SARAJEVO, Aug 5 (Hina) - Over the course of the past 12 months, international police forces in Bosnia (IPTF) discovered 202 night bars in which women were forcibly held and forced to prostitute themselves.
SARAJEVO, Aug 5 (Hina) - Over the course of the past 12 months,
international police forces in Bosnia (IPTF) discovered 202 night
bars in which women were forcibly held and forced to prostitute
themselves. #L#
In July 2001 the UN Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina set up a special
STOP team to combat trafficking in humans and forced prostitution
after it was established that local police were doing nothing to
prevent such phenomena.
Since then more than 600 raids were made, and 124 night bars which
were actually brothels were closed down after it was proved that
owners abused girls working under the guise of waitresses, forcing
them to prostitution.
More than 1,800 girls and women were interviewed, with 182 seeking
and receiving UN assistance to return to their home countries.
Fifty-six sentences were passed but not one of those convicted
ended up behind bars, says John O'Reilly, an Irish police officer
currently coordinating the STOP team.
He maintains that the fundamental reason why it is impossible to
effectively halt forced prostitution is the collusion between the
well-organised criminal network behind trafficking in humans and
local police and the judiciary in Bosnia.
According to Celhia de Lavarne, a special adviser to the head of the
UN Mission to Bosnia who actively participated in combating this
aspect of organised crime, it is a question of huge amounts of
money, weapons and very persistent organisers.
Mike Tinkler, a British police officer who took part in many brothel
raids all over Bosnia, says that brothel owners were always warned
in advance that police would raid their premises.
One of the victims of forced prostitution told the IPTF that during
her "engagement" in one of the night bars she had sexual intercourse
with six local judges.
The night bar owners as a rule have associates among local police
whom they can buy for little money.
Tinkler says that a brothel with about a dozen girls forced to
prostitute themselves earns its owner an annual net profit of
350,000 convertible marks.
According to IPTF data, Belgrade is one of the centres where girls
who are then sent to Bosnia meet.
In the Yugoslav capital, the organised prostitution mafia
organises some sort of "audition", dividing girls according to what
they are willing to do.
Some of them decide to work as prostitutes of their own volition and
not much can be done about it, but the IPTF aims at preventing this
from serving as a fence for trafficking in women.
De Lavarne recalls that the victims of forced prostitution
discovered in Bosnia included girls aged 14-15. Many ended up in
Bosnia by deceit, after they had been lured with promises of normal
jobs.
Mediators would sell them to brothel owners for 2,500-3,500
convertible marks. The girls were then brutally forced to
prostitution.
Some girls spoke about having been kept locked in basements for
days, then beaten and brutally raped until they agreed to do what
the pimps ordered.
The most horrific case registered by the UN was a pregnant girl who
was beaten so savagely that she lost the baby.
De Lavarne says the culprit was found but never ended up in jail.
She says the UN will not give up on combating forced prostitution
and that raids will resume until the local judiciary starts
cooperating and punishing those responsible.
This determination could, however, be brought into question very
soon given that the UN Mission's mandate in Bosnia expires at the
end of the year.
The IPTF should be succeeded by a European Union police mission
(EUPM), but it appears this will mean the end of the STOP
programme.
According to the UN Mission seat in Sarajevo, the EU is not
interested in the programme due to lack of staff and funding.
The brothel owners seem to be aware of this and are not in the least
upset about the IPTF operations, said Tinkler.
(hina) ha