The United Nations mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina may face an investigation following charges that it sought to cover up media reports implicating its officials in selling women into prostitution. UN headquarters in Sarajevo has denied the claims but acknowledged that several members of its staff have been sacked for misconduct.
The charges were first aired by Kathy Balkovac, an American police officer and a former UN human rights investigator. Balkovac alleged that extensive trafficking of women into prostitution had been carried out by UN personnel, NATO troops and other international officials in Bosnia, along with the local police. In an official statement, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sarajevo demanded the investigation to be carried out "in an open and transparent manner and that the reports should be made public.
Western diplomats said that during his presentation in New York, Klein was "peppered" with questions about charges that women had been forced into prostitution by UN officials.
The Balkovac memo in November was filed at a time when UN monitors and local police were involved in a series of controversial raids on brothels in Prijedor.
Later it was alleged that these UN officials had collaborated with Prijedor police in "buying" the women and having sex with some of them. Several of the victims were said to be under aged girls. Six officers, three of them Americans, were dismissed after this incident. But no critical remarks were made on their personal records. In documents obtained by IWPR, Balkovac said the UN was aware of numerous cases in which international police monitors had engaged in the trafficking of women in Bosnia since October But she claimed nothing was done about it.
