A Balkans kingpin defends his lair
	MACEDONIAN OFFICIALS SAY Dilaver, widely known by his nickname, “Leku,” is very nearly untouchable — able to keep local police and prosecutors at bay with cash kickbacks from his smuggling empire. Smug in his lair in the region where he was born and snacking on freshly caught trout from nearby Lake Okhrid, Dilaver recently discounted the litany of charges the Macedonian government has lodged against him. “I’m a simple man,” he said. “It’s always, ‘Leku, Leku, Leku.’ ”       Right or not, “Leku” has become a catchword for much that is wrong in the Balkans, where crime and corruption flourish after a decade of ethnic conflicts. And here in western Macedonia, a region that almost erupted into a war between minority Albanians and majority Macedonians a year ago, Leku’s name strikes fear in the hearts of dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of victims of human trafficking. “He’s one of the main guys,” said a Western law enforcement official working in the region.
					Wanted for forcing women into prostitution, ‘Leku’ lives free in Macedonia...
		LEKU LIVES LARGE        Dilaver likes to live large. By his own grinning admission, he has three “wives” and a number of consorts. On a recent day, he swept into his hotel in a floor-length leather coat. His 16-year old son brought him a glass of juice from the bar, where leggy Serb dancers were warming up for a night of cabaret.   Advertisement The Swiss-style Hotel Bern — influenced by the six years Dilaver years spent working on construction sites in Switzerland — is his pride and joy. He says his dream was to become an architect, a plan cut short because he didn’t go to college. The Hotel Bern bears his signature style, with lots of mirrors and marble. Down the road in the village of Velesta, Dilaver opened another bar, called Expresso. In Struga, on the north end of picturesque Lake Okhrid, he owns a night club called Kiss Me.According to Dilaver, he was once at odds with the law, serving two sentences for illegally employing foreign girls to “dance” at his popular nightclubs. “Now everything is legal,” he says, “and all the girls have working papers.”So what about all the women who say Dilaver beat them and, in more than one case, raped them to force them into prostitution? “They are just talking bad about me,” he said of the numerous accusations that form the backbone of the Macedonian government’s charges of human slavery.   ANOTHER STORY “Of course he’ll say that,” said Natalia, a Moldovan woman who says she was bought sold by Leku. “But he’s lying to you. He just doesn’t want to go to jail.”Twenty-two-year-old Natalia is one of a chorus of trafficking victims who say Dilaver is a demonic crime boss who forces girls into the sex trade. If they resist, they say he beats them into submission and threatens to harm their families back home.During a year and a half working in western Macedonia, where smugglers dumped her after promising her a well-paid job in Italy, Natalia was forced to sleep with hundreds of men. Brothel owners rotated Natalia and other girls through dozens of bars in the region.Then one day she found herself standing before Dilaver. “He paid 18,000 euros ($18,000) for six girls, myself included. There were four Moldovans, one Romanian and one Ukrainian.”                                          CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE