42 April 5, 2020 MISSION: SON LDIERS RECOUNTT

ATTACK: Lt Molloy Stress of ‘surreal’ firefights FOR BY EAMON DILLON MILITIA men in At SMALL BUT Tiri resorted to dirty EXCLUSIVE DEADLY: The tricks in bid to get BY EAMON DILLON AML 90 back on the Irish out of their patrol after the way to take over the KALASHNIKOV bullets battle Lebanese village . slamming off the ar- Some dressed as civilians rolled mour felt like a giant burning tyres to- hammer being used to wards Irish vehicles smash open the Irish and threw rocks claiming they were Army’s ‘little white protests against the ’. UN in a psychologi- The impact sent flecks cal battle. Then a young of paint flying inside, Lieutenant, Johnny cutting TC Martin’s face Molloy said the as he drove the armoured crucial attack he car into position to fire led to knock-out an armoured vehicle back. came at the end of a The gunner, Thomas Jones, long week. in the confusion, thought “That was just one his pal had been hit but it incident at the end didn’t stop him loading the of very tense volatile high-explosive anti-tank week. It brought it round and aiming at the to a close.” militia’s armoured vehicle. “We had en- Jonesy’s fire was on the but- dured quite a bit ton and the commander, John- of violence from ny Molloy, radioed back to HQ: these people both “I’m finished firing, and he’s physical and a lot of finished moving.” mental violence. We Forty years ago this week the had a lot of casu- Battle of At Tiri in South Leb- alties, people that anon remains one of the Irish were traumatised,” Army’s biggest fire-fights and he said. saved a Shia village from being SHOOTING cleared of its people. “They were throwing roses at us The Limerick na- afterwards,” said TC, who turned tive, who went on to 22 on that day on April 12. be a commanding officer of the Irish PUNCH Ranger Wing later in But it was Jonesy, at 21, who his career, explained was the youngest of the three- “the biggest thing man crew of a Panhard AML here was the mental 90 armoured car which the thing.” Israelis, in a nod of respect, “You were shoot- dubbed the little white tank. ing, you were in the The little white tank was s**t, you were in small – but with a 90mm anti the height of it and -tank cannon mounted on top, then it relaxed. Then it packed a powerful punch. you were back in it A native of the garrison town again so it was very of Newbridge, young Jones We were hit about 13 or 14 times, destructive mentally had won his place in the 46th } on people,” he told Irish Battalion after edging out the Sunday World. colleagues in target shooting. it was like someone outside with the Members of the The Irish troops, who were so-called South part of the United Nations Lebanese Army biggest hammer you can imagine ~ missions, had been thrown into would shoot at the sharp end of the complex the Irish and then geo-political game between minutes later stroll the Americans, Israelis and down the road to Palestinians. cadge a couple of cigarettes In April 1980 that meant was using Major Saad Hadd- “It was a bit surre- Forty-year anniversary of Irish UN troops’ legendary al – at times it was ad’s murderous ‘South Lebanese very calm and then Army’ to create a buffer zone the shooting would north of the Israeli border. It settled into a week-long that yoke coming up the road.” reaching the position. dominated the village from start again trying to They didn’t care how they stand-off with sporadic bouts During that time Galway The tactics had worked in the high ground. That task fell intimidate us out of did it, with Shia families being of intense gunfire. The Irish man Stephen Griffin was hit, other areas where UN vehicles to Molloy, Martin and Jones the place,” he said. kicked out of their homes at had to get permission each badly wounded and died a few were burned out. in the AML 90 and they went gunpoint as the ill-disciplined time to return fire. days later in hospital while a “After that they started to forward into a hail of fire to militia rode roughshod over “It was long periods of just Fijian soldier, Sevati Sovona- roll the burning tyres down the destroy the half-track that people’s lives. sitting there looking at them ivalu, was shot dead. hill. My job then was to shoot at threatened the Irish troops. When they went into At Tiri wondering what was going on. the tyres to knock them down on April 6, the Irish Battalion Then suddenly there’d be a CIVILIANS before they got to us. There was TURRET was holding their sports day. burst of gunfire,” said Jonesy. mayhem,” said Jonesy. “That’s when we got the call In the distance Israeli armour A number of Irish troops, After a week of the tense “We were hit about 13 or 14 out. I had to borrow a uniform, I could be seen moving about while including Jonesy’s brother stand-off it was decided that times. I hadn’t a clue, it was think I had Norwegian trousers Haddad’s men had their own Michael, were decorated for the time had come for the Irish like someone outside with the and a Dutch top,” said Jonesy. Super Sherman tanks adding to rescuing wounded men while troops to take back the village biggest hammer you can im- His reconnaissance unit the tense situation. under fire. and push Haddad’s men out. agine hitting the 90 as hard as armed up and got their vehicles Referring to when one of the The militia also forced ci- The first job that had to be they could,” recalled Jonesy. at Tibnin and went straight to tanks appeared in the village, vilians to throw rocks at the done was to take out the half- “There was nothing but At Tiri, where Irish troops on he said: “That was the day we UN soldiers who had to fire track vehicle armed with .50 flames coming off the inside — TENSE: Johnny Molloy checkpoints were cut off. s**t ourselves, when we saw over their heads to stop them calibre machine guns that just down the turret ring you N T THEIR TERRIFYING DAY IN AT AprilTI 5, 2020RI43 FORTHEMEMORIES

BATTLE: A local surveys the damage (above left), the checkpoint at At Tiri in (below left) and Thomas Jones with a chunk of militia half-track (below right); and before it was blown up (below centre)

round going over our heads. firefight to save villagers in There was a serious clenching of arse,” he added. The experience didn’t stop could see the flames coming TC’s prayers were helped by the to have no effect, it turned out Trooper Thomas Jones go- off, flashes and sparks, the AML 90’s position as well as it its to be the thinnest part of the ing back to the Lebanon, paint flying off the inside of thick armoured-plating. half track, face-on. serving four tours over the turret. Johnny Molloy said that two “We didn’t destroy it but the course of a 32-year “We hadn’t an idea what was militia men had opened up at there was nobody on it. Then career. after happening, that was the we were given the order to go RECCE: Thomas them from close range; “There Likewise, Lieutenant first time. That was battle in- were two SLA guys lying in back up and neutralise it.” Jones relaxes oculation, to get hit that hard This time the two rounds John Molloy enjoyed a a field or ditch there and we long military career and with his first beer that close.” were driving up they lacerated fired from the AML 90 com- after At Tiri TC, who wasn’t getting his pletely destroyed the half- after retirement worked with Kalashnikovs as we were as UNIFIL’s civilian po- preferred style of birthday driving up the road.” track which went up in a party, remembered thinking spectacular explosion. litical officer in south that if he got out alive he’d ARMOUR They managed to avoid the Lebanon. light 12 candles in the church. attention of the Super Sher- Corporal TC Martin “On the way home from Dub- He fired two high-explosive man tanks, although later a was also happy to re- lin Airport with my mother rounds into the now unmanned round from one of the tanks turn to Lebanon, serving and father we stopped at Kill. half-track which went straight came close. seven tours of duty there I went into the church on my through its thin armour. “At one stage one of the Sher- during his 24 years in the own and did that,” said TC. “The first two rounds seemed mans fired, I could hear the Defence Forces. 22 March 8, 2020 N SEXTRADEEXPOSED CONTROL: IRELAND’S Crime gangs rake in easy money from trafficked women to funnel into deals for €180M drugs and weapons S€X TRADE

ORGANISED crime gangs West African gangs have also been criminals are deeply entrenched in with a prostitute were stopped and EXCLUSIVE behind the exploitation of women in the sex trade. questioned. have an iron grip on Ireland’s BY EAMON DILLON the sex trade who came to Ireland “Because it’s a profitable business Since a law came into force making €180 million a year vice on the promise of getting a proper it is attractive to organised crim- it a crime to pay for sex, three people trade and use the cash to that’s where the harm is, and that’s job – but they were instead forced inals, it also brings in with it the have been convicted of the offence fund drugs and gun deals. where we need to have our focus.” to work as prostitutes to pay off their international element where you and another 13 cases are pending. While infamous Irish pimps such ‘debts’ to traffickers. have criminal gangs from overseas The top cop also said gardai are And the vast majority of as Martin ‘the Beast’ Morgan are Many of the victims were subject- jurisdictions involved in organised going to target prostitution around women working as prostitutes suspected to still have an interest ed to voodoo rituals to ensure their criminality in this jurisdiction,” said sporting events, adding: “We can have been trafficked into the in the trade, the sleazy underworld co-operation with the traffickers. Chief Supt Daly. see spikes of activity around certain country to be exploited by the is dominated by foreign criminals. At the lower end of the scale, an organ- ACTIVITY events and we are going to target A Chinese Triad-linked operation ised crime gang based in Longford are that. I want to see disruption in the ruthless pimps. was recently uncovered in Ireland business because that means women Most people aren’t even aware suspected of sourcing properties for use “It is fluid in relation to gangs when two people were caught run- by the vice gangs in Midlands towns. who will work together in relation are safe and not exploited.” that the sex trade exists, despite ning a brothel in Rathmines, Dublin. Those controlling prostitutes will There was also a warning for con- an average of 800 prostitutes to prostitution, it is a little bit more Di Wei and Chunjie Wang were pay four times the going rent to of cross-pollination between gangs. victed pimp Peter McCormick, whose being advertised on a daily basis jailed for their roles, while it was also ensure their sleazy business keeps It’s a little bit more nuanced and Escort Ireland website advertises 90 across every county on the island discovered many of the mobile phone the cash rolling in. difficult to investigate. per cent of the prostitution services in of Ireland. numbers used by the pair were also This week, the head of the Garda “Somewhere along the route that this country. The women, and some men, provide used in adverts for massage parlours. National Protective Services Unit money is converted into drugs, into Anti-prostitution campaigner Ra- sex services for between €80 and Despite the garda success it didn’t told the Sunday World that organised firearms and further acts of exploita- chel Moran said she finds it hard to €150 per customer up to 10 or 12 times disrupt the vice trade operations for tion,” he warned. believe that the website can operate a day, making it a money spinner for very long. “What is im- from abroad even though advertising heartless gangsters. Romanian gangs have also been at portant is that sexual services in Ireland is illegal. MASSAGE the forefront of Ireland’s sex trade Somewhere there is huge in- “We have got to shut down these and just last month a leader of the } ternational law websites. We have this ridiculous The Sunday World can reveal that infamous Ghenuso gang was sent along the enforcement and absurd situation in this country more than a dozen organised crime back to his native country where he co-operation, where we have 98 per cent of all in- gangs are involved in the trade at is accused of murder, blackmail and route that particularly in door prostitution being run through different levels, from running money laundering. Europe — Eu- one website. They are making untold brothels and trafficking women Evidence was previously heard money is ropol and Inter- millions year in year out off the backs to sourcing apartments and hotel how the Ghenuso gang had been pol and ourselves of human misery,” said Rachel. rooms. trafficking women to Ireland to work converted are all working “Why does the biggest pimping But the senior cop in charge of as prostitutes for a number of years, together very, ring this nation has ever seen get tackling the trafficking gangs making as much as €2 million in the into drugs, very closely. away with flagrantly breaking our warned this week that a crackdown process. The world has laws just because they are hosting is on the way. Accused leader Florin Ghinea was into firearms become a very their illegal activity off-shore?” Chief Superintendent Declan Daly arrested in August last year in the CRACKDOWN: Chief small place, so Chief Supt Daly said his unit of spe- said extra staff are being drafted in UK and extradited back to Romania and further Supt Declan Daly that’s good and cialist officers are on the website every to be used to target prostitution and two weeks ago. that’s positive,” he day and are still making efforts to find trafficking. In 2018, rival Romanian gangs in acts of added. ways to shut down the website for good. “It’s an area that’s going to get Ireland also clashed. Inone incident A number of high-profile He said he had been involved in ef- favouritism in terms of allocation a man’s car was rammed in Dublin exploitation ‘action days’ have been carried out forts to block access to sexual images of resources, because it needs it. We city centre before he was stabbed ~ in the last year where nearly 100 of children, which he described as are about addressing the harm and multiple times. men suspected of paying for sex “complex” and took a long time to do. N March 8, 2020 23 DARKER SIDE OF IRISH PROSTITUTION 100 Last year 100 men suspected of paying for sex with a prostitute were st opped and questioned

800 EXTRADITED: Florin Ghinea WEBSITE: Peter McCormick 800 prostitutes are advertised on a daily across basis every county on the SLEAZY island of Ireland MONEY CRIME: But just three men have been convicted of paying for sex 12 Prostitutes provide sex services for between €80 to €150 per customer up to 10 or 12 times a day — making it a money spinner for gangsters

FLAT FOR SEX: Di Wei was jailed CONVICTION: Martin Morgan 26 March 8, 2020 N SEXTRADEEXPOSED DAMAGE: ‘Mental health wards are full to bursting of

‘BOUGHT AND SOLD’: Fiona Broadfoot says the smell of the night air can trigger bad women who memories

have come out of the sex trade ‘ TRAUMA AND HORROR ‘NEVER GOES AWAY’ EVEN AFTER PROSTITUTES FINALLY ESCAPE THEIR PIMPS N LONG-TERM EFFECTS FOR WORKMarchERS 8, 2020 27 The HUNDREDS of women this } weekend are at the bottom EXCLUSIVE clients rung of Ireland’s sex trade, BY EAMON DILLON would come giving the cash-paying to me was how I came to feel about ‘punters’ what they want. who I was,” Moran says. after 11 For the mostly middle-aged The danger and trauma caused by married men in well-paid jobs violent and manipulative pimps is in the TRAPPED: who pay for the 30-minute sex difficult to comprehend for people Rachel Moran who haven’t gone through the ex- morning to (left) wants session, the encounter doesn’t perience. the sex trade cost a thought. One young African woman, ‘Rena’, three in the made illegal in But the women who have lived told in a statement how she was every country through the experience of the trafficked into Ireland as a 20-year- morning prostitution business dominated old and ended up working for the ~ by criminals tell a different story notorious Irish vice-merchant TJ and how the psychological scars Carroll over ten years ago. never heal. Her nightmare began in Benin City, Fiona Broadfoot, who was trafficked Nigeria, when her step-mother intro- to London to sell sex when she was duced her to the vice trade, taking cash just 15, told the Sunday World how from bar customers who had sex with the trauma never goes away. the teenager. She finally broke free from controlling A businessman promised her a new pimps after 11 years when she saw the life in Europe and took her to Dublin news of her cousin’s death at the hands using a bogus passport. of a sex buyer on TV. After a month in a bed and break- “The further you get away from fast in Ireland, her boyfriend told the abuse and torture you have ex- her that she was going back to work perienced the more it hurts, really,” she said. as a hooker. “I was so shut down and disassoci- CONDOMS ated. When you’re entrenched you kind of don’t even wake up for a long “He told me straight that I would be time after exiting [prostitution]. doing prostitution. I felt like killing “For me it can be the smell of the myself that day,” she said. night air, it’s a real trigger for me.I A Nigerian woman named ‘Mary’ struggled to have a social life after came the next day. She told Rena that six o’clock. she owed them ¤50,000 for bringing “I was bought and sold indoors and her to Ireland. out and seriously it can be anything ‘Mary’ drove her straight to Sligo, and you go right back there. It’s life- long trauma,” she said. stopping only to buy condoms, wipes “It doesn’t float away.” and a mobile. Rena was told to charge €160 for MEDICATION a half hour and €260 for a full hour. Mary then left and she never saw Fiona said many women who get her again. out of prostitution struggle to cope The clients, however, began turn- with the trauma and can end up on ing up straight away. long-term medication. “Mental health wards are full to “My mobile phone would ring and bursting of women who have come somebody would tell me a client was on out of the sex trade — breakdowns, the way. The clients would come any the fibromyalgia, the physical time after 11 in the morning up until conditions that many, many women two or three in the morning,” she said. I know have got.” “Some of the clients when they see “When you are being screwed side- me would just leave because they ways by between 10 and 12 men every would say I am too young. They would day for years, that does something to feel for me.” you,” she added. A driver would call to collect the She said that it is very difficult cash and deliver food and condoms. for women to get out of prostitution In Drogheda Rena met a South unless they already have an escape African prostitute who advised her to route planned. get to Dublin and to look for asylum. “The reason why we say we are “When she left I had to start think- fine [when working as prostitutes] ing of how I leave, if they find me is because we don’t have an exit they might kill me.I was scared.” strategy there and then.” “There’s very few resources for the RAIDED women to help them get out. It is the easiest thing to get into and hardest The next day, despite being in thing to get out of,” she added. fear of her life, she caught a bus to She works with Dubliner Rachel Dublin with €400 she had scraped Moran and the campaign group together from tips given to her by SPACE International, which wants to clients. see the purchase of sex made illegal in every country. She later went on to help Together they helped launch the gardai build their case against TJ ‘Don’t Buy It’ campaign by Ruhama Carroll. this week which seeks to highlight A Romanian woman, ‘Anna’, the savage exploitation behind the whose story was later dramatised sex trade. by the BBC, previously told the Sun- In her book Paid For: My Journey day World how she made a dramatic Through Prostitution, Rachel escape from her pimps. said: “I wasn’t a prostitute, I was Incredibly, she had been arrested prostituted. There’s a very big, by gardai when a brothel in Gal- significant difference.” way was raided but the pimps were She wrote how when she was just 14 years old her father died by waiting for her immediately after the suicide and her mother’s mental court hearing. illness worsened. Eventually, nine months after She ran away from home and found being kidnapped by the gang, she herself sleeping on park benches. decided on a desperate course of “The only thing that I had to sell action to escape the Romanian was my body,” she said. pimps in Belfast by going to a local Her older boyfriend coerced her drug-dealing gang. into prostitution and soon she was, The gangsters had previously as Rachel puts it, “the service and hired her, but instead of sex they product” for up to 10 men every day paying for sex. wanted information on the Roma- For two years she worked on the nian gangsters. streets and then spent five more “They thought I knew people more years working in brothels and as dangerous than them, so they had an escort. to leave me alone,” she told the “I think the deepest damage really Sunday World. 34 January 26, 2020 N MEMORIAL: SIX MILLION JEWS WHO D VICTIMS BY EAMON DILLON SURVIVED: EACH year the survivors of Irish Holocaust survivors Tomi the Holocaust grow fewer Reichenthal, Suzi but the memory of Europe’s Diamond and darkest chapter still burns Walter Sekules fiercely. Two of those survivors will be present today at a commemora- tion for those who died, making sure that memory stays alive. One woman whose family risked their own lives to save a Jewish family in Poland from the Nazi extermination camps said she feels responsible to keep the legacy alive. “The responsibility falls on our backs, it doesn’t matter of you’re Jewish, Irish, Polish or Traveller it’s all ‘us’ it’s not ‘us and them’,” said Kinga Paszko, who works and lives in Ireland. She will join Holocaust survivors Tomi Reichental and Suzi Diamond at the Mansion House today to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO WE RE KILLED IN THE ‘HOLOCAUST WERE KILLED AS RESULT OF RACISM...

“It is our responsibility to take notice, to take action,” said Kinga about when it comes to racism today. “Even if it’s not on a mass scale, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.” She added that “all those people who were killed in the Holocaust were killed as result of racism” that we can’t let that happen again. ...WE MUSTN’T “We mustn’t forget that lesson from history,” she said. During the Second World War, Kinga Paszko’s great grandparents and their two sons sheltered the Altschiler family on their small farm in the Polish-Ukrain- ian village of Czabarówka. In July 1943, Mojzesz and Liza Altschiler, Jewish shopkeepers from a nearby town, arrived with their son, Dow, at the doorstep.

Despite not knowing them, Kinga’s FORGET THAT great grandparents, Franciszek and Helena Hołubowic, made an imme- diate decision to take them.

HIDDEN “They risked their own lives so they needed to keep it secret. She believed there was no other choice for her, just to come forward and offer help to where it was needed,” said Kinga ‘ of her great-grandmother. “To be honest for a long time I LESSON FROM wasn’t quite sure that I would be that courageous, realising that can actual- ly put at risk your own children, but I think if it’s needed to be done it’s Survivors keep alive needed to be done.” They managed to keep the Altschilers hidden and alive until March 1944 when memory of victims in the Red Army took over the area. The families stayed in touch after the Altschilers made it to Israel in a bid to fight bigotry 1947 and in 1993 the Hołubowic family were honoured as Righteous Among Nations — the title for non- HISTORY in the world today Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. Kinga will be making a reading at the commemoration event in the Tomi Reichental was just nine He previously told how he made “I saw it all with my own eyes,” passed away in 2007, had believed Mansion House today where Presi- years old when he was sent to the his decision to speak out because he he said. they were the only surviving mem- dent Michael D Higgins is also due Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. doesn’t want people to forget whet Like Tomi, Suzi Diamond was also tak- bers of their family. to make an address. He lost 35 members of his family in happened, as racism and bigotry has en to Bergen-Belsen with her family when In 2016 Suzi was contacted by a Also expected are two Holocaust the Holocaust, including his 76-year-old become an increasing problem. she was just two and a half years old. cousin living in Hungary who had survivors who live in Ireland, Tomi grandmother Rosalia, who he remembers In 1944 at age nine, he was captured Her mother died shortly after the eventually managed to trace her. Reichental and Suzi Diamond. being dragged from their hut after her by the Gestapo in Bratislava and liberation of the camp while her Today’s commemoration for Both have been outspoken about death and thrown on to a heap of corpses. deported to Bergen-Belsen concen- father had died in 1943 in the Soviet Holocaust Memorial Day in the their own harrowing experiences as Ireland has been his home for the tration camp with his mother, grand- Union after being forced into the Round Room at the Mansion House young children in Nazi concentration last 60 years but he only began talk- mother, brother, aunt and cousin until slave labour corps of the Hungarian is hosted by the Holocaust Education camps. ing about his experience in 2004. it was liberated in April 1945. Army. She and her brother Terry, who Trust Ireland (HETI). N January 26, 2020 35 Quake’s O DIED IN WWII REMEMBERED death toll now 21

BY STEVE GAINES THE death toll from an earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey has climbed to 21 – with more than 1,000 people injured, emergency officials said. Rescue workers were continuing to search for some 30 people buried under collapsed buildings in Elazig province and neigh- bouring Malatya, said health minister Fahrettin Koca, who said the death toll could rise. Emergency workers distribut- ed tents, beds and blankets as over- night temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas. The quake hit on Friday at 8.55pm lo- cal time at a depth HORROR of 6.7 kilometres near Sivrice, the ESCAPE Disaster and Emer- FROM DEATH: gency Management Children huddle Presidency, said. together after Earthquake HORRIFIC: Piles of clothing at the Dachau monitoring centres the camp’s gave magnitudes concentration camp; (right) the gates of death at liberation Auschwitz; (above right) a body is carried to a lorry; ranging from 6.5 to 6.8. The quake (far right, above) the ovens at Auschwitz was followed by 228 aftershocks.