confession.I could not imagine that I would face such a great ordeal in my old age. My children, whom I mourned all my life, turned out to be not dead, by sold for adoption.All day long, I go back in time and review every minute and second of my labor, and how the next day I was told that my twin babies died.And today, in my imagination, I have that day when I hug my boys, hug them tight and tell them: - I did not give them up for adoption. I am their mother and always will be. Every day I am waiting for them at dawn and dusk. Don't let me down, my brave boys. I am waiting for you. I don't want anything from you. I don't have financial problems and I don't want your help.I'm just waiting to hug you.Your dear and tired mother.I love you both!
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  • Panagiotos, 20 years old,  sold from a hospital at midnight on the road of Rustavi city and adopted by a family from Cypros. He is one of the last babies sold out from the country.- Panagiotos departed from Georgia, when he was 1 year and 5 months old. - For the period of the 1 year and 5 month, he  was taken from a hospital to a Georgian woman, his foster mother as he calls her. He grew up with her. His foster mother is now dead. Last year Panagiotos found his foster mother's  daughter and daughter in law  and asked them if they knew anything from his past, they said they never knew where he came from or whom he belonged to. - The foster mother was offered if she wanted to keep Panagiotos for $4K, but because she did not have the amount of money, Panagiotos was sold for adoption abroad. - During 2004 it became extremely difficult to depart the child from the country. ---During this time 4 children departed from Georgia. Panagiotos documents states that the original address in Kutaisi city and the parents last name was Rukhadze. A name and address that does not exist. Panagiotos documents and name were forged.The adoptive parents had to fake the health of the child, stating that he was unhealthy, for them to take the child out of the country.According to the DNA heritage test, Panagiotos is from Samegrelo.
  • Panagiotos: “When I was a child I already knew that I was adopted. I was already 3 years old. One child in kindergarten  told me that my parents (adoptive parents) did not leave me because I was adopted, but I already knew about the adoption, so I was ok. I did not care about my real parents, I just always wanted to have siblings, that is why I started the search, I knew that I was the third child of the family. After investigation I found out that all the documents were forged, so now I don't know if I have siblings. My family had acquaintances in the embassy in Cyprus, and they offered help in finding my biological parents. I gave them the name. But, they could not find anyone under the name.My adoptive parents could not have a child, so they wanted to adopt a child from Bulgaria or Romania. But, then they learned that one woman adopted a child from Georgia and that it was faster. In the documents:Some woman named Mariam, a woman who helped with the adoption. Lawyers: Mzia Gelashvili (dead in 2010), Arnold Hock (never found). With this case Police investigated and arrested one woman who was forging baby documents. That was all for this case.
  • <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><--- In the images, Panagiotos and his foster mother. She was raising him for a year and a half before being sold. </p>
  • Panagiotos found a family in Sachkhere from a facebook page {quote}Vedzeb{quote}. A woman named Nazhi, who was looking for a son.Unfortunately, after 2 DNA test, results was negative as a mother and a son. During the process of waiting Panagiotos became close to the family, they keep in touch and he visits them often from Cyprus. He is still seaching for this siblings.
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  • Nino Mokhevishvili was sold by a head male doctor at midnight. Doctor handed her over to her adoptive parents on the street of Rustavi when she was few days old.  Today she is looking for her real mother. {quote}I was born in 1995 and sold for $1000. I found out that I was adopted at age 18. I was stressed but I overcame my stress{quote} says Nino.
  • Fragments translated from the interview:Nino: The doctor at the Rustavi maternity hospital was Aleksandre Barakovi.He told my adoptive parents that there are five babies ready to be sold, all of them were boys, the price for them was $500. My parents refused boys, so he later offered them a different baby; he said, “We have a Georgian-Russian girl and this woman gave birth at home”.I had no documents that existed and I had mixed blood so my price was higher, $1000.The doctor then told my adoptive parents, “Come tomorrow at 11 a.m. on the road to Rustavi, bring the money and we will hand you the baby”.They gave my adoptive parents fake documents that stated that they were my biological parents. My parents were told that my biological mother was giving me away. But why did it take 12-13 hours for the doctor to bring me to the road to Rustavi to hand me to my adoptive parents? It was 1-2 am when they brought me with a car.Inside the car was Barakov,  Kote Manjavidze, an active doctor today, I do not know how he was involved in the case but he was in the car with the head doctor and two other women. My adoptive parents did not trust that the baby was healthy so they asked the head doctor to come with them to their home and check the health of the baby in front of them. The doctor agreed. They all went up to the house. The house was packed with neighbors and relatives congratulating the new parents for the adoption. There were witnesses that he was there. I don’t have any documents of my real identity. Us, the babies who have no other documents, we were all sold for adoption.
  • 29 years later, nephew  aunt are embracing each other  for the very first time.  (MORE ON THIS STORY THIS WEEK).
  • VEDZEB If you want to donate to the organization to help them purchase the DNA kit tests, you can do so by donating money here: BANK OF GEORGIA:GE24BG0000000498748285GELor Paypal: @tamarmuseridze
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