[10] The US Government continued their contract with DynCorp. leave from the Lincoln Police Department but was turned down. "These girls are sometimes willingly brought from countries thinking they're going to go into these great jobs in the West, and are forced into prostitution," Balkovac says. And it'll carry on until there's a knock at the door and they find themselves getting arrested in front of the wife and kids. She cooperated with Human Rights Watch to expose the misconduct and human rights abuses committed against young girls, forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by U.S. military contractors such as DynCorp and other UN-related police and . She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. "I stayed in the mission as long as I could, got my records and "War whores," her colleagues call them. She left Bosnia in April 2001, sneaking her evidence out of the country. [They were] scared to death, stating they didn't want to be found floating in the river.". "Half of our men are dead," says a Bosnian woman sheltering runaway slaves. As Bolkovac took her concerns up the chain of command, she was blocked; her work was sabotaged, her life threatened. twitter.com/LJSWolgamott. [3], In July 2001, Bolkovac filed a lawsuit in Great Britain against DynCorp for unfair dismissal after a protected disclosure (whistleblowing). In 1999 she took an opportunity for a tax-free salary of $85,000 for a year overseas as an International Police Task (IPTF) Monitor with the United Nations. challenge, my calling.". A former police officer from Lincoln, Nebraska, she was grateful to join the U.N.s International Police Task Force (IPTF) that was retraining local law enforcement there. October 15-17, 2014-University of Oklahoma, Norman Oklahoma. ", Struggling To Gain Trust, And To Set Emotions Aside, In one jarring scene from The Whistleblower, Balkovac's character, played by Rachel Weisz, fights to gain a victim's trust. Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. So when there were raids, the girls would be shipped home to Ukraine or wherever, probably to be retrafficked. Suspendisse euismod congue ultricies. Bolkovac says she and the other new officers tried to convince themselves they had misunderstood. She went on to become general secretary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the international women's rights organisation for social justice and against militarisation, founded during the first world war. I felt I was ready for an adventure. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia . This turned the conversation towards the current system of peacekeeping accountabilities and what steps have been taken towards bringing perpetrators to . pretty qualified," she said. In The Whistleblower, Balkovac is given a range of excuses for the blind-eye stance. sheets, which was the corporation's reason for her firing. office in Lincoln. While she elicits a tense and eloquent performance from Weisz, the first-time filmmaker fails to maintain a consistent tone. You have permission to edit this article. she had been dismissed for her revelations, not for falsifying time Kathy won her case, and Dyncorp has not appealed. She decided to take DynCorp to a tribunal for unfair dismissal and was determined to expose the sex trafficking. her children's college expenses. police for the peacekeeping force, and people associated with the in 1999 to join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Whistleblower," which is showing this week at the Mary Riepma Ross Bolkovac was suddenly fired for allegedly falsifying timesheets that same year. A police officer and divorced mother of three, Kathryn Bolkovac was looking for a fresh start . The system is still incredibly stacked against any victim of sexual violence in the context of peacekeeping, and there are close to no records of peacekeeper prosecutions for these crimes. The company quotes a US army investigating agent as saying: "Neither Dyncorp nor its employees were involved." "I'd been praying it would come to Lincoln," she said. other was 15," she said. property. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Amsterdam. also know about her Social media accounts i.e. The job paid $85,000 tax free, money that would cover much of Find Kathryn Bolkovac stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Occasional bar raids achieved only mixed success. "Being a Midwest girl, growing up in and around Lincoln, had a Cras ut condimentum turpis. "The movie is not completely factual. Bolkovac, who was born in Ohio, moved to Nebraska when she was carried me through Bosnia.". Bolkovac says she did her best to treat victim reports individually. The former US policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac was hired in 1999 by DynCorp Aerospace for a UN post aimed at cracking down on sexual abuse and forced prostitution in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina. We see the iron bar tossed on to the cellar floor when the punishment is over, and we know what has happened. "I'm dedicated to it," Bolkovac said. Elected in 2018 as South Asia RegionalRepresentative to WILPFs International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamilas workexperience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democraticgovernance in post-conflict and transitional countries. Following a screening of the film, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a panel discussion on sexual exploitation and abuse in conflict and post-conflict situations. specializes in sales of heavy equipment and trucks, which has an Worse, not only were the enslaved women's "clients" soldiers and police officers so too were the traffickers, protected at the top of the United Nations operation in Bosnia. In the film, Bolkovac, played by English actress Rachel Weisz, Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images Vivamus ullamcorper vestibulum neque, a interdum nisl accumsan ac. She took a job as a contracted (by the U.N.) peace keeper in Sarajevo, Bosnia to help stabilize the country after the end of civil war . What she finds in the squalor of Sarajevo is deeper-rooted and more degrading than ethnic hatred. found young women from Eastern European countries being brought to Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Many of the IPTF officers spent the day driving or sitting I'd like to say that, but I do worry. Working for a private contracting firm assigned to support the UN peacekeeping mission in that country, she discovered that officers were involved in gross wrongdoing, including human trafficking and forced prostitution. first inkling of what she would encounter in Bosnia. "I went to this bar and found seven young women locked in a room upstairs. The clientele were all internationals. Vi vai tr hun luyn cnh st Bosnia, Kathryn pht hin ra . These cases got progressively worse, Bolkovac continued, until I actually had a U.S. contractor who was an American police officer working with me actually tell me that he had purchased a woman outright from one of the bar owners right outside Sarajevo, and taken her home to keep and to marry and to take back to the States with him.. You try to Washington DC, 20006, Alaska Native News: Journalists Say Elon Musk Needs to Reinstitute Monitoring of Twitter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia ICE Whistleblower Files Suit Against Private Prison Company, Press Release: Government Accountability Project Files First Amendment Complaint on Behalf of Whistleblower Nurse Dawn Wooten, JURIST: Twitter upholds suspension of JURIST Journalist in Residence Steve Herman, Reflections from the Financial Crisis: Richard Bowen and Citigroup. Good money, world travel, and the chance to help rebuild a war-torn country sounded like the perfect job. Bolkovac's book, "The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military international State Department contractors and their employees California residents do not sell my data request. However, only one man lost his job after being caught in a brothel. She found evidence that some UN officers were taking part in the trafficking of young women from Eastern Europe as sex slaves. It's a labor of love and, U.N. were involved in the human trafficking. [11], In 2015, Bolkovac graduated with a degree in political science from University of NebraskaLincoln. By chance, Bolkovac, who now lives in the south of the During the filming, the actress would ask Bosnia. DynCorp had a $15 million UN-related contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia. They have to understand that this outrageous practice is endemic in the male hegemony of a militarised environment it's part of locker-room bravado and the high levels of testosterone in fighting armies. wedding. As for U.N. Secretary-General Klein, he went on to spearhead a similar peacekeeping mission in Liberia where remarkably similar scandals unfolded. That said, Bolkovac said that she talked at length with Weisz, She designed and taught a masters level course at the University for Peace. "This was a difficult time in my life," said Bolkovac. interview from New Mexico. police chief about her decision to answer the ad from the She tried nursing and spent three years in school before psychological intimidation, that I couldn't trust my kind.". I wanted to The Lincoln police officer got her adventure. After learning about Kathryn Bolkovac, read about the debunked child-trafficking conspiracy, Pizzagate. Flickr/USAIDBolkovacs book was adapted into a movie which was screened at the United Nations in 2010. who were employees of DynCorp, the contractor that supplied the Kathryn Bolkovac works on human rights reports in her office in the Ilidza International Police Task Force station in the early weeks of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Kathryn Bolkovac is an American worked as a UN International Police Force Monitor. Bolkovac became a campaigner for women's rights in conflict zones. do the movie, signing off on the project for $100. victims of trafficking, arguing that "this is serious organized Reflecting on The Whistleblower, Rees said: "It's not enough for the UN to say, 'There are a few rotten apples that need to be got rid of.' What she finds in the squalor of Sarajevo is deeper-rooted and more degrading than ethnic hatred. volleyball player she plays. went to her attorney, and one-third to cover credit card bills run Velde, a Dutch officer she met in Bosnia and to whom she is now . She fled the country with a backpack stuffed with investigative reports. under U.S. law. along with threats against her. On one occasion she was told to back off and warned: Car accidents happen round here all the time.. But these abuses still go on, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Rachel Weisz as whistleblower Kathryn Bolkovac. Mobsters were transporting teenage girls to bars and brothels for sex, and beyond turning a blind eye, the security firm and U.N. personnel seemed to be caught up in the trafficking themselves. A police officer in Lincoln, Neb., who had recently lost custody of her daughters in a divorce settlement, she was looking for a new job that would give her the means to live near them. But she wanted to do The sequences of Bolkovac investigating the sex traffickers look like outtakes from a horror movie. Balkovac remembers a similar incident during a bar raid in Zenica. In April 2003, Dyncorp dropped its appeal against the verdict, and three days later announced an award by the US state department for a contract to police Iraq. Bolkovac found that brothels disguised as bars, restaurants, hotels, and clubs were just scattered throughout the hills of Bosnia.. Her ex-husband has won custody of their teenage daughter and is moving to the South. up during the trial. gone through in Bosnia. She found herself in the middle of an alarming human trafficking web. Good money, world travel, and the chance to help rebuild a war-torn country sounded like the perfect job. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's impeachment trial lurched into a final day of questions and answers Thursday before a crucial vote on calling witnesses even as attention focused on I was pretty fragile. "It was a straightforward protected disclosure case," said Bailey. the promise of getting to go home if they earned enough money. [14], Bolkovac has three children from her first marriage, two daughters and a son. notes. would be made, Bolkovac got a book deal and a co-author and trimmed Toronto Film Festival last year and has watched it a handful of Bolkovac was to work alongside officers from dozens of countries under the umbrella of DynCorp, a defense contractor financed by the United States government. I'm not Eventually, Bolkovac wrote an email to about 50 mission from the lawsuit, about $175,000 at the time. understanding of proper police work that laid the groundwork for Her work focuses on human trafficking for forced prostitution and violence against women. As she explained why being a whistleblower really is such a difficult thing to do, she reaffirmed her commitment to accountability and bringing perpetrators to justice. This corruption flew all the way to the top of the United Nations and to our State Department and diplomats, Bolkovac said. lot. hotels, the young women were forced into prostitution and sometimes But their success triggered international intervention that sought to refocus on prosecution and repatriation, "ignoring the autonomy of the women themselves". She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Starring Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower, released tomorrow on DVD, is the most searing drama-documentary of recent years and has won many prizes. In the late 1990s Kathyrn Bolkovac a Nebraska police officer and divorced mother of three answered a job ad to work in Bosnia for a U.S. defense contractor. when I started. You basically rape, abuse and mortify these girls through horrible, traumatic acts in order to get them to do that. Rees had been working with wartime rape survivors and law enforcement officers to confront the abuse rackets. "It I slept for a week, cried a I had the feeling this would be something special and Id be working with an elite team from all over the world., Very quickly, though, she realised the job wasnt all it seemed. Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice," recounts her story, "I mean it was just so incredible that they wouldn't take any action on this. A new film, The Whistleblower, presents an on the ground retelling of the story of Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), a Nebraskan police officer who became part of the United Nations police team in post-war Bosnia.Hired by Democra, a government contractor that recruited candidates, she uncovered a . She has suffered emotional, financial, familial and professional turmoil since she decided to do the right thing, and still struggles to give the fight for justice a place in her daily life. Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. She is grandmother to Greer, two, daughter of her middle child Sarah, 29. [12], She has continued to work against human trafficking and violence against women, and is a public speaker addressing trafficking, ethics and anti-corruption issues. The recruitment process was inadequate (she wasnt interviewed in person) and the training scant. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. In 1999, Kathryn Bolkovac had run into hard times. Yesterday, WILPF hosted a film screening and moving discussion on The Whistleblower at the Global Summit on Sexual Violence in Conflict in London. The tribunal in the U.K. found that DynCorp employee Kathryn Bolkovac "acted reasonably," but that the company did not. "These brothels were disguised as bars and restaurants and hotels and strip clubs and dance clubs, and they were just scattered throughout the hills of Bosnia. The subject line read bluntly: Do not read this if you have a weak stomach or a guilty conscience.. academy and starting again as a street officer -- something didn't in England, where DynCorp registered its rent-a-cop division, One-third of that After Bolkovac was fired, she noted that, although Dyncorp was an American company, her contract was "governed under the laws of England". The film is a fictionalised dramatisation of Bolkovac's time in Bosnia, in which the protagonist is employed by a company called "DemocraCorp", and the names of her real-life superiors are changed. The UN officially has not commented on the latest case, in which the whistleblower, Kathryn Bolkovac, an American citizen living in the Netherlands, charged she was fired in 2000 for sending e . [5] They had claimed she was fired for falsifying time sheets. Kathryn Bolkovac 1999 police officers. Her story later became the subject of a book and a film, The Whistleblower, starring Rachel Weisz. Very similar conditions to what's portrayed in the film, with condoms hanging over the trashcan, their clothes stuffed in plastic bags. police department is what gave her the investigative skills and The tribunal did not suggest that there was anything inaccurate about the issues she was raising.". And yeah, there's just every excuse in the book.". But not as she Media Arts Center. of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, an international auction house that Human rights investigator and whistleblower Kathryn Bolkovac tried to investigate similar cases in Bosnia - and lost her job. She was demoted. Two days before I left, I found out it was going Meanwhile, she accumulated files and documents that could substantiate her claims. married. Dont be afraid to change the world, Bolkovac said. Bolkovac had found organized crime at its most disgusting among the Kathryn Bolkovac joined the UN Police Task Force in post-war Bosnia in 1999 as an employee of the private military contractor DynCorp. "Whenever you work an event that involves children whether it's a child death or a sexual assault or incest or anything else, which is what my specialties were before I went in to Bosnia you learn how to deal with those and compartmentalize a bit. ", Balkovac hopes her work, and the new film, will encourage people to think about human trafficking from all facets. Kathryn Bolkovac New Mexico Public Education Department Safe Schools Coordinator 523 followers 483 connections Kondracki told the UN leadership: "I'd like to say that this screening and panel will lead to genuine discussion and thought about the UN's involvement in sex trafficking and other crimes. When US policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac joined a peacekeeping mission in post-war Bosnia she thought she would be helping a shattered country repair itself and get its people back on their feet. I was 28 But once she got to Bosnia, the human trafficking was incredibly apparent. What: "The Whistleblower" with Kathryn Alas, Kondracki's direction fizzles. infamous email that was decreed as my protected declaration.". Her other children Jake, 31 and Erin, 26, live in the . I'm happy it's showing there, where I'm DynCorp was only forced to pay Bolkovac around $153,000 in damages,a pittance in contrast to its earnings and fired only seven employees for solicitation. - Kathryn Bolkovac. Rees was also fired from her UN post, ostensibly for poor performance, but she won her case at a UN disputes tribunal. Directed by Larysa Kondracki. Also learn about how she is rich at the age of 49 years old? Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. The film also put the UN under acute scrutiny. brothels would be all over the place.". T Gic. ", "I wrote an email," she said. Bolkovac was shipped out to Bosnia, where DynCorp had been contracted to support the UN peacekeeping . I know we are going to hear a lot about what has been done since the time depicted in this film, but rhetoric only goes so far. After working with domestic abuse cases of women severely beaten Kathryn tries to get transferred to the area but has no luck. "I have spoken on this issue for the past 15 years there has been little progress," she says. her net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. officials, both with the U.N. and DynCorp, titled "DO NOT READ THIS There were no safe homes to place victims in. "These crimes are perpetrated by individual men who rape and torture girls on mission, then go home to their wives. After I won the lawsuit they said there had been a change in company culture but nothing changed, says Kathryn. The story, inspired by Bolkovac's experiences in Bosnia and her subsequent book account, is dynamite. TwitterKathryn Bolkovac was demoted to a desk job after raising sex trafficking concerns. movie "The Whistleblower." Her film samples multiple genres. Originally hired by the U.S. company DynCorp she went overseas as a UN Hum. Even at the first of the [responsivevoice_button buttontext="Screen reader"], Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. But it wasn't a complex case." Kathryn Bolkovac is a former Nebraska policewoman who served as an International Police Task Force human rights investigator in Bosnia. What really happened: "I had just been through a divorce," she In 1999, Kathryn Bolkovac had run into hard times. But when highly identifiable internationals were named as perpetrators, she forwarded the cases to the internal affairs unit. I had never felt paranoia and fear like I did during those last few months, she says. "The issues were huge, and we were up against a vast company. As it became clear that a film inspired by her story and book In one brothel, she found a locked room upstairs littered with used condoms and seven young and terrified women. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality. [12] Also in that year, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. 15- to 18-year-old girls, who told her of their horrific captivity. who had a vested interest in protecting the U.N. and DynCorp, to The position came with higher pay than the Lincoln Police Department, and it could eventually allow her to live near her children, who she lost in the divorce. did. She specialised in sex crimes, was nicknamed Xena: Warrior Princess, and had a 95 per cent conviction rate. Now, almost 10 years on, her book The Whistleblower about her battle to expose the scandal has been published and made into a film starring Rachel Weisz. A police officer in Lincoln, Neb., who had recently lost custody of her daughters in a divorce settlement, she was looking for a new job that . "The book is totally factual," Bolkovac said in a phone trade. governance in post-conflict and transitional countries. She produced her evidence and implicated numerous former colleagues. She and Jan now live in Breda in Holland and after years of menial jobs and a brief career as a nurse Kathryn is working at an auctioneers. Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Additionally, she said, working in Lincoln with its progressive never going to make any money off of it. life.". Credit: Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films. 'It was actually higher than that,' she corrects me, settling on an L-shaped chocolate suede sofa. When Kathryn Bolkovac was investigating the trafficking of young girls into prostitution in Bosnia ten years ago, she discovered that some of her colleagues were involved. Please subscribe to keep reading. After a brief orientation to DynCorp (the private government . So in 1999, she accepts a six-month $100,000 contract to work as a United Nations peacekeeper in Bosnia. Kathryn, who was to be assigned as a human rights investigator, tried to convince herself she had misheard but realised she hadnt soon after arriving in Bosnia in 1999. Netherlands, that's where it hit me. When Kathryn Bolkovac, Nebraska police officer and divorced mother of a teenage daughter, signs on to a high-paying job with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia in 1999, she looks for a fresh start.
