SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS Tables
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78–948PDF
2002
THE U.N. AND THE SEX SLAVE TRADE IN BOSNIA:
ISOLATED CASE OR LARGER PROBLEM IN THE U.N. SYSTEM?
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
APRIL 24, 2002
Serial No. 107–85
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Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
AMO HOUGHTON, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
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RON PAUL, Texas
NICK SMITH, Michigan
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
DARRELL E. ISSA, California
ERIC CANTOR, Virginia
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
BRIAN D. KERNS, Indiana
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
JIM DAVIS, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
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BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairwoman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
RON PAUL, Texas
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
GRACE NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
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YLEEM POBLETE, Subcommittee Staff Director
KHALED ELGINDY, Democratic Professional Staff Member
SANDY ACOSTA, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
WITNESSES
The Honorable Nancy Ely-Raphel, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State
Martina Vandenberg, J.D., Europe Researcher, Women's Rights Division, Human Rights Watch
Ben Johnston, former Dyncorp employee
David Lamb, former U.N. Human Rights Investigator in Bosnia
Nomi Levenkron, Head of Legal Department, Hotline for Migrant Workers in Israel
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, and Chairwoman, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights: Prepared statement
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The Honorable Nancy Ely-Raphel: Prepared statement
Martina Vandenberg: Prepared statement
Ben Johnston: Prepared statement
David Lamb: Prepared statement
Nomi Levenkron: Prepared statement
APPENDIX
Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
THE U.N. AND THE SEX SLAVE TRADE IN
BOSNIA: ISOLATED CASE OR LARGER PROBLEM IN THE U.N. SYSTEM?
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2002
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on International
Operations and Human Rights,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
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The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:20 p.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen presiding.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The Subcommittee will come to order.
''To serve and protect.'' When we hear these words, we are immediately reminded of the ever-present commitment of police officers to the citizenry of their precint, their state, their country.
When evaluated within the context of a United Nations mission, the role of the policing force is to restore civility to war-torn regions; to restore trust in the rule of law and law enforcement officers; to afford human beings who have been victimized a sense of security to rebuild their lives. When this trust is broken, as it was in Bosnia, it begins to erode the foundation on which the future of those emerging nations will be built. Indeed, we cannot let the actions of a few taint the image and discredit the work of thousands of others from multiple countries whose commitment to what is right and just has helped restore hope to Bosnia and other places.
As a 21-year-old university student in Sarajevo, Nezira Samardzic, has said,
''I cannot imagine peace without them. I am afraid that talk about only the bad side might prompt somebody to think the U.N. mission in Bosnia should be terminated,''
or as some U.N. officials have underscored, that it would generate further opposition to broader peacekeeping efforts in other regions.
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I certainly do not support engaging in vast generalizations and broad indictments. Nevertheless, when such egregious human rights violations are being committed, when women and girls are being sold as chattel to then be used as sex slaves, even if it is just one victim we must stand up and defend them. We must condemn the traffickers and all who actively, or by omission or complacency, allow these deplorable acts to go unpunished.
As the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, it is this body's moral obligation to investigate the allegations raised against DynCorp by a courageous American, Mr. Ben Johnston, and ensure that DynCorp, a major U.S. government contractor, is taking the necessary steps and implementing strict safeguards to ensure that what happened in the Balkans with DynCorp employees does not ever happen again anywhere. We, too, are here to protect and serve.
It is this Subcommittee's responsibility to exert oversight over the functions of the U.N. bodies and operations and address reports that U.N. officials sought to stymie investigations and cover up the involvement of the International Police Task Force in trafficking of human beings. As David Lamb, one of our witnesses today, has repeatedly stated, he and his colleagues routinely forwarded evidence of wrongdoing to the U.N. missions internal affairs unit, only to be told
''not to look too deep. It was just incredible to see the resistance we got. . . . I was trying to root out the corruption, but I could not get any support.''
U.N. officials during a recent briefing asserted that allegations of sex trafficking by the international policing force in Bosnia were found to be false. However, in the same statement they admitted that members of the force were found to have been involved in the use of young girls' services and that sometimes the children were unwilling participants. As advocates for Human Rights Watch have said regarding the situation in Bosnia,
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''Rape is a crime in any jurisdiction.''
As Members of the U.S. Congress, we would also be neglecting our duties if we did not address the participation of U.S. nationals in such activities and the response from our government agencies. One would hope that we would not need to tell American contractors that they cannot buy and sell women. Unfortunately, it appears that we must do a better job of sending an unequivocal message that this behavior will not be tolerated.
The U.S. has intensified its efforts to combat trafficking, internationally and domestically, through the establishment of an office to eradicate trafficking in persons, as mandated by Congress in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the appointment of Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel as Director of that office. Madame Ambassador, we thank you for being here today.
As a direct result of the DynCorp case and the broader problems of U.N. police involved in sex trafficking, the U.S. has tightened the screening process for participants in the international police program to include more thorough background checks and psychological screening. The 5- to 10-day training program includes specific briefings by State Department personnel on U.S. policies relating to sex trafficking. Recruits for the international police program are briefed on the ''no tolerance policy'' relating to sexual misconduct, whereby any participant would be immediately terminated from the program if involved in any sexual misconduct or fails to report any knowledge of such conduct by others.
In looking at the response to a survey that reported widespread sexual exploitation of refugee and internally displaced children in Sierra Leone and Mano River countries in Africa, it would seem that, at least, some lessons have been learned.
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The U.S. has asked the UNHCR, as a key humanitarian relief coordinating agency of the U.N. system, to take immediate steps to protect any minors and other victims of sexual exploitation and to prevent further abuses of any such persons both in West Africa and elsewhere; to initiate systemic changes to policy and policy-implementation activities to ensure that both it and its employees and all UNHCR-affiliated program implementation organizations are held accountable for such abuses, both in the present case and potential future ones, both in the region and worldwide; for an accounting of whether organizational or policy failures could have allowed the alleged abuses to occur and continue undetected for a significant period; and for the formulation and immediate implementation of policies to prevent and sanction any such abuses.
From the standpoint of the U.N., investigators from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Service [OIOS] are undertaking a field investigation in each of the named countries. The inquiry is reportedly attempting to validate the allegations made in the UNHCR/Save the Children survey. The High Commissioner for Refugees has created an internal task force that has been meeting regularly to review and strengthen the process by which his office responds to reported incidents of misuse of authority or positions of power by UNHCR staff and to prevent such abuses in the future.
UNHCR field offices in the Mano River countries have implemented immediate remedial measures, including the reaffirmation to all staff in the region that a zero tolerance policy for such abuses exists. Earlier this year, the assistant high commissioner for refugees traveled to the Mano River region to discuss the report with NGOs and other implementing agencies and to explore potential approaches to addressing issues raised by the report. He also spoke with refugees to hear their perspective and briefed UNHCR's executive committee members upon his return from the region.
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The UNHCR has also initiated a dialogue process with donor countries and NGOs focusing on these critical issues and developing appropriate policy responses, both in the present cases and in future incidents should they occur. It is expected that the abuse allegations and likely policy responses are likely to be addressed during the upcoming meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
The Subcommittee invited Save the Children and other NGOs to testify on the situation in West Africa, but they were unavailable. However, Ambassador Raphel will also address this case in her remarks and during the question and answer period, as well as reference global trends and developments in the practice of sex trafficking, which will appear in the upcoming trafficking report issued by the State Department.
Before I conclude my opening remarks, I would like to highlight recent articles and reports explaining how Israel is addressing the trafficking problem head on in a positive, proactive way, which I will insert into the record without objection. I congratulate Israel for its approach to this problem.
Thus, these documents will address some of the issues to be discussed. I thank all of you for being here today to address the issues of the U.N. and sex trafficking, and I will ask to be inserted into the record a document that was handed to us by the United Nations Information Center, a letter to Congresswoman McKinney and myself, to be inserted into the record. It outlines actions taken by the U.N. mission in Bosnia to address the issue that we are discussing here today.
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[The prepared statement of Ms. Ros-Lehtinen follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA, AND CHAIRWOMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
To serve and protect. When we hear these words, we are immediately reminded of the ever-present commitment of police officers to the citizenry of their precint, their state, their country.
When evaluated within the context of a United Nations mission, the role of the policing force is to restore civility to war-torn regions; to restore trust in the rule of law and law enforcement officers; to afford human beings who have been victimized the sense of security to rebuild their lives.
When this trust is broken, as it was in Bosnia, it begins to erode the foundation on which the future of those emerging nations will be built.
Indeed, we cannot allow the actions of a few, taint the image and discredit the work of thousands of others from multiple countries whose commitment to what is right and just, has helped restore hope to Bosnia and other places.
As a 21-year-old university student in Sarajevo (Nezira Samardzic) has said: ''I can't imagine peace without them. I'm afraid that talk about only the bad side might prompt somebody to think the U.N. mission in Bosnia should be terminated.''
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Or as some U.N. officials have underscored, that it would generate further opposition to broader peacekeeping efforts in other regions.
I certainly do not support engaging in vast generalizations and broad indictments.
Nevertheless, when such egregious human rights violations are being committed; when women and girls are being sold as chattel to then be used as sex slaves; even if it is just one victim, we must stand up and defend them.
We must condemn the traffickers and all who, actively, or by omission or complacency, allow these deplorable acts to go unpunished.
As the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, it is this body's moral obligation to investigate the allegations raised against DynCorp by a courageous American, Mr. Ben Johnston, and ensure that DynCorp, a major U.S. Government contractor, is taking the necessary steps and implementing strict safeguards to ensure that what happened in the Balkans with DynCorp employees, does not ever happen again, anywhere.
We, too, are here to protect and serve.
It is this Subcommittee's responsibility to exert oversight over the functions of U.N. bodies and operations, and address reports that U.N. officials sought to stymie investigations and cover-up the involvement of the International Police Task Force in trafficking of human beings.
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As David Lamb, one of our witnesses today has repeatedly stated, he and his colleagues routinely forwarded evidence of wrongdoing to the U.N. missions internal affairs unit, only to be told ''not to look too deep.'' ''It was just incredible to see the resistance we got . . . I was trying to root out the corruption, but I couldn't get any support.''
U.N. officials during a recent briefing asserted that allegations of sex trafficking by the international policing force in Bosnia were found to be false. However, in the same statement, they admitted that members of the force were found to have been involved in the use of young girls' services and that, sometimes, the children were unwilling participants.
As advocates for Human Rights Watch have said regarding the situation in Bosnia: ''Rape is a crime in any jurisdiction.''
As Members of the U.S. Congress, we would also be neglecting our duties if we did not address the participation of U.S. nationals in such activities and the response from our government agencies.
One would hope that we would not need to tell American contractors that they cannot buy and sell women. Unfortunately, it appears that we must do a better job of sending an unequivocal message that this behavior will not be tolerated.
The U.S. has intensified its efforts to combat trafficking, internationally and, domestically, through the establishment of an office to eradicate trafficking in persons, as mandated by Congress in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and the appointment of Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel, as Director of that office. Madame Ambassador, we thank you for being here today.
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As a direct result of the DynCorp case and the broader problems of U.N. police involved in sex trafficking, the U.S. has tightened the screening process for participants in the International Police Program to include more thorough background checks and psychological screening.
The 5 to 10 day training program includes specific briefings by State Department personnel on U.S. policies relating to sex trafficking.
Recruits for the international police program are briefed on the ''no tolerance policy'' relating to sexual misconduct whereby any participant would be immediately terminated from the program if involved in any sexual misconduct or fails to report knowledge of such conduct by others.
In looking at the response to a survey that reported widespread sexual exploitation of refugee and internally displaced children in Sierra Leone and Mano River countries in Africa, it would seem that, at least, some lessons have been learned.
The U.S. has asked the UNHCR, as a key humanitarian relief coordinating agency of the U.N. system:
to take immediate steps to protect any minors and other victims of sexual exploitation, and to prevent further abuses of any such persons both in West Africa and elsewhere.
to initiate systemic changes to policy and policy implementation activities to ensure that both it and its employees, and all UNHCR-affiliated program implementation organizations, are held accountable for such abuses, both in the present case and potential future ones, both in the region and worldwide.
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for an accounting of whether organizational or policy failures could have allowed the alleged abuses to occur and to continue undetected for a significant period
for the formulation and immediate implementation of policies to prevent and sanction any such abuses
From the standpoint of the UN, investigators from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Service (OIOS) are undertaking a field investigation in each of the named countries.
The inquiry is reportedly attempting to validate the allegations made in the UNHCR/Save the Children survey.
The High Commissioner for Refugees has created an internal Task Force that has been meeting regularly to review and strengthen the processes by which his office responds to reported incidents of misuse of authority or positions of power by UNHCR staff, and to prevent such abuses in the future.
UNHCR field offices in the Mano River countries have implemented immediate remedial measures, including the re-affirmation to all staff in the region that a ''zero tolerance'' policy for such abuses exists.
Earlier this year, the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees traveled to the Mano River region to discuss the report with NGOs and other implementing agencies and to explore potential approaches to addressing issues raised by the report.
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He also spoke with refugees to hear their perspective and briefed UNHCR's executive committee members upon his return from the region.
The UNHCR has also initiated a dialogue process with donor countries and NGOs focusing on these critical issues and developing appropriate policy responses, both in the present cases and in future incidents should they occur.
It is expected that the abuse allegations and likely policy responses are likely to be addressed during the upcoming meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
The Subcommittee invited Save the Children and other NGOs to testify on the situation in West Africa but they were unavailable.
However, Ambassador Raphel will also address this case in her remarks and during the question and answer period, as well as reference global trends and developments in the practice of sex trafficking, which will appear in the upcoming trafficking report issued by the State Department.
Before I conclude my opening remarks, I would like to highlight recent articles and reports explaining how Israel is addressing the trafficking problem head on, which I will insert into the record. Although beyond the specific scope of this hearing, the issue of trafficking in Israel will be raised by one of our witnesses on the second panel. Thus, these documents address some of the issues to be discussed.
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I thank you all for being here today to address the issue of the U.N. and sex trafficking.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. We have 6 minutes left. I do not know what you would like to do, Ms. McKinney.
Ms. MCKINNEY. Which probably means that we have about 3 minutes if we can make it over there in 3 minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Okay. So I will turn it over to you. You can do your thing, and I will go vote.
Ms. MCKINNEY. Okay. Great.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Congresswoman.
Ms. MCKINNEY [presiding]. Thank you, Madam Chair, for convening this hearing on sex trafficking. Sex trafficking, wherever it occurs, is abhorrent. Sex trafficking, wherever it occurs, is a concern of the men and women of this Subcommittee, of the full Committee, and of this Congress. I would like to commend Congressman Smith, who has taken a lead on this issue and all other human rights issues, too many of which remain overlooked.
Trafficking, particularly sex trafficking and sexual slavery, has become a global scourge that until recently has received scant or no attention from our policymakers. So it is appropriate that this Subcommittee should convene this hearing on this subject.
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Who would have thought that in the year 2002, almost 200 years after Denmark became the first of the world's nations to outlaw slavery, we would still be here fighting the hideous practices of buying, selling, and trafficking of human beings. Probably no one group in this country understands the horror and cruelty involved in these practices than the grandsons and granddaughters of African slaves. Even today, for the inheritors of slavery's legacy, the African-American community, justice has come slowly, and the economic, social, and psychological wounds of history still have not healed. One hundred and thirty-nine years after the formal abolition of the American slave trade African-Americans are still waiting to collect on the ''bad check'' that Dr. King talked about on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial almost four decades ago.
Eight generations of African-Americans are still waiting to achieve their rights, compensation, and restitution for the hundreds of years during which we were bought and sold on the market. Let me add that the fight against sexual exploitation and sex-based tyranny, a fight that is as old as history itself, has particular meaning. To be denied one's freedom, to be stripped of one's human value, and instead assigned a market price; these are no minor things. They strike at the very heart of what it means to be free and human.
International human rights activists have for years been alerting us to the ongoing brutality of human exploitation. Finally, 2 years ago, we began to listen. The passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was a great success for victims of trafficking, exploitation, and slavery everywhere. The State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, issued last year for the first time, has been a welcome addition to the discourse on the practices of buying and selling human beings. The report rightly calls these abominable practices ''a modern-day form of slavery which has persisted into the twenty-first century.'' The State Department's report helps us to understand that while modern-day human trafficking may have taken on more sophisticated and often even subtle forms, the pain, horror, and exploitation can be very much the same as it was hundreds of years ago.
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The State Department report also plays another very key role. It allows for the debate on the practice of buying, selling, trading, trafficking in human beings to be elevated to a level that goes beyond petty political and ideological concerns. So while it may be popular in some political circles to single out certain nations, races, or religions for selective moral scrutiny, we know now that the realities are far more complex and disquieting. Because among the ''rogue nations'' and ''dictatorships'' of the third-tier countries—countries the State Department views as the world's most egregious traffickers in human beings—countries like Burma, Sudan, and Yugoslavia, are those nations that in addition to being strong U.S. allies are also considered to be thriving democracies. Yet there is little or no outrage from the usual circles, either inside or outside the Congress.
The authors of the State Department report should be commended for providing us with an honest and straightforward assessment of these horrible, despicable practices no matter where they occur. We might have thought or wished that such practices had been relegated to the past. It might have been easier to bury our heads in the sand. For years we did that, but the lessons of history are still fresh on our minds, and we know that we cannot afford to look the other way. Someone once said that the most important thing we can learn from history is that we never learn from history. I hope this time we will prove them wrong.
I would like to thank our witnesses for being here, and I look forward to hearing from you. With that, I will recess the Subcommittee until we all vote and return. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 2:35 p.m., a recess was taken.]
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. The Subcommittee is now back in order. I will turn to Mr. Smith for his opening statement.
Mr. SMITH. Madam Chair, thank you very much. Thank you for convening this very, very important and timely hearing, and I want to thank our very distinguished witnesses. Madam Ambassador, thank you for your leadership and for being here today. I look forward to your testimony and that of your colleagues.
For the past several years, I have worked along with you and some of the other Members of our Committee, to address the egregious trafficking in human beings in the United States and worldwide. These efforts led to the passage, as I think you know, of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Through the Helsinki Commission, I have been particularly engaged in this issue as it exists in the European region. I have read internal investigations, reports by the U.N. which contain damaging allegations about police monitors in Bosnia and their dishonorable activities vis-a-vis trafficked women, including the exploitation of women by police monitors and efforts to thwart any investigations in these activities. At least a half dozen police monitors have been repatriated from Bosnia due to involvement with trafficking. Nonetheless, just last month, the head of the U.N. mission in Bosnia dismissed the reports of such links as ''unfounded rumors.''
I am pleased that the Subcommittee is holding this important hearing today, and I look forward to hearing the testimony regarding the extent of these problems in Bosnia and potentially other areas of U.N. engagement. I am also deeply concerned that American and other countries' police officers, such as Romania's, who have allegedly been involved in trafficking have not been held accountable beyond mere repatriation. I hope this hearing will lead to a change in that policy. The United States must seek to hold the U.N. accountable for what happens in the field under the United Nations' watch, but we must also lead by example, holding American police monitors accountable for involvement in trafficking is certainly an essential element. I hope to hear from our witnesses today what can be done to prevent further instances of international personnel's involvement in trafficking and, furthermore, whether there has been a coverup at high levels within the United Nations that our government should also be addressing. Again, I want to thank you for this hearing and look forward to our witnesses. Along with the Chairwoman of this Committee, I apologize that a series of votes kept you waiting here in the room. We do apologize for that.
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. And today we are joined by Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel, the Director for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department. As an expert in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Africa and the former Soviet Union, it makes perfect sense that she head up this newly created office at State. Under the Clinton Administration, she first served as the coordinator for Bosnia, working on the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and then as Ambassador to Slovenia. She is accompanied today by William Embry, the Director of the Office on Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Operations under the International Organizations Bureau; and Bob Gifford from the Civil Police Unit in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
Thank you very much for coming and being with us today. We will be glad to insert your full statement into the record. Thank you. Madam Ambassador.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE NANCY ELY-RAPHEL, DIRECTOR, OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. Thank you, Madam Chairman. It is a privilege for me to appear today before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. The question that concerns us today is the extent to which United Nations peacekeepers, relief workers, police forces, or those with the U.N. or other relief agencies might be involved in trafficking in persons or sexual misconduct and, if they are involved, whether it is the result of a systemic problem in the U.N. system. Our message today is one of zero tolerance.
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I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this topic, which has received substantial play in the media over the last several months. The press attention has brought to the forefront the problem of trafficking, which has received far too little attention in the past. Building an awareness of the problem is undoubtedly one of the first steps we must take in trying to combat it.
The State Department has initiated a zero tolerance policy with respect to immoral, unethical, and illegal behavior. This includes involvement in trafficking or in prostitution. All U.S. police personnel are briefed by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau prior to their departure. Specifically, involvement in such activities will result in immediate termination of an officer's contract. Failure on the part of U.S. CIVPOL officers to report such activity is considered just as seriously and will result in termination. When an officer is terminated for cause, he or she must pay their own air fare home, lose their completion bonus, and not be eligible to participate in any future missions.
Starting last year, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons began to participate in predeployment briefings for U.S. police personnel. The Balkan wars, which dominated the region over the last decade, and the rampant organized crime and corruption which flourished in the absence of a functioning rule-of-law structure has enabled traffickers to work largely undeterred by law enforcement and the judiciary. Due to the severe conflicts which dominated reporting on the region much of the last decade, trafficking in Eastern European women to and through the Balkans has been a largely unpublicized tragedy that attracted little public awareness in the United States, apart from those groups devoted to their relief.
I believe that educating American police officers assigned abroad or, indeed, the American public about all aspects of the trafficking problem is a simple but fundamental step in banishing ignorance, indifference, or even apathy and instilling the fullest possible recognition of the gravity of the problem. Our briefings raise awareness of the problem, which many of our police may not have previously encountered in their law enforcement careers. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor also participates in these briefings and provides information on international human rights standards and norms as well as the impact of trafficking in persons.
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Upon conclusion of these briefings, all CIVPOL candidates sign a DynCorp letter of agreement stating that they understand what trafficking is, pledge not to engage in trafficking, and know they will be dismissed if they violate the agreement. The briefing procedure has been in place for a year, and we are not aware of any incidents that have brought complaints of such activity against U.S. CIVPOL who have been deployed since then.
There were, however, several instances of sexual misconduct among officers who deployed prior to the institution of these trafficking briefings. When these instances occurred, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs followed through with its zero tolerance policy, and the individuals were terminated. The bureau also referred several cases of serious misconduct by U.S. CIVPOL officers to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
Further work in the area of prosecution is needed. To date, on American civilian police officer has been prosecuted due to lack of jurisdiction of U.S. courts. The Criminal Division at the Department of Justice and the State Department are looking closely at how to resolve this problem. While I would refer you to the Justice Department for details, I understand that the Criminal Division is currently drafting a proposed amendment to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, [MEJA], of 2000 that would extend Federal jurisdiction to include all U.S. government employees and contractors who work in a law enforcement capacity abroad. This would enable the Justice Department to prosecute any criminal offenders identified among the U.S. civilian police cadres serving abroad.
The misconduct of the few rather than the honorable work of the many has obviously raised concern about the integrity of the system. It is important to remember that the vast majority of our officers are performing with distinction. At considerable risk to their lives, they have helped restore peace and the rule of law to societies torn apart by violence and to victims left helpless in the aftermath.
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In the United Nations, several U.N. organizations monitor and investigate misconduct by civilian police officers serving abroad. They include the Office of Internal Oversight Services at U.N. headquarters in New York and internal affairs investigative units within the separate Civilian Police missions.
Their mandate is, in fact, broader: to prevent and detect waste, misconduct, abuse, and mismanagement in the operations of the U.N. If evidence gleaned from their investigations of a CIVPOL officers or any other U.N. employee shows that someone has violated laws or standards of ethical conduct or has been responsible for misconduct, waste, abuse, or mismanagement, they make recommendations to the concerned program managers, which may include consideration of referral to a national jurisdiction for criminal prosecution.
The penalty for violating the law or a U.N. rule or regulation depends upon the severity of the violation. A CIVPOL officer may be reprimanded or repatriated and discharged. Any criminal prosecution is usually the responsibility of the accused officer's own country. In some cases the U.N. has waived the accused officer's immunity and enabled the host country where the criminal act was committed to bring criminal charges.
The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight is presently conducting an investigation of serious charges of sexual exploitation of refugees and displaced children in West Africa that were made during a survey conducted jointly last autumn by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the Save the Children Fund. The assessment mission looked at the issue of sexual exploitation of children in the broadest sense. The team collected some specific allegations against individual local employees of relief agencies.
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The survey, made public in February, was conducted in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, where 1,500 people were interviewed. Sixty-seven local employees of 42 U.N., nongovernmental and host agencies were accused of using their positions to elicit sexual favors from children, primarily adolescent girls. Food, assistance allotments, and other refugee benefits were alleged to have been withheld as bribes for sexual favors. Peacekeepers in Sierra Leone were similarly accused. The survey indicated that UNHCR and NGO local hires rather than international staff were involved.
The Office of Internal Oversight's investigation continues. Teams have visited both Guinea and Sierra Leone and conducted extensive followup interviews. The team reported its findings and allegations to senior UNHCR officials, who immediately involved the U.N.'s investigative services. I understand there will be an investigation in Liberia when security conditions permit.
Following the February release of the UNHCR report, the State Department and the Agency for International Development immediately responded, insisting that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees hold a public briefing to declare its findings and immediately suspend those accused pending a thorough investigation. The briefing was held in Geneva on March 1st. We demanded that UNHCR take immediate measures to make structural changes to protect refugee victims and prevent any further abuse of children in West Africa or anywhere else in the world. Such changes should include an enforceable code of conduct, better training, better management oversight by all agencies, and a thorough review of staff and programs. We will follow through to ensure this happens.
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The U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone now requires all newly arrived peacekeepers to take a sensitization program which includes briefings on appropriate sexual conduct by UNHCR and UNAMSIL's human rights office. Official policy is to expel any peacekeeper found to be involved in such activity, fully informing the sending government of the reason, with a recommendation for disciplinary action. Following the release of the UNHRC Save the Children Report, UNAMSIL instructed all field commanders to remind troops of this code of conduct.
We repeatedly have made clear to both U.N. headquarters and to individual peacekeeping and relief missions that we expect all allegations of misconduct by U.N. personnel, particularly involvement in trafficking in women and children, to be thoroughly investigated and full and appropriate disciplinary action taken. We take allegations and reports of abuse of authority and trafficking by individuals assigned to the U.N. missions around the world very seriously. Even one substantiated claim of peacekeepers' and relief workers' involvement in such activities is one too many. This kind of behavior contradicts the principles on which the United Nations was created.
The identification of those individuals who abuse their positions of trust to take personal or criminal advantage of those entrusted to their care is a continuing struggle. Thus, we must continue to insist on stringent and exacting safeguards against such abuses, as well as swift and effective corrective action whenever such abuse is uncovered.
This hearing is about trafficking and the U.N., but because Israel may come up, I would like to say for the record the government of Israel has undertaken initiatives to eradicate trafficking. These initiatives include legislative amendments to improve the treatment of trafficking victims and to provide tools for law enforcement to successfully investigate and arrest traffickers, training for police and prosecutors, improved cooperation with nongovernmental organizations, and signing relevant international conventions. In recent meetings, Israel provided data supporting increased efforts to combat trafficking. It appears that all branches of the Israeli government are actively involved in the battle against trafficking in persons and are striving toward increased interagency cooperation.
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I would like to close where I began, and that is with our message that we have a policy of zero tolerance. Trafficking of persons is a serious human rights violation that we are working hard and dedicating resources to fight. We hope to continue to work with this Subcommittee toward this important goal. Thank you for holding this hearing, which provides us with a public forum to emphasize our zero tolerance policy.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ely-Raphel follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE NANCY ELY-RAPHEL, DIRECTOR, OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
It is a privilege for me to appear before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. First I would like to introduce Robert Gifford of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and William Imbrie of the Bureau of International Organizations. The question that concerns us today is the extent to which United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, relief workers, police forces or those with UN or other relief agencies might be involved in trafficking in persons or sexual misconduct and, if they are involved, whether it is the result of a systematic problem in the UN system. Our message today is one of zero tolerance.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this topic, which has received substantial play in the media over the last several months. The press attention has brought to the forefront the problem of trafficking, which has received far too little attention in the past. Building an awareness of the problem is undoubtedly one of the first steps we must take in trying to combat it.
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The State Department has initiated a zero tolerance policy with respect to immoral, unethical and illegal behavior. This includes involvement in trafficking or in prostitution. All U.S. police personnel are briefed by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau prior to their departure. Specifically, involvement in such activities will result in immediate termination of an officer's contract. Failure on the part of U.S. CIVPOL officers to report such activity is considered just as seriously, and will result in termination. When an officer is terminated for cause, he or she must pay their own airfare home, loses their completion bonus, and is not eligible to participate in any future missions.
Starting last year, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons began to participate in pre-deployment briefings for U.S. police personnel. The Balkan wars, which dominated the region over the last decade, and the rampant organized crime and corruption which flourished in the absence of a functioning rule of law structure, has enabled traffickers to work largely undeterred by law enforcement and the judiciary. Due to the severe conflicts which dominated reporting on the region much of the last decade, trafficking in East European women to and through the Balkans has been a largely unpublicized tragedy that attracted little public awareness in the United States, apart from those groups devoted to their relief. I believe that educating American police officers assigned abroad—or indeed the American public—about all aspects of the trafficking problem is a simple but fundamental step in banishing ignorance, indifference or even apathy and instilling the fullest possible recognition of the gravity of the problem. Our briefings raise awareness of the problem, which many of our police may not have previously encountered in their law enforcement careers. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor also participates in these briefings and provides information on international human rights standards and norms, as well as the impact of trafficking in persons.
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Upon conclusion of these briefings, all CIVPOL candidates sign a DynCorp letter of agreement stating that they understand what trafficking is, pledge not to engage in trafficking, and know they will be dismissed if they violate the agreement.
The briefing procedure has been in place for a year and we are not aware of any incidents that have brought complaints of such activity against U.S. CIVPOL who have deployed since then.
There were, however, several instances of sexual misconduct among officers who deployed prior to the institution of these trafficking briefings. When these instances occurred, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs followed through with its zero tolerance policy and the individuals were terminated. INL also referred several cases of serious misconduct by U.S. CIVPOL officers to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
We need further work in the area of prosecution that further work is needed. To date no American civilian police officer has been prosecuted due to lack of jurisdiction of U.S. courts. The Criminal Division at the Department of Justice and the State Department are looking closely at how to resolve this problem. While we would refer you to the Justice Department for details, I understand that the Criminal Division is currently drafting a proposed amendment to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) of 2000 that would extend federal jurisdiction to include all U.S. government employees and contractors who work in a law enforcement capacity abroad. This would enable the Justice Department to prosecute any criminal offenders identified among the U.S. civilian police cadres serving abroad.
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The misconduct of the few rather than the honorable work of the many has obviously raised concern about the integrity of the system. It is important to remember that the vast majority of our officers are performing with distinction. At considerable risk to their own lives they have helped restore peace and the rule of law to societies torn apart by violence and to victims left helpless in the aftermath.
In the United Nations, several UN organizations monitor and investigate misconduct by civilian police officers serving abroad. They include the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) at UN headquarters in New York and internal affairs investigative units within the separate Civilian Police missions.
The mandate of the OIOS is, in fact, broader—to prevent and detect waste, misconduct, abuse, and mismanagement in the operations of the UN. In the case of CIVPOL issues, OIOS normally gets involved only if it seems that the internal affairs units need particular supervision or oversight. If the evidence gleaned from an OIOS investigation of a CIVPOL officer or any other UN employee shows that someone has violated laws or standards of ethical conduct or has been responsible for misconduct, waste, abuse, or mismanagement, OIOS makes recommendations to the concerned program manager, which may include consideration of referral to a national jurisdiction for criminal prosecution and/or to the Office of Human Resources Management for consideration of disciplinary action. We believe that OIOS has become a highly effective oversight body in the UN, helping to instill a culture of accountability and management effectiveness.
The penalty for violating the law or a UN rule or regulation depends upon the severity of the violation. A CIVPOL officer may be reprimanded or repatriated and discharged. Any criminal prosecution is usually the responsibility of the accused officer's own country. In some cases the UN has waived the accused officer's immunity and enabled the host country where the criminal act was committed to bring criminal charges.
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The UN Office of Internal Oversight is presently conducting an investigation of serious charges of sexual exploitation of refugees and displaced children in West Africa, that were made during a survey conducted jointly last autumn by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Save the Children Fund. The assessment mission looked at the issue of sexual exploitation of children in the broadest sense. The team collected some specific allegations against individual local employees of relief agencies.
The survey, made public in February, was conducted in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia where 1,500 people were interviewed. Sixty-seven local employees of forty-two UN, non-governmental and host government agencies were accused of using their positions to elicit sexual favors from children, primarily adolescent girls. Food, assistance allotments and other refugee benefits were alleged to have been withheld as bribes for sexual favors. Peacekeepers in Sierra Leone were similarly accused. The survey indicated that UNHCR and NGO local hires, rather than international staff, were involved. The Office of Internal Oversight's investigation continues; teams have visited both Guinea and Sierra Leone and conducted extensive follow-up interviews. The team reported its findings and allegations to senior UNHCR officials who immediately involved the UN's investigative services. I understand there will be an investigation in Liberia when security condition permit.
Following the February release of the UNHCR report, the State Department and the Agency for International Development immediately responded, insisting that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees hold a public briefing to declare its findings and immediately suspend those accused pending a thorough investigation. The briefing was held in Geneva on March 1. We demanded that UNHCR take immediate measures to make structural changes to protect refugee victims and prevent any further abuse of children in West Africa or elsewhere in the world. Such changes should include an enforceable code of conduct, better training, better management oversight by all agencies, and a thorough review of staff and programs. We will follow through to ensure this happens.
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The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) now requires all newly-arrived peacekeepers to take a sensitization program which includes briefing on appropriate sexual conduct by UNHCR and UNAMSIL's human rights office. Official policy is to expel any peacekeeper found to be involved in such activity, fully informing the sending government of the reason, with a recommendation for disciplinary action. Following the release of the UNHCR/Save the Children report, UNAMSIL instructed all field commanders to remind troops of this code of conduct.
We repeatedly have made clear to both UN headquarters and to individual peacekeeping and relief missions that we expect all allegations of misconduct by UN personnel, particularly involvement in trafficking in women and children, to be thoroughly investigated and full and appropriate disciplinary action taken. We take allegations and reports of abuse of authority and trafficking by individuals assigned to the UN missions around the world very seriously. Even one substantiated claim of peacekeepers' and relief workers' involvement in such activities is one too many. This kind of behavior contradicts the principles on which the United Nations was created.
The identification of those individuals who abuse their positions of trust to take personal or criminal advantage of those entrusted to their care is a continuing struggle. So long as poverty, misery, deprivation and anarchy exist side by side with economic resources committed to their relief by the international community, there will be those employees who will exploit their legal or relief responsibilities for their personal indulgence or monetary gain. Thus we must continue to insist on stringent and exacting safeguards against such abuses, as well as swift and effective corrective action whenever such abuse is uncovered.
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This hearing is about trafficking and the UN, but because Israel may come up, I would like to say for the record the Government of Israel has undertaken initiatives to eradicate trafficking. These initiatives include: legislative amendments to improve the treatment of trafficking victims and to provide tools for law enforcement to successfully investigate and arrest traffickers; training for police and prosecutors; improved cooperation with non-governmental organizations; and signing relevant international conventions. In recent meetings, Israel provided data supporting increased efforts to combat trafficking. It appears that all branches of the Israeli government are actively involved in the battle against trafficking in persons and are striving toward increased interagency cooperation.
I would like to close where I began, and that is with our message that we have a policy of zero tolerance. Trafficking of persons is a serious human rights violation that we are working hard, and dedicating resources, to fight. We hope to continue to work with this Subcommittee toward this important goal. Thank you for holding this hearing which provides us with a public forum to emphasize our zero tolerance policy.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Madam Ambassador. Given the magnitude of DynCorp's involvement in U.S. government activities—for example, it is the largest U.S. contractor involved in the U.S. antinarcotics effort in Colombia—what types of safeguards specifically and requirements has the department implemented to ensure that no employees and personnel from other U.S. government contractors denigrates, abuses, or violates the rights of women and children in the host country in the deplorable manner that was done in Bosnia?
Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. As I indicated in my testimony, the contracts that DynCorps contractors sign have specific instructions and a specific commitment on the part of those being employed that they will follow all of the restrictions that we have sent out on their behavior in the countries in which they serve. Our zero tolerance policy makes clear that failure of DynCorp to report any immoral, unethical, or illegal activities on the part of any CIVPOL officers who are U.S. officers is grounds for immediate dismissal, and we have acted in accordance with this policy in dismissing those that were working for DynCorp.
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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. I do not know if either gentlemen wanted to add to that. Mr. Gifford?
Mr. GIFFORD. Part of this is to make sure we select the right people, and to do that we have substantially increased our selection criteria and process through our contract with DynCorp for American police. This includes a background investigation process which confirms their resumes and confirms their current employment and their former employment.
We also develop an independent reference to confirm they are who they say they are. We conduct a financial background check to ensure that they have a clean credit history. We also survey U.S. law enforcement agencies to determine whether or not there have been any convictions. In addition, we conduct a series of psychological testing to confirm that they are the right people for the types of environments that we are referring to. We also conduct medical screening, physical medical screening, which includes drug testing. And in addition to that, we have a physical-fitness requirement that people perform in order to complete all of the requisites for selection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. And following up on that, those are some of the steps taken to incorporate specific briefings related to sex trafficking and the training programs for participants in the international police program. What is being said in these training programs. What followup is being done, and do you think that these briefings are sufficient to curtail the involvement of U.N. nations in sex trafficking? You mentioned a psychological evaluation and background criminal investigations and security screenings as well.
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Mr. GIFFORD. Yes. Individuals, when they are selected preliminarily, are brought to the training facility and are briefed for a period of 5 to 10 days, depending on where they are going, and it is in this process that the Trafficking in Persons Office comes to the facility and provides a briefing regarding the topic. And what we found is often that the individuals receiving this have not received a briefing of this type before. They typically in the U.S. have been briefed on prostitution and prostitution rings, and what we are talking about is trafficking in persons in a totally different context, and this is new to them.
So at the end of this briefing they are given a document to sign which indicates that they have received the briefing, they understand our policy with regard to involvement in trafficking in persons, and they understand the consequences for doing so. And in addition to just being involved in it, our policy extends to those who have heard about others being involved in it, and if that is revealed, then they, too, would be terminated from employment.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. The special adviser on trafficking, DuJacque Klein, the U.N. Secretary General Special Representative to Bosnia, said at a press briefing on April 8th of this year that the allegation that the International Police Task Force was involved in trafficking 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. That was his quote. When a woman or girl is not a willing participant in the provision of sexual favors, does this not constitute rape, and does engaging in the exploitation of these girls through, at the very least, abuse of power not fall within the purview of the definition of trafficking in the U.N. Trafficking Protocol, and would you not agree that the behavior that the special adviser refers to still demands strong, concrete, punitive action by the U.N., and what efforts has the U.S. government undertaken unilaterally, if we need to, or working with donor countries and U.N. bodies to hold these traffickers accountable?
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Mr. GIFFORD. With regard to U.S. involvement in such activities, in addition to a United Nations internal investigation, we conduct one of our own internally. And we have in Bosnia, as has been mentioned, we have sent six people home for being involved or being involved to the extent that whether it is criminal or not, it is unacceptable, unethical, or inappropriate behavior. This goes further than U.N. investigations. We would agree that the U.N. needs to do more in this regard, and we have encouraged the U.N., both in New York and directly with the SRSG, the special representative of the secretary general, in Bosnia to ensure that once investigations are initiated that they are completed.
There has been a practice at the U.N. where individuals who are being investigated have the opportunity to suddenly leave the country, and then the U.N. tends to drop its investigation. We have encouraged them not to do that and have been assured that they are going to proceed on that basis. But for us, we, in addition to the U.N., conduct our own investigations to make sure that we understand what is happening as well.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Ms. McKinney?
Ms. MCKINNEY. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do not really have any questions for this panel.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. Mr. Smith?
Mr. SMITH. I think you may have just said six, but what is the exact number of American police officers who have been repatriated? Secondly, what is the status of criminal charges being leveled against them?
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Mr. GIFFORD. In Bosnia there were six. Now, the six have been repatriated for sexual misconduct. We have had a total of 43 in Bosnia that have been sent home, but the six are specifically relating to sexual misconduct cases. Two of them were involved in an informal raid on a brothel in Bosnia. One of them resigned as a result of the raid investigation. Another one we determined to have been involved as a patron, and he was released. We have another one—this individual purchased a woman by, or he referred to it as ''rescuing her,'' by buying out her contract with an organized crime type. She then lived with him in his apartment for several months. He was terminated.
We had another individual who resigned, and later after he resigned an investigation was conducted about his behavior, and it was determined that he was also involved in purchasing a contract for rescuing a woman. We had another individual who was terminated for sexual harassment, and the last one was terminated for sexual relations with a minor.
With regard to prosecution, we have forwarded these cases to the State Department IG, the inspector general, and of those cases two were determined to be potentially criminal, and they were forwarded to the Department of Justice for further review for possible prosecution. The Department of Justice has determined that the cases were not within jurisdiction and not prosecutable in U.S. courts. We have, in an attempt to address this situation, encouraged the Department of Justice, and the Department of Justice has proceeded to draft legislation which would permit such prosecution in U.S. courts in the future. That legislation, as I understand it, is being drafted now and is possibly near completion and will also address certain other aspects of sexual behavior overseas that is illegal and unacceptable, particularly with regard to sexual tourism. So perhaps I would refer you to the Department of Justice for details on that, but that is in process now.
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Mr. SMITH. I appreciate that. In the meantime, the two that the State Department had referred as a possible criminal case, is there any attempt being made under Bosnian law to have them held accountable there for a breach of their statutes?
Mr. GIFFORD. This is one of the cases that the United Nations is referring to in its internal investigation, that they have not concluded that this case would be criminal, whereas we have pursued it further than that.
Mr. SMITH. My question is focused on Bosnia itself. Under their nascent judicial system, do they have a statute? Do they have a law under which they could be prosecuted?
Mr. GIFFORD. The case has not been brought forward in Bosnian courts, and I cannot answer the question as to whether or not they would have appropriate statutes to deal with it. I do not believe they do.
Mr. SMITH. Is this something that could be looked into in terms of a referral to Sarajevo to find out whether or not they would accept and, if necessary, in some way try to get those individuals—to account there?
Mr. GIFFORD. Yes.
Mr. SMITH. Otherwise, repatriation here or anywhere else becomes something slightly less than a slap on the wrist. They lose their job, but big deal. They have escaped what should be a major prosecution. Do we know what other countries do when these individuals are repatriated?
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Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. There is only one case that I have heard of, and that was an Argentinian who was serving with the U.N. was prosecuted in Argentina. That is the only case.
Mr. SMITH. But on a trafficking or exploitation case similar to what we are talking about?
Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. Yes, yes.
Mr. SMITH. Let me ask with regard to Mr. Johnston and Mr. Lamb, has the department thoroughly debriefed them as to what they know? It is my understanding there are some DynCorp individuals, Americans, who still are in country in Bosnia who have not been told that they must leave their employment? Is that true? Do you know of any?
Mr. GIFFORD. With regard to Mr. Johnston, he did not work on our program. As I understand it, he was an employee of the same contractor, DynCorp. That contractor has a separate contract with the Department of Defense, which is the contract he was working with. So I am not familiar with the details of his case.
Mr. SMITH. Again, not being familiar with care, do you know whether or not he was debriefed by people over at DoD?
Mr. GIFFORD. We in the State Department did not debrief him.
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Mr. SMITH. Would that be something you think ought to be done in order to perhaps glean a pattern as to what might be happening here? Several years back (it is related but unrelated) we intervened on a case dealing with Montenegro, where we had heard that there were women being held. L'Strada, one of the NGOs out of the Ukraine, told the Helsinki Commission, which I chair, that they knew right where these women were. They had been trafficked, but the police were part of the problem and were actually customers and providing protection. We intervened with the Prime Minister who got involved and got those women out. But, it was only after assurances were given that the people showing up to be rescuers in this case were not going to move them on to another dire situation.
What I am suggesting is this: Where we can garner information that has broader application, wouldn't you think it a good idea to collect this information?
Mr. GIFFORD. Certainly.
Mr. SMITH. Okay, is this something you might think of doing? It seems to me this is the tip-of-the-iceberg type of issue. Who would have ever thought that international humanitarian organizations. It would appear that UNHCR did it right, but unfortunately the mission in Bosnia did not go about it right. So I think we need to be constantly compiling ''lessons learned.''
Mr. GIFFORD. Sure. We will be in touch with Mr. Johnston.
Mr. SMITH. Okay. The Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, as you probably know, has a code of conduct for its employees. To the best of your knowledge, does the U.N. have a similar strong code of conduct for its employees with regard to trafficking and sexual exploitation?
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Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. My understanding is that they are developing a code of conduct right now as a result of the events in West Africa, and they are working on that.
Mr. SMITH. For the record, if you could get back whether or not current Bosnian law was violated by what the IPTF officers engaged in, whether or not they were still in country because then repatriation becomes, as you know, a means of escape rather than facing the music and prosecution. If you could provide that for the record, that would be very helpful.
Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. I would be very happy to.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Smith, and we thank you very much the three panelists for your excellent testimony. We look forward to working with you as this issue continues. Thank you so much.
Ms. ELY-RAPHEL. Thank you.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I would like to introduce our private panel today, and we begin with the testimony of Martina Vandenberg, an attorney and Researcher on Europe for Human Rights Watch, Women's Rights Division, since 1998. Ms. Vandenberg has conducted two research missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina to investigate the trafficking of women for forced prostitution, discrimination against women in post-conflict Bosnia, and rape as a war crime in Kosovo. She is the primary author of Human Rights Watch's report, Kosovo: Rape as a Weapon of Ethnic Cleansing.
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Ms. Vandenberg will be followed by two gentlemen whose personal experiences led to the uncovering of what was going on with DynCorp in Bosnia. First, we will hear from Ben Johnston. Upon leaving the U.S. Army, he began working for DynCorp in aircraft maintenance. While with DynCorp, he uncovered fellow employees' involvement in sex trafficking in Bosnia by either purchasing women and girls as sex slaves or assisting in smuggling them to neighboring countries. His allegations led the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division to conduct an investigation into this matter.
He will be followed by David Lamb, a former Philadelphia police officer who worked as the chief human rights officer for the Tuzla region of Northern Bosnia from April 2000 to 2001. There he carried out investigations into the growing allegations of U.N. policing officials' involvement in the sex slave trade and found enough evidence to justify a full-scale criminal investigation into the matter. However, he and his colleagues found the U.N. leadership reluctant to look into the allegations.
We thank them both for traveling here today and for sharing your personal accounts and testimony.
Lastly, joining us with a videoconference is Ms. Nomi Levenkron, who Ms. McKinney has invited to join this discussion today. She heads up the legal department for the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Israel. While her testimony falls outside the specific scope of this hearing concerning the participation of U.N.-affiliated personnel with trafficking, Ms. Levenkron will be focusing on the problems of trafficking in persons in Israel, and we thank you for joining us. If you will excuse me, unfortunately I have another hearing to attend to, and I have asked Congressman Smith when he returns to chair the remaining portion of our hearing. Thank you very much. Ms. Vandenberg, thank you.
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STATEMENT OF MARTINA VANDENBERG, J.D., EUROPE RESEARCHER, WOMEN'S RIGHTS DIVISION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Ms. VANDENBERG. Thank you, Madam Chairperson and Members of the Subcommittee. I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting Human Rights Watch to provide testimony on trafficking of women and girls to Bosnia and Herzegovina for forced prostitution. My name is Martina Vandenberg. I serve as the Europe researcher for Human Rights Watch in the Women's Rights Division, and it is an honor to be here before you today.
My colleagues and I at Human Rights Watch would like to thank you for the attention that you have focused on this very important human rights violation. Trafficking, as you know, flourishes throughout the world, aided by corruption, complicity, and neglect by states. Seeking better lives and opportunities, trafficking victims migrate, only to find themselves trapped in debt bondage, forced labor, and slavery-like conditions.
The United Nations has estimated that approximately 700,000 people are trafficked into forced labor and forced prostitution around the world every year. The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina has estimated that between 750 and 1,000 trafficked women and girls remain trapped in brothels scattered around that country. Nongovernmental organizations, such as Lara, a local antitrafficking group in Bijeljina, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, place the figure at approximately 2,000 or more. Stripped of their passports, sold as chattel, forced to work for little or no pay whatsoever, these women, many of whom anticipated lucrative job opportunities in Italy and other Western European countries, instead find themselves facing danger and severe human rights violations.
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I would like to begin this afternoon by briefly summarizing Human Rights Watch's findings in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on our research missions. I will then turn to the question of the international community's links to trafficking and close with recommendations for alleviating these abuses. My testimony today, the oral statement, is a summary of a longer written statement that I would like to submit now for the record.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Without objection.
Ms. VANDENBERG. Human Rights Watch began research on trafficking of women and girls into Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999, interviewing victims in trafficking, U.N. Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina officials, members of the International Police Task Force, and local officials. The investigations uncovered extensive trafficking into the country, with traffickers luring women from their homes in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Bulgaria with promises of high wages and good jobs. But the traffickers quickly broke these promises, selling the women to bar and nightclub owners for prices ranging from 500 Deutschmarks, approximately $231, to 5,000 Deutschmarks, approximately $2,314.
The women's prices quickly became their debts. Owners and employers promised the women and girls that they would receive 50 percent of their earnings after clearing their debt, but this rarely happened in practice. Instead, owners often sold the women to new so-called ''employers,'' saddling them with new debts and ending their hopes of sending money home to parents and children waiting for them.
In one illustrative case, a 22-year-old Ukrainian woman interviewed during a brothel raid told Human Rights Watch,
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''I have been in Bosnia for 3 months. I came here to work in a bar. I knew nothing when they took me to Serbia, and I was sold there four times to four different men.''
I would like to now move to involvement of local police, a very important part of the trafficking picture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Trafficking in persons cannot flourish without the cooperation of state officials and law enforcement authorities. In Bosnia, the involvement of local police ranged from visiting brothels as gratis clients to facilitating the trafficking of women into the country. This complicity and corruption on the part of local police officers facilitated and, indeed, exacerbated the human rights violations. Victims spoke of police officers who visited the brothels to partake of free sexual services in exchange for assistance in procuring false documents and tipping owners off to upcoming raids. Some police officers moonlighted as waiters in the brothels. It is important to note that the waiters really serve an enforcement function; they serve as guards. Still others engaged in trafficking directly.
For the most part, the police engaged in these activities with complete impunity, and today, even as we sit here today in Washington, DC, that corruption continues unabated.
I would like to now move to the international community's involvement. In July 2001, the United Nations mission created the Special Trafficking Operations Program, known as STOP, to fight trafficking more aggressively. Since that time, the mixed International Police Task Force and local police teams have conducted over 270 raids of nightclubs and brothels and interviewed approximately 800 women.
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Despite these excellent steps, however, the human rights violations persist. In Bosnia, Human Rights Watch's researchers scoured internal investigative International Police Task Force reports, conducted interviews with IPTF monitors, and reviewed verbatim transcripts of testimony given to IPTF by trafficking victims. These sources all pointed to one conclusion: that IPTF monitors visited the brothels as clients or arranged to have trafficked women delivered to their residence in violation of their own code of conduct. Most striking, however, was the evidence that at least three International Police Task Force monitors purchased women and their passports from traffickers and brothel owners.
Human Rights Watch takes no position on prostitution. However, IPTF officers, who through their work and training knew or should have known that the brothels contained trafficked women, violated the United Nations and the U.S. zero tolerance policy by even visiting the brothels at all. More importantly, according to NGOs in the field working with victims, the very presence of IPTF monitors in the clubs as clients discouraged trafficked women from seeking safe haven in those same IPTF stations.
In November 2000, IPTF monitors conducted rates of three nightclubs—Crazy Horse I, Crazy Horse II, and Masquerade—in Prijedor. The raids, which freed 34 women trafficked into those three brothels, resulted in the repatriation of six IPTF monitors—two Americans, two Spaniards, and two British nationals. The official reason for the disciplinary measures was exceeding the mandate of the International Police Task Force. However, one U.N. official in the Bosnian mission with extensive knowledge of the case and who interviewed the women himself told Human Rights Watch, the Stabilization Force, known as SFOR, and IPTF brought the girls to Sarajevo, and then the girls pointed out that the guys driving them had been their clients. In all, according to verbatim statements obtained by Human Rights Watch, five of the trafficking victims asserted that IPTF monitors had numbered among their clients.
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The fact that officers who had used the sexual services of the nightclubs transported the women to Sarajevo created an opportunity for witness tampering. The internal report on the investigation, examined in full by Human Rights Watch, quoted one of the trafficked women as saying,
''The IPTF officer from Spain told me that this was my last chance for me to go home back to my country and to tell all the truth but not too much or anything about our relations.''
Allegations of purchase of trafficked women have also been raised in relation to the U.S. military contractors providing support services to the U.S. contingent of the Stabilization Force. I think Mr. Johnston will address those questions in his testimony.
It is important to note that the majority of those involved in trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina are civilians, local crime figures, and local government officials. Nevertheless, IPTF officers and SFOR contractors share one major characteristic, and that is impunity. United Nations Bosnia mission officials have admitted that repatriation serves as the only punishment for involvement in trafficking-related misconduct, punishment that Congressman Smith has rightly referred to as a slap on the wrist. The officials could not point to any cases where the U.N. secretary general had waived immunity, nor could they point to any prosecutions in home countries.
In February, the United Nations reported that 12 international police officers in Bosnia were expelled or voluntarily left the country after facing allegations of involvement in trafficking. The newest statement put out by the U.N. for this meeting today indicates that that number is 18. The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services has investigated and cleared the IPTF of wrongdoing, issuing a statement in February of this year that there was ''no evidence of widespread or systematic involvement'' in trafficking by the U.N. police force.
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But unfortunately the U.N. statement attacks a straw man. No one had claimed that IPTF involvement was broad based. The concern not addressed was that IPTF monitors who violate the law enjoy complete impunity. They cannot be prosecuted in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the terms of the Dayton Agreement, nor are they likely to face liability under the criminal laws of their home countries. For American IPTF monitors implicated in trafficking, because of a gap in U.S. jurisdiction, U.S. courts cannot prosecute them when they return to the United States. Civilian contractors to the U.S. military could similarly evade prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the passage of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, MEJA, in November of 2000 remedied the jurisdictional gap, permitting prosecutions to be brought in the United States for criminal acts committed abroad by civilian contractors for the U.S. military.
But unfortunately multiple FOIA requests to the U.S. government have not unearthed even one prosecution for crimes relating to trafficking committed by Americans while serving abroad. This de factor blanket immunity enjoyed by IPTF officers and civilian contractors also troubled local officials struggling to establish the rule of law in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. Local police, prosecutors, and judges in Bosnia told Human Rights Watch that they themselves lacked jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute any of these cases and, indeed, hoped that the United States would prosecute their own.
In light of these concerns, Human Rights Watch makes the following recommendations to the U.S. government. This is a partial list. The full list of recommendations is available in my written testimony. First, the U.S. government should explore legislative changes to allow for the prosecution of U.S. citizens serving as international police monitors in U.N. missions. Such legislation should be tailored to end this jurisdictional gap that currently allows such persons to avoid prosecution for trafficking-related crimes committed abroad.
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Second, the U.S. government should investigate thoroughly all allegations of SFOR contractors and U.S. IPTF officers involved in trafficking, the purchase of women or girls and their passports, or witness tampering.
And finally, the U.S. government should ensure that the records of all investigations are delivered to the Department of Justice and the Department of State. It should also ensure that Federal prosecutors receive all records necessary to bring those charges against U.S. contractors or IPTF found to have engaged in trafficking or other illegal activities related to trafficking in persons.
Again, I thank you for your attention to this important issue.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Vandenberg follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARTINA VANDENBERG, J.D., EUROPE RESEARCHER, WOMEN'S RIGHTS DIVISION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Madame Chairperson and Members of the Subcommittee,
Thank you for inviting Human Rights Watch to provide testimony on trafficking of women and girls to Bosnia and Herzegovina for forced prostitution. My name is Martina Vandenberg and I serve as the Europe Researcher for the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. It is an honor to testify before you today. My colleagues and I at Human Rights Watch thank you for the attention that you have focused on these important human rights violations.
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Human Rights Watch has documented and monitored trafficking for almost a decade, publishing reports on trafficking of women and girls from Burma to Thailand, Nepal to India, Bangladesh to Pakistan, Thailand to Japan, and from Eastern Europe into Greece.
Trafficking flourishes throughout the world, aided by corruption, complicity, and neglect by states. Seeking better lives and opportunities, trafficking victims migrate only to find themselves trapped in debt bondage, forced labor, and slavery-like conditions. The United Nations has estimated that as many as 700,000 people are trafficked into forced labor and forced prostitution around the world each year. The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina has estimated that between 750 and 1,000 trafficked women and girls remain trapped in brothels scattered around the country. Non-governmental organizations, such as Lara, an anti-trafficking group in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, place the figure at 2,000 or more. Stripped of their passports, sold as chattel, and forced to work for little or no pay, these women, many of whom anticipated lucrative job opportunities in Italy and other western European countries, instead face danger and human rights abuses.
In researching trafficking, Human Rights Watch has relied since December 2000 on the definition of trafficking enunciated in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol). In Article 3(a), the Protocol defines trafficking in persons as:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power or of position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
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The Trafficking Protocol encourages states to provide human rights protections for victims of trafficking, including temporary residence, legal assistance, appropriate shelter, psychological and medical care. The protocol, like the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, covers all forms of trafficking, not just trafficking into the sex industry. To date, 104 countries have signed the protocol and six have ratified. The government of Bosnia signed the Trafficking Protocol and has committed to ratifying it.
I'd like to begin this afternoon by briefly summarizing our findings in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I will then turn to the question of the international community's links with trafficking and close with recommendations for alleviating these abuses.
Trafficking of Women and Girls to Bosnia and Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution
Human Rights Watch began researching the trafficking of women and girls into Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999, interviewing victims of trafficking, U.N. Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina officials, members of the International Police Task Force (international unarmed police monitors serving with the U.N. mission under Annex 11 of the Dayton Agreement), and local officials. The investigations uncovered extensive trafficking into the country, with traffickers luring women from their homes in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Bulgaria with promises of high wages and good jobs. Traffickers quickly broke those promises, selling the women to bar and nightclub owners for prices ranging from 500 Deutschmarks (US$231)(see footnote 1) to 5,000 Deutschmarks (US$2,314). In many cases, these transactions took place in Belgrade, the capital of the neighboring Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; from there traffickers or owners transported the women and girls to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The women's prices became their debts. Owners and employers promised the women and girls that they would receive 50 percent of their earnings after clearing their debt; this rarely happened in practice. Instead, owners often sold women to new ''employers,'' saddling them with new debts and ending their hopes of sending money to parents and children at home.
In one illustrative case, a twenty-two year old Ukrainian woman interviewed during a brothel raid told Human Rights Watch, ''I have been in Bosnia for three months [since December 1998]. I came to work here in a bar. I knew nothing when they took me to Serbia—I was sold there four times to different men.''(see footnote 2)
While some of the women agreed to migrate and work in the sex industry, none of them anticipated that they would be sold, forced to work without payment, and abused. Human Rights Watch obtained the verbatim transcript of one woman trafficked into Prijedor, Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000. She told International Police Task Force investigators:
The girls were obliged to dance, drink a lot and go into their rooms with anyone. All girls were working three months for free. We were eating once per day and sleeping 5–6 hours per day. If we would not do what they [the owners and guards] wanted us to do, the security guards would beat us.(see footnote 3)
Some bar owners allowed women to keep their tips. But in many cases, the owners simply levied fines that sucked even those small earnings away from the women. Through fines, forced purchases of lingerie and food, or outright theft, the women found that they effectively earned no money. One woman, D.D., trafficked to Bosnia from Ukraine in 1998 told Human Rights Watch, ''I did not earn anything. I earned money at the [first bar that I worked in], but [the owner] fined me for any small infraction and took 300 Deutschmarks (US$138) that I had saved away from me.''(see footnote 4)
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In 1999, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an intergovernmental organization, initiated a program to provide shelter and voluntary repatriation to trafficking victims trapped in Bosnia. The women accepted into the IOM voluntary repatriation program receive shelter in Bosnia, assistance with procuring travel documents, plane tickets, escorts at transit airports, overnight shelter upon arrival at their country of origin, and train or bus tickets home.
Involvement of Local Police
Trafficking of persons cannot flourish without the cooperation of state officials and law enforcement authorities. In Bosnia, involvement of local police ranged from visiting brothels as ''gratis'' clients to facilitating the trafficking of women in the country. This complicity and corruption on the part of local police officers facilitated and exacerbated these human rights abuses. Victims spoke of police officers who visited the brothels to partake of free sexual services in exchange for assistance in procuring false documents and tipping off owners to upcoming raids. Some police officers moonlighted as waiters in the brothels. Still others engaged in trafficking directly.
For the most part, the police engaged in these activities with complete impunity. As of April 2002, according to a letter from the United Nations Headquarters in New York to Human Rights Watch, only six local police officers faced de-authorization (removal) as a result of UNMIBH investigations. In one case a police officer received a prison sentence of one year and three months for trafficking women from Belgrade into Banja Luka. Unfortunately, the paucity of successful criminal investigations and disciplinary proceedings against local police underscored the record of failure in this area.
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The International Community and Trafficking
In July 2001, the United Nations created the Special Trafficking Operations Program (STOP) to fight trafficking more aggressively. Since July 2001, the mixed International Police Task Force and local police teams have conducted over 270 raids and interviewed over 800 women. Those women and girls identified as trafficking victims are referred to the International Organization for Migration for assistance. IOM assisted 14 women in 1999, 199 in 2000, and over 200 in 2001 with shelter, medical care, and voluntary repatriation to their countries of origin. Local non-governmental organizations, such as Lara in Bijeljina, have provided shelter and assistance to victims with funding from international sources.
While these interventions by the international community have served a positive role in combating trafficking, other activities have only exacerbated this human rights abuse. I believe that others testifying today will give more information on specific allegations concerning the international community and trafficking, but I would like to give an overview of Human Rights Watch's own conclusions.
Our researchers scoured internal investigative International Police Task Force (IPTF) reports, conducted interviews with IPTF monitors, and reviewed verbatim transcripts of testimony given to IPTF by trafficking victims. These sources all pointed to one conclusion ( that IPTF monitors visited the brothels or arranged to have trafficked women delivered to their residences in violation of their code of conduct. Most striking, however, was the evidence that at least three IPTF monitors purchased women and their passports from traffickers and brothel owners.
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Human Rights Watch takes no position on prostitution. However, IPTF officers, who through their work and training knew or should have known that the brothels contained trafficked women, violated the United Nations ''zero tolerance'' policy by even visiting the brothels. More importantly, according to NGOs in the field working with victims, the presence of IPTF monitors in the clubs as clients discouraged women from seeking safe haven in IPTF stations.
In at least one case, an IPTF officer who purchased a woman maintained that he had done so in order to ''rescue'' her. But, like his colleagues, he should have known that this is not the proper procedure for a police officer to free someone from captivity. The ''rescues'' thwart efforts to enforce the law and remain factually questionable. From the perspective of the victim, she may have traded one owner for another.
In November 2000, International Police Task Force monitors conducted raids of three nightclubs—Crazy Horse I, Crazy Horse II, and Masquerade ( in Prijedor. The raids, which freed 34 women trafficked into these three brothels in that city, resulted in the repatriation of six IPTF officers—two Americans, two Spaniards, and two British nationals. The official reason given for the disciplinary measures was ''exceeding the mandate'' of the IPTF—a reflection of accusations that the monitors had conducted the raids themselves, rather than supervising the actions of local police officers as required under the IPTF mandate. However, one United Nations official in the Bosnia Mission with extensive knowledge of the case and who interviewed the women told Human Rights Watch, ''SFOR [the NATO Stabilization Force] and IPTF brought the girls to Sarajevo, and then the girls pointed out that the guys driving them had been their clients.''(see footnote 5) In all, according to verbatim statements obtained by Human Rights Watch, five of the trafficking victims asserted that IPTF monitors had numbered among their clients.
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The fact that officers who had used the sexual services at the nightclubs transported the women to Sarajevo created an opportunity for witness tampering. The internal report on the investigation, examined in full by Human Rights Watch, quoted one of the trafficked women as saying, ''[The IPTF officer from Spain] told me that this was the last chance for me to go back to my country and to tell all the truth but not too much or anything about our relations.''(see footnote 6)
Allegations of purchase of trafficked women have also been raised in relation to U.S. military contractors providing support services to the U.S. contingent of the Stabilization Force (SFOR). In 1999, the direct employer of these contractors, DynCorp, repatriated a group of contractors after allegations emerged that the men had purchased women from the brothels.(see footnote 7) And again in 2000, two DynCorp contractors returned home after the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division learned of allegations of the purchase of women and weapons from local brothel owners.(see footnote 8)
A Record of Impunity
Although immense attention has focused on the international community's involvement in trafficking in Bosnia, it is important to note that the majority of those involved are civilians, local crime figures, and local governmental officials. Nevertheless, IPTF officers and SFOR contractors share one major characteristic: impunity. United Nations Bosnia Mission officials admitted that repatriation served as the only punishment for involvement in trafficking-related misconduct. They could not point to any cases where the U.N. secretary-general had waived immunity, nor could they point to any prosecutions in home countries. In February, the United Nations reported that twelve international police officers in Bosnia were expelled or voluntarily left the country after facing allegations of involvement in trafficking. The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has investigated and cleared the IPTF of wrongdoing, issuing a statement in February this year that there was ''no evidence of widespread or systematic involvement'' in trafficking by the U.N. police force.
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The U.N. statement was attacking a straw man; no one had claimed that IPTF involvement was broad-based. The concern not addressed was that IPTF monitors who violate the law enjoy complete impunity: they cannot be prosecuted in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the terms of the 1996 Dayton Agreement nor are they likely to face liability under the criminal laws of their home country. For American IPTF monitors implicated in trafficking, because of a gap in U.S. jurisdiction, U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to prosecute them when they return to the United States. Civilian contractors to the U.S. military could similarly evade prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the passage of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) in November 2000 remedied the jurisdictional gap, permitting prosecutions to be brought in the U.S. for criminal acts committed abroad by civilian contractors to the U.S. military.
But multiple FOIA requests to the U.S. government have not unearthed even one prosecution for crimes relating to trafficking committed by Americans while serving abroad. The de facto blanket immunity enjoyed by IPTF officers and civilian contractors also troubled local officials struggling to establish the rule of law in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. Local police, prosecutors, and judges told Human Rights Watch that they lacked jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute any of these cases.
In light of these concerns, Human Rights Watch makes the following recommendations to the U.S. Government:
Explore legislative changes to allow for the prosecution of U.S. citizens serving as international police monitors in U.N. missions. Such legislation should be tailored to end the jurisdictional gap that currently allows such persons to avoid prosecution for trafficking-related crimes committed abroad.
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Investigate thoroughly all allegations of SFOR contractors and U.S. IPTF officers involved in trafficking, the purchase of women or girls and their passports, or witness tampering.
Investigate thoroughly allegations of physical or sexual abuse of women or girls by SFOR contractors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ensure that the records of all investigations are delivered to the Department of Justice and the Department of State. Ensure that federal prosecutors receive all records necessary to bring charges against U.S. contractors found to have engaged in trafficking or other illegal activities related to trafficking in persons.
Prosecute U.S. citizens implicated in participation in trafficking to the fullest extent of the law.
Allocate funds authorized in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act for use in Bosnia and Herzegovina for anti-trafficking training programs for police and prosecutors, financial support for non-governmental organizations fighting trafficking, and for the establishment of witness protection programs.
Condemn the Bosnian government's failure to take effective measures to end impunity for trafficking by continuing to classify the country as a tier three nation in the Trafficking in Persons report, required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Pressure the United Nations to respond with more transparency on disciplinary proceedings on international personnel accused of involvement in trafficking and trafficking-related crimes.
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Thank you.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much for your testimony. Mr. Johnston?
STATEMENT OF BEN JOHNSTON, FORMER DYNCORP EMPLOYEE
Mr. JOHNSTON. Yes, ma'am. My name is Ben Johnston. I am from Texas, and I am just going to tell a little bit of my story about what exactly happened to me while I was in Bosnia. I heard people speak earlier about the zero balance, you know, zero tolerance for anything going on over there and what is going on now, but I can assure you that the only zero tolerance DynCorp had was anybody that tried to stop them from doing the stuff that they were doing they got rid of because they had zero tolerance for anybody that would stand in their way of slavery.
First of all, I have been doing aviation all my life. I have been fixing aircraft. I was in the military. I got an honorable discharge. I got out of the military. I was making $25,000 as a noncommissioned officer, and I was so trained that even when I joined the military they did not make me go to any aviation school; I just went to basic training and straight in. I have had the talent all my life. Then I went from $25,000 a year that I was making for the Army, and DynCorp said, here, come to Bosnia. You can make $120,000 doing the exact same thing I was doing.
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I then went to Bosnia, and I saw that I was one of the less than a handful of the 30 or 40 people there that had an ANP license, which is a Federal license to work on the aircraft. So it concerned me some. And then I started seeing old men or just men with younger girls, and it was very, very obvious because I have had people ask me, how do you know they were below 18? Well, you just know. If a girl looks like a child, like a small boy, then you know she is under age.
Ms. MCKINNEY. Of if it is just an old man who is with a young girl.
Mr. JOHNSTON. Like now, I know of a 50-something-year-old man to this day that is a lead man for DynCorp in Bosnia that has a—she was a teenager just a year or so ago when I was there. He still owns her. He still owns her to this day. And the reason I know that, he lives right across the street from my wife, which my wife is a Bosnian. He lives right across the street from my wife. I have heard people say that they are getting married or he is engaged, and then when my lawyer asked about it, it was what is her father's name? I do not know. How do you spell her last name? I do not know. What date did you set? You know, he does not know. And he told me and others that he paid 10,000 marks for this girl because he bought her while I was in Bosnia, and he still owns her today.
So I do not know what this zero tolerance we were talking about earlier, but I have seen no zero tolerance, and I have not been debriefed or anything else concerning any of these issues from the State Department or anybody else.
There is my supervisor, the biggest guy there with DynCorp, videotaping having sex with these girls, girls saying no, but that guy now, to my knowledge, he is in America doing fine. There was no repercussion for raping the girl. I do not know if because he is in Bosnia Americans do not hold him accountable, we say, oh, that is okay, but when I was there as a soldier, and I was there as a soldier before I was there as a civilian, and I was there with IFOR—it was before SFOR. And while I was there I remember driving down the road, and I would see just the Bosnians raise their hand, and they would be so happy to see us.
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And my wife tells me that when we first got to Bosnia that the joy was overwhelming, and then after DynCorp infestated it, all the people—because DynCorp lived off post, so they lived in the civilian houses whereas the soldiers did not. So DynCorp employees are living off post and owning these children and these women and girls as slaves. Well, that makes all Americans look bad. I believe DynCorp is the worst diplomats our country could ever want overseas.
I have had the community in Bosnia tell me that they were going to shut the road down going to Comanche Base and Main and stuff because they were just so sick of what Americans were doing to that culture. I had Bosnians that needed the money so bad that they had no money come to me and say, you know, I need the money, but I cannot have my family around that old guy and that child. I just cannot do it. It is so bad defending such a great country, and they just assumed that since the majority of DynCorp was involved in it, they think the majority of Americans do stuff like that, but that is not the case.
And then I went to my peers. I went to my supervisor and said, look, we have got to stop this. I told my supervisor, and he was the site supervisor—I told him I did not want to see the government van parked in front of another brothel. He did nothing. He still parked it there.
Ms. MCKINNEY. A U.S. government van?
Mr. JOHNSTON. Yes. I do not know if they leased it from the government, but it had U.N. big as—on the side of it. It was parked in front of the brothels and whatnot. It was such a boys' club because these guys are making so much money, and the economy—my wife's father was like an engineer in a coal mine, and he made 150 marks a month, which is like 75 dollars, and then these guys are making ten, $15,000 a month, and they are just polluting the whole society. But I never saw any zero tolerance for anything, never saw any honesty over there.
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It was just a big boys' club. We had guys over there that did not know how to fix aircraft. The slogan for DynCorp, hangar talk, as we say, is you need a warm body. There was mechanics over there that would leave washers on top of helicopters, spin up the blades, the washers fly into the blades, destroy the blades worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, throw into buildings, which could have killed somebody. Those guys are still working there.
They fired me, though. They fired me for only—the only reason they fired me was because I told on them, and I broke up their little boys' club. That is the only reason. My performance evaluations are excellent. My work was excellent. I have been in aviation since I was handing up a wrench to my dad since I have been a child. In fact, I still live on an airport. But there is just big, big problems over there. I hear a lot of people saying, oh, we are doing this, and we have zero tolerance for this, and this is like this, but I just do not see it. In the depositions in my case I hear a guy say, ''Oh, yeah, I have got my girl, but she was a waitress at the brothel. She was not actually a prostitute,'' whereas just a year before, in a sworn statement to CID, he said he met her while she was touring Bosnia. And this is a big lead man for DynCorp that still works there right now. He lied on a sworn statement, or he lied in his deposition about this girl that he paid—but he is still there, and she is still there.
So it is just real confusing to me what we are doing. That is really all I have to say unless you all have any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Johnston follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF BEN JOHNSTON, FORMER DYNCORP EMPLOYEE
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This is only a very short piece of a very long and arduous time in my life. My name is Benjamin D. Johnston and Dyncorp employed me for around one year and a half. I've been asked by congress of the United States of America to relay some of my experience and the knowledge I have regarding the sex slave trade in Bosnia and the unfortunate participation of Americans in that field. During that time, I witnessed some of the most atrocious things I've ever seen. Dyncorp was involved in slave trading of young girls as well as a number of fraudulent acts.
The same day I received my Honorable Discharge from the United States Army I started working for Dyncorp. I was approached by Dyncorp while I was still in the Army and they knew quite well of my excellent military record as well as my talent in aviation. I left Illisheim, Germany for Tuzla, Bosnia where I was to work doing the same thing as I did so well for the military, aircraft maintenance. When I arrived in Bosnia after a short time I noticed some strange behavior from my Co-workers. I would see young girls walking around the town with older guys I worked with. These men would have their hands on these girls as they walk. The longer I stayed in Bosnia the worst these men acted. Finally one day I heard a something to the effect of DynaCorp employee brag that his girl wasn't a day over twelve. I reported this all to the CID of the Army. I also reported the problems to my supervisors and co-workers, but all stayed the same in DynCorp's little Bosnian Boys Club. For going to the CID I was fired, put in protective custody and have had my name thrashed by Dyncorp. The military is doing a wonderful job over in Bosnia looking very professional and getting the job done. Dyncorp on the other hand gives us an example of the worst diplomats our country could possibly have overseas. The companies van would be outside the whorehouses every night, Dyncorp personnel had young children living with them for sex and house choirs. Many Dyncorp employees would brag of their sex escapades. My own sight supervisor was deeply involved in all of this.
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There is no way I can write all of this down for you, there is to much to mention. The United States of America can no longer let these types of actions go unpunished. I believe the military is doing a wonderful job around the world and I hope we can stop companies like Dyncorp from giving this great country a bad name.
Mr. SMITH [presiding]. Mr. Johnston, thank you very much. Mr. Lamb, have you proceeded?
Mr. LAMB. No, I have not.
Mr. SMITH. Would you, please? I was out of the room for a moment. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF DAVID LAMB, FORMER U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR IN BOSNIA
Mr. LAMB. My name is David Lamb. I served in the under IPTF from April 1999 to April of 2001, 2 years. For the first year I was an IPTF station commander in Kisilyak IPTF station near Sarajevo, and for the second year I served as the regional chief human rights officer for Tuzla region, where I commanded the human rights investigations unit for Northeastern Bosnia.
My statement is relatively brief and general, but I will certainly answer any questions regarding specifics of any of the points I bring up or others.
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U.N. peacekeepers' participation in the sex slave trade in Bosnia is a significant, widespread problem, resulting from a combination of factors associated with the U.N. peacekeeping operation and conditions in general in the Balkans. More precisely, the sex slave trade in Bosnia largely exists because of the U.N. peacekeeping operation. Without the peacekeeping presence, there would have been little or no forced prostitution in Bosnia.
To understand the reasons for the sex slave trade in Bosnia, you need to look at the social and political conditions that arose during the war in Bosnia, conditions during the U.N. peacekeeping operation regarding the entrenched war-lord system of power in Bosnia, and the lack of a functioning criminal justice system, fundamental characteristics of the U.N. system itself which render the U.N. incapable of policing itself, and the lack of action by the individual governments that are members of the U.N. peacekeeping operation.
Trafficking of women for forced prostitution and the prostitution trade in general are controlled by organized crime war lords, most of whom came to power as aggressive and ruthless military or militia commanders during the war. Their influence covers the entire Balkans region and even into German