PRESS BRIEFING ON TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a programme coordinating activities of the  United Nations and law enforcement entities at various levels had closed 73 of  184 establishments with known activities related to trafficking in humans, said Celhia de Lavarène, Special Adviser on trafficking to Jacques Klein, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  A former United Nations correspondent, Ms. de Lavarène gave out those statistics at an afternoon press briefing to report on the Special Trafficking Operations Programme (STOP) initiated in July of last year.

She said her mandate had come about as a result of allegations that the International Police Task Force (IPTF) was involved in trafficking of human beings.  That turned out to be untrue.  However, it had been involved in the use of young girls’ services, including, at times, without relying on willing participants.  The STOP programme had been established to curb that activity. 

The basic unit of the comprehensive programme was a team of about 50 people in each region, she said.  Those teams worked with the Ministry of the Interior.  About 200 STOP team police assisted local police by monitoring and training them, as well as by pushing them.  “That’s a tough job”, she said, since the police and traffickers had worked side by side during the war.  Therefore, the local police were not only intimidated, but also reluctant to do their job. The STOP encouraged them to use the United Nations as an excuse for doing their job.  In addition, since STOP had no mandate to change the judiciary, which also was reluctant to do its job, the only viable weapon was to conduct raids and “make hell” for the traffickers.

STOP’s experience with young girls aged 14 or 15 was a case in point, she said.  They were often found under bondage conditions, being misused and beaten.  Even if they were persuaded to appear in court and police cooperated, the courts might let the traffickers off.  Raids against the traffickers were the only successful tactics.  Since its establishment, STOP had made a big difference.  In the small town of Doboj, about two hours from Sarajevo, 21 out of 30 bars had been closed.  Nevertheless, traffickers always kept a step ahead of law enforcement by adapting.  They were now using private houses to conduct the trafficking, and STOP’s access was made more difficult by the reluctance of prosecutors and judges to issue search warrants.

“But we find a way”, she said, adding that much remained to be done, though the proof of progress was in the numbers.  The numbers of both girls and establishments involved had been reduced.  It was the first time that the United Nations had ever undertaken a programme to make it “not worthwhile” for the traffickers.  There was a zero-tolerance policy and the STOP programme was established enough to be effective.

In response to questions, she said 150 out of 1,350 girls had so far been helped.  The low number reflected the difficulty of persuading very poor girls from places like Romania who had been forced into trafficking, to turn on the

traffickers, who were clever at convincing them that the United Nations wanted to imprison them.

What explanation did the Government have for not pressing the judiciary to be more responsive? a correspondent asked.  Many in government were involved in the trafficking, she answered.  Part of STOP’s work was to get rid of the bad elements.  Asked whether the job was risky, she said she’d been harassed and followed lately, but she wasn’t about to leave.  Who was behind the trafficking?  Was it the Russian mafia or local gangs? she was asked.

“What we’ve found it that the mafia is very good at reconciliation over there”, she said.  “The traffickers are Bosnian, Croat, Yugoslav, whatever.”

Why couldn’t the United Nations tell the Bosnians to cooperate with her office? she was asked.  She said there was constant contact with each of the nine Ministers of Interior within the Federation.  They were very good at saying yes and then not implementing what they had said.  Emphasizing that not everybody was involved but that many were, she said it was difficult to prove trafficking activity and find the evidence to bring charges, since there was no mandate for that aspect of the trafficking initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A correspondent asked whether disinterest on the part of prosecutors was responsible for the paucity of charges brought, or whether payoffs were also suspected.  “I don’t suspect, I know”, she said.

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