POLICE ARREST 223 PEOPLE IN PROSTITUTION CRACKDOWN IN BOSNIA

March 3, 2001 - (AP article in The Canadian Press) Hundreds of police officers raided brothels throughout Bosnia on Saturday, arresting 223 people in a crackdown on prostitution and human trafficking.

Stefo Lehman, a spokesman for the United Nations in Sarajevo, said 177 women -most of them from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian Federation - were detained on suspicion of prostitution.

Many came to Bosnia believing they would be working as waitresses, only to have their passports taken away. They were being held until their legal status could be determined, according to Jacques Paul Klein, head of the United Nations in Bosnia.

The others detained were suspected brothel owners, their employees and clients, he said.

"This was the most significant co-ordinated police action taken to date by the police in Bosnia-Herzegovina to address the serious problem of human trafficking and forced prostitution," a UN statement said.

Klein said the simultaneous raid on 38 nightclubs by some 500 officers had been planned for two months. The action was the biggest co-ordinated effort to date involving separate police forces from the Bosnian Serb republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation, the country's two ministates.

"This clearly demonstrates to us all that police training has paid off, professionalism has been enhanced and the ability to work constructively together is possible, regardless of entity or ethnic origin," Klein said.

The UN police, with support from local professionals, supervises and monitors police work in Bosnia.