The year in review-Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

UN SAYS "STOP" TO SEX TRADE
Prepared by the Public Affairs Office,
United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH)

When local and international police raided a bar in central Bosnia recently they found four foreign girls who identified themselves as trafficking victims. All had been forced to work as prostitutes. A special United Nations unit immediately removed them to a safe house where 16-year-old "Irena" related a nightmare story of terror and abuse.

Kidnapped in Romania while walking home from school, "Irena" had been smuggled into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), sold to a seedy nightclub in the town of Zvornik, and raped. There she found girls from Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, many lured by promises of work as waitresses and cabaret dancers.

With passports confiscated, they were beaten and intimidated. To pay back bar owners, they were forced to provide sexual services to men, as many as ten a night. Traumatized, they were told that if they contacted the police they faced being sold again and again.

Until recently, lax police enforcement, lack of prosecutions and weak immigration procedures saw sex establishments flourish in BiH - and indeed throughout the region. In BiH alone there are at least 200 suspected brothels.

But now things are beginning to change. In June 2001, the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) and local police established "STOP". The initials stand for the "Special Trafficking Operations Programme".

"We decided that enough is enough. We're attacking every aspect of the sex trade," says Celhia De Lavarene, the UN's Special Adviser on Gender Issues in BiH.

STOP is producing results. More than 200 raids have been carried out. While many girls claim to be working voluntarily, a substantial minority has sought refuge in shelters provided by the International Organization for Migration. Some 350 girls like "Irena", ten per cent of them minors, have been repatriated with the help of their embassies.

But STOP still faces an uphill struggle. Bar owners are often tipped off about raids in advance, sometimes by local police. It takes courage for girls to testify in court; so UN human rights workers insist on being present to stop swaggering bar owners from threatening witnesses.

Pressing local authorities to prosecute - and judges to convict - is also problematical. Brothels are highly profitable and bribes to officials not uncommon. Despite all this, successful prosecutions are increasing with prison sentences and steep fines.

As STOP gets into high gear, it has established special teams in all BiH regions. Experts are training local police. UNMIBH, which is monitoring the reform and reconstruction of police forces in BiH, is also encouraging interregional cooperation to fight trafficking. Already, STOP is the most ambitious anti-trafficking project in Western Europe and the Balkans.

"We have a message for these gangsters who run the sex trade," says De Lavarene. "We know who you are. And we're going to get you."

For "Irena", at least, there's a happy ending. Tears flowing freely, she embraces a STOP coordinator before boarding the plane that will take her home to Romania and hopefully a normal life at last.