If prostitution is illegal in Bosnia, then why — in the presence of some 20, NATO peacekeepers and thousands of other U. One answer may be that the United Nation's police force may be turning a blind eye or, even worse, participating in the sex trafficking itself.
It certainly seems that, as the scandal emerges, the corruption reaches upward into the United Nations. Bolkovac claims it was because she spoke out against the United Nation's involvement in sex trafficking. Through interviews with 85 women coerced into sex, Bolkovac learned that U.
The young girls are from desperately poor nations like Romania. Many reportedly answer ads for "legitimate" work only to be kidnapped, taken across borders and enslaved in brothels that operate with the full knowledge of the local authorities.
After Bolkovac advised various U. Although an extension of her contract had been recommended prior to the e-mail, she was transferred to a suburb of Sarajevo, then fired. Bolkovac stated, "Those responsible Douglas Coffman, a spokesman for the United Nations in Sarajevo, denied the accusation, but Bolkovac is the not the first to hurl it. Stories of U. David Lamb, a former Philadelphia policeman working as a U. He provided evidence that IPTF members were directly linked to forcing girls into prostitution.
Most prominently, he named two Romanian officers who sold women directly to brothels. Lamb filed his findings. He found that "the opposition of the central [U. The Washington Post reported on what happened next. Another difficulty in assessing the situation is that U. A few weeks later, confidential U. Moreover, after Lamb departed, a Canadian officer, the Romanian government and an anti-corruption unit of the United Nations investigated the case in turn.
