UN POLICE ACCUSED OF PROSTITUTION COVER-UP

June 14, 2001 - (AP article in The Record – Waterloo, Ontario) Kathryn Bolkovac left her job as a veteran police officer in Lincoln, Neb., to take on a very different kind of law enforcement -- a UN police post cracking down on forced prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Investigating the plight of the women from eastern Europe was grim enough. But then, Bolkovac says, she began amassing evidence that some of her fellow officers were customers at Bosnia's illegal brothels and others were more deeply involved.

Last year, Bolkovac was demoted, and in April she was fired. The official reason: She allegedly falsified a time sheet. Bolkovac's explanation: She filed a report alleging that officers forged documents for trafficked women, aided their illegal transport through border checkpoints into Bosnia, and tipped off sex club owners ahead of raids.

"I was shocked, appalled and disgusted by what I saw going on," she said. "The mission supervisors don't want to hear about it."

Bolkovac and other current and former members of the UN mission in Bosnia described how international police monitors -- sent to set an example for the local police and root out corruption in their ranks -- allegedly have been involved in criminal activities.

The United Nations concedes that two dozen officers with the 2,000-member UN International Police Task Force have been fired for offences ranging from bribery to sexual impropriety. But it insists most officers carry out their duties in exemplary fashion.

"During my tenure, there have been no coverups and I have implemented a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual or other serious misconduct," Jacques Paul Klein, the head of the UN mission in Bosnia, said in a statement.

Charles Hunter, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, acknowledged "occasional disciplinary problems" with the American contingent. "When they have
arisen, we have sought to respond quickly, fairly and appropriately."

Prostitution is illegal in Bosnia, but it thrives amid the presence of 21,000 NATO peacekeepers and thousands of international bureaucrats and aid workers.