1. Ditta statunitense coinvolta nello scandalo della prostituzione
minorile in Bosnia vince appalto per il Ministero della Difesa
britannico.
2. 200mila "schiave" ogni anno coinvolte nel traffico gestito da UCK e
da altri alleati della NATO.
ALTRO LINK:
Bulgarian Police Crack Down on Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation
http://www.balkantimes.com/html2/english/021028-SVETLA-000.htm
=== 1 ===
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4556985,00.html
American firm in Bosnia sex trade row poised to win MoD contract
Jamie Wilson and Kevin Maguire
Friday November 29, 2002
The Guardian
The American defence contractor forced to pay compensation to a UN
police officer unfairly dismissed for blowing the whistle on
colleagues involved in the Bosnian sex trade is poised to be awarded
its first contract by the British government, the Guardian has
learned.
DynCorp, which was ordered to pay the sacked UN investigator Kathryn
Bolkovac £110,000 by an employment tribunal on Tuesday, is part of a
consortium that is set to be awarded preferred bidder status by the
Ministry of Defence to supply support services for military firing
ranges.
The decision, expected to be announced in the next few weeks by Adam
Ingram, the armed forces minister, was yesterday condemned by MPs and
union leaders.
Former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle said: "It is simply
unacceptable that a company like DynCorp, which has been so
cavalier towards Ms Bolkovac, should be
given a contract by the MoD."
Ms Bolkovac was dismissed after revealing that UN peacekeepers went to
nightclubs where girls as young as 15 were forced to dance naked and
have sex with customers, and that UN personnel and international aid
workers were linked to prostitution rings in the Balkans. The
employment tribunal accepted that Ms Bolkovac, an American who was
employed by DynCorp and contracted to the UN, had been dismissed for
whistleblowing.
She said the company wanted her removed because her work was
threatening its "lucrative contract" to supply officers to the
mission.
The MoD firing range contract, worth more than £60m, is expected to be
awarded to a consortium called LandMarc Support Services, a
partnership between DynCorp and a British contractor, Interserve.
They are bidding to provide the non-military support services for the
armed services' ranges, including training area and range operations,
catering and estate management. It will result in more than 1,000
employees being transferred from the MoD to the private sector.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the trade union Amicus,
voiced concern that DynCorp should be involved in one of the
government's public-private partnerships.
"The root of the trade unions' opposition to PPPs is concern that
public servants will be transferred into the hands of bad
employers. The government is never going to get wholehearted support
to hand over public services to private companies if they have records
like this."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence last night said no decision
had been taken.
Ms Bolkovac is not the only employee who claims to have been unfairly
dismissed by DynCorp over the sex trade scandal.
Hours after she won her case lawyers for the company made an
undisclosed financial settlement in a lawsuit in Texas with a former
employee, Ben Johnston, who also exposed the affair.
Mr Johnston's case included allegations of men having sex with girls
as young as 12. His claims also concerned a nightclub in Bosnia
frequented by DynCorp employees, where young women were sold "hourly,
daily or permanently".
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
=== 2 ===
(From Rick Rozoff)
http://www.janes.com/regional_news/europe/news/jir/jir021104_1_n.shtml
Jane's Intelligence Review
November 4, 2002
Balkan gangs traffic 200,000 women annually
-The principal destinations within the Balkans are
Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.
-The dominant group involved in trafficking women,
according to intelligence sources, is ethnic Albanian,
and may account for as much as 65% of Balkan human
trafficking. Albanians are involved in a number of
routes from start to finish, a trend increasingly
mirrored in Albanian heroin trafficking. There are
Albanian criminals working in Chisinau, trafficking
women through Europe, and then sending women onward to
Albanian-controlled brothels in Albania, Kosovo, the
UK and other European countries where Albanian
organised crime is active. In London's Soho district
and other parts of the West End, Albanians have
achieved almost total control of off-street
prostitution in the last five years.
An Italian-led, joint European police operation,
'Sunflower', led to the arrests of 80 people in early
October 2002, in what was claimed to be the
continent's most important operation ever against
human trafficking.
Members of gangs trafficking east European women were
arrested in Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, France,
Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Targets of the
operation included travel agents, coach companies and
'hotel' owners. The operation followed a similar one
in April 2001, in which 100 people were arrested;
police pointed to close co-operation between Russian
and Italian groups in both cases.
However, the operation has only made a small dent in a
huge criminal business whose roots are bound up with
the chronic economic, social and political problems of
the transitional states of central and eastern Europe.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), 500,000 women are illegally trafficked in the
world each year, of whom 200,000 pass through the
Balkan region. That the DEA has been estimating
numbers of trafficked women points to the close
relationship of the crime with heroin trafficking and
other illicit businesses prevalent in the region.
Research conducted on behalf of the EU Balkan
Stability Pact in 2002 concluded that trafficking in
women is the single largest criminal business in the
Balkans in terms of cash turnover, exceeding even
heroin trafficking.
The Balkan traffic in women involves recruitment of
women from the more impoverished and chaotic countries
of Eastern Europe, trafficking through central Europe,
to hub points in the Balkans. From these hub points
women either find themselves forced to work as
prostitutes in the Balkans, or are trafficked onward
to Western Europe or the Middle East, and in some
cases Asia and North America.
In the journey from eastern source countries to the
Balkans and beyond, Belgrade is the principal trading
hub, and it appears that most women trafficked through
the Balkans spend some time in Yugoslavia.
Budapest and Bucharest function as waypoints for women
en route to Belgrade.
The principal destinations within the Balkans are
Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.
The dominant group involved in trafficking women,
according to intelligence sources, is ethnic Albanian,
and may account for as much as 65% of Balkan human
trafficking. Albanians are involved in a number of
routes from start to finish, a trend increasingly
mirrored in Albanian heroin trafficking. There are
Albanian criminals working in Chisinau, trafficking
women through Europe, and then sending women onward to
Albanian-controlled brothels in Albania, Kosovo, the
UK and other European countries where Albanian
organised crime is active. In London's Soho district
and other parts of the West End, Albanians have
achieved almost total control of off-street
prostitution in the last five years.
Other prominent groups include Ukrainian, Russian and
Turkish gangs. In addition, Italian organised crime
groups are involved in onward trafficking into Western
Europe. According to one experienced Balkan police
officer: "The Albanians, Russians and Turks are
operating in the light, and the Italians are operating
in the shadow, but their role should not be
underestimated."
minorile in Bosnia vince appalto per il Ministero della Difesa
britannico.
2. 200mila "schiave" ogni anno coinvolte nel traffico gestito da UCK e
da altri alleati della NATO.
ALTRO LINK:
Bulgarian Police Crack Down on Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation
http://www.balkantimes.com/html2/english/021028-SVETLA-000.htm
=== 1 ===
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4556985,00.html
American firm in Bosnia sex trade row poised to win MoD contract
Jamie Wilson and Kevin Maguire
Friday November 29, 2002
The Guardian
The American defence contractor forced to pay compensation to a UN
police officer unfairly dismissed for blowing the whistle on
colleagues involved in the Bosnian sex trade is poised to be awarded
its first contract by the British government, the Guardian has
learned.
DynCorp, which was ordered to pay the sacked UN investigator Kathryn
Bolkovac £110,000 by an employment tribunal on Tuesday, is part of a
consortium that is set to be awarded preferred bidder status by the
Ministry of Defence to supply support services for military firing
ranges.
The decision, expected to be announced in the next few weeks by Adam
Ingram, the armed forces minister, was yesterday condemned by MPs and
union leaders.
Former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle said: "It is simply
unacceptable that a company like DynCorp, which has been so
cavalier towards Ms Bolkovac, should be
given a contract by the MoD."
Ms Bolkovac was dismissed after revealing that UN peacekeepers went to
nightclubs where girls as young as 15 were forced to dance naked and
have sex with customers, and that UN personnel and international aid
workers were linked to prostitution rings in the Balkans. The
employment tribunal accepted that Ms Bolkovac, an American who was
employed by DynCorp and contracted to the UN, had been dismissed for
whistleblowing.
She said the company wanted her removed because her work was
threatening its "lucrative contract" to supply officers to the
mission.
The MoD firing range contract, worth more than £60m, is expected to be
awarded to a consortium called LandMarc Support Services, a
partnership between DynCorp and a British contractor, Interserve.
They are bidding to provide the non-military support services for the
armed services' ranges, including training area and range operations,
catering and estate management. It will result in more than 1,000
employees being transferred from the MoD to the private sector.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the trade union Amicus,
voiced concern that DynCorp should be involved in one of the
government's public-private partnerships.
"The root of the trade unions' opposition to PPPs is concern that
public servants will be transferred into the hands of bad
employers. The government is never going to get wholehearted support
to hand over public services to private companies if they have records
like this."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence last night said no decision
had been taken.
Ms Bolkovac is not the only employee who claims to have been unfairly
dismissed by DynCorp over the sex trade scandal.
Hours after she won her case lawyers for the company made an
undisclosed financial settlement in a lawsuit in Texas with a former
employee, Ben Johnston, who also exposed the affair.
Mr Johnston's case included allegations of men having sex with girls
as young as 12. His claims also concerned a nightclub in Bosnia
frequented by DynCorp employees, where young women were sold "hourly,
daily or permanently".
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
=== 2 ===
(From Rick Rozoff)
http://www.janes.com/regional_news/europe/news/jir/jir021104_1_n.shtml
Jane's Intelligence Review
November 4, 2002
Balkan gangs traffic 200,000 women annually
-The principal destinations within the Balkans are
Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.
-The dominant group involved in trafficking women,
according to intelligence sources, is ethnic Albanian,
and may account for as much as 65% of Balkan human
trafficking. Albanians are involved in a number of
routes from start to finish, a trend increasingly
mirrored in Albanian heroin trafficking. There are
Albanian criminals working in Chisinau, trafficking
women through Europe, and then sending women onward to
Albanian-controlled brothels in Albania, Kosovo, the
UK and other European countries where Albanian
organised crime is active. In London's Soho district
and other parts of the West End, Albanians have
achieved almost total control of off-street
prostitution in the last five years.
An Italian-led, joint European police operation,
'Sunflower', led to the arrests of 80 people in early
October 2002, in what was claimed to be the
continent's most important operation ever against
human trafficking.
Members of gangs trafficking east European women were
arrested in Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, France,
Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Targets of the
operation included travel agents, coach companies and
'hotel' owners. The operation followed a similar one
in April 2001, in which 100 people were arrested;
police pointed to close co-operation between Russian
and Italian groups in both cases.
However, the operation has only made a small dent in a
huge criminal business whose roots are bound up with
the chronic economic, social and political problems of
the transitional states of central and eastern Europe.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), 500,000 women are illegally trafficked in the
world each year, of whom 200,000 pass through the
Balkan region. That the DEA has been estimating
numbers of trafficked women points to the close
relationship of the crime with heroin trafficking and
other illicit businesses prevalent in the region.
Research conducted on behalf of the EU Balkan
Stability Pact in 2002 concluded that trafficking in
women is the single largest criminal business in the
Balkans in terms of cash turnover, exceeding even
heroin trafficking.
The Balkan traffic in women involves recruitment of
women from the more impoverished and chaotic countries
of Eastern Europe, trafficking through central Europe,
to hub points in the Balkans. From these hub points
women either find themselves forced to work as
prostitutes in the Balkans, or are trafficked onward
to Western Europe or the Middle East, and in some
cases Asia and North America.
In the journey from eastern source countries to the
Balkans and beyond, Belgrade is the principal trading
hub, and it appears that most women trafficked through
the Balkans spend some time in Yugoslavia.
Budapest and Bucharest function as waypoints for women
en route to Belgrade.
The principal destinations within the Balkans are
Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.
The dominant group involved in trafficking women,
according to intelligence sources, is ethnic Albanian,
and may account for as much as 65% of Balkan human
trafficking. Albanians are involved in a number of
routes from start to finish, a trend increasingly
mirrored in Albanian heroin trafficking. There are
Albanian criminals working in Chisinau, trafficking
women through Europe, and then sending women onward to
Albanian-controlled brothels in Albania, Kosovo, the
UK and other European countries where Albanian
organised crime is active. In London's Soho district
and other parts of the West End, Albanians have
achieved almost total control of off-street
prostitution in the last five years.
Other prominent groups include Ukrainian, Russian and
Turkish gangs. In addition, Italian organised crime
groups are involved in onward trafficking into Western
Europe. According to one experienced Balkan police
officer: "The Albanians, Russians and Turks are
operating in the light, and the Italians are operating
in the shadow, but their role should not be
underestimated."