This is the testimony that K.T. of Moldova gave in Haifa's Kishon lock-up to volunteers who came to help her. Her testimony, like that of 105 other victims of trafficking in women in this country, was included in a report released yesterday by Israeli human rights organizations, which will be discussed today in the Knesset's committee on traffic in women.

The testimony paints a grim picture of oppression and humiliation as the authorities turn a blind eye. Though there has been some improvement in the state's handling of this problem over the last few years, the report says, it still tends to relate to traffic in women primarily as a problem of illegal immigration, organized crime or public health -and not as a cruel violation of human rights. Some 44 percent of the women interviewed for the report said that policemen had visited the brothels where they worked. "Policemen, of all people, should know that many women are forcibly held and compelled to have sex through threats and violence," wrote the authors, Dr.Naomi Levenkron of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, Dr. Yossi Dahan of the Adva Center and representatives of Woman to Woman - the Haifa Feminist Center.

Disciplinary offenses'

"Policemen-customers are essentially committing rape instead of helping the victims of this traffic to escape and gathering evidence to indict the traffickers," the report continues. But when the Hotline appealed to the Justice Ministry department that investigates policemen, it was told that policemen who visit brothels are guilty of disciplinary rather than criminal offenses.

A.N. of Moldova, who gave her testimony to the researchers a year ago, told of a friend who managed to escape from the escort service where she was being held prisoner. "We were so happy... That is the only time since I arrived in Israel that I stopped feeling only despair and fear and began to feel a little hope. In the evening... two policemen arrived, dragging her with them. A few days later, she was sold."

The report also describes how policemen come to the brothels to check the women's passports to be sure they are in Israel legally - an activity that leads the women to conclude that there is no point in filing a complaint against their pimps, since the police are only interested in the validity of their visas.

The price of a woman

The price of a woman ranges from $5,000 to $10,000, the report says, and often, several buyers will split the purchase price and then share the woman among them. The sale process is one of the clearest expressions of the women's slavery: The women reported that the buyers examined their sexual organs and even their teeth. "I didn't understand where they were taking us in the middle of the night," related H.A., interviewed in January. "But when I saw many naked women in the apartment, I began to understand. They told me to undress... I was so afraid that I wet my pants."

About 30 percent of the women said they were bought in their home countries, while 72 percent were smuggled into Israel over the Egyptian border. "In the evening, four Bedouin raped me, one after the other... After the second, I didn't feel a thing. They came back for several rounds. I lost consciousness," related Y.B. of Moldova.

Sometimes, the purchasers are individuals rather than escort services. V.B., who was sold to a private purchaser in Upper Nazareth, related: "He would organize 25 customers a day for me. I also had to cook his food... When I came home, he would tell me: `It doesn't matter how many customers you had today, I will always be your last customer.' Every night he raped me. He liked to hear me scream with pain."

The average age of the women interviewed for the report was 23. Only 9 percent had previously engaged in prostitution. They were led to believe that they could earn thousands of dollars in Israel. In practice, they received an average of NIS 20 per customer, while the pimp received NIS 100 to NIS 600. They worked an average of 13 hours a day, seven days a week; 35 percent said they were even forced to work during their periods.

About 13 percent of the women said they received no money at all for their work; 40 percent said they were imprisoned; and 8 percent said they were deprived of food - either as punishment or to make them thinner and more attractive. One woman related that after she had not menstruated for three months, she asked to see a doctor. The doctor felt her, said she was pregnant and announced that he would perform an abortion for $1,000. Only later - after she finally got her period - did she learn that the doctor was actually a veterinarian. In response to the report, the police issued the following statement: "We reject the generalizations made by the voluntary organizations that are based on anonymous interviews and stigmatize the Israel Police. The publication of baseless data regarding the police's involvement in trafficking, on the basis of those same anonymous interviews, borders on irresponsibility. These generalizations contradict the extremely significant improvement in the police's activity against traffic in women over the last two years that earned great admiration from the American government, to the point that it removed Israel from its black list of nations that permit traffic in women."