United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was an international organization formed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1035 on 21 December 1995. It completed its mandate on 31 December 2002, when it was succeeded by the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From the UNMIBH website:
:''UNMIBH’s mandate is to contribute to the establishment of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina by assisting in reforming and restructuring the local police, assessing the functioning of the existing judicial system, and monitoring and auditing the performance of the police and others involved in the maintenance of law and order.''

UNMIBH was headed by a Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The SRSG exercised authority over the UN’s IPTF Police Commissioner and coordinated other United Nations activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main components of UNMIBH were: IPTF (International Police Task Force); the Criminal Justice Advisory Unit; a Civil Affairs Unit; and a Human Rights Office. The Mission had a nation-wide presence with regional headquarters in Banja Luka, Bihac, Doboj, Mostar, Sarajevo, Tuzla and a district headquarters in Brcko.

From 2001 through 2003, at the request of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jacques Paul Klein served as his Special Representative and Coordinator of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the rank of Under-Secretary-General. As Chief of Mission, he had overall management authority and day-to-day management responsibility of 2,700 international police officers from 48 different countries with a budget of $168.2 million. UNMIBH restructured and downsized a 44,000 pre-war police force to approximately 16,000 trained personnel. The Mission recruited and trained the first BiH police contingent that was deployed to the United Nations Mission in East Timor and the first group of Bosnian United Nations military observers. He focused on combating international terrorism, illegal migration and organized crime and within eighteen months was able to cut the number of illegal persons entering BiH, through its three airports, from 25,000 to 300 per year.

In 2003 Officer Kathryn Bolkovac discovered a ring of human trafficking involving UN officers, after two young girls appeared after being sold and abused in illegal brothels. Dozens of girls raised 'eerily similar' accounts of abuse: including emigrating to take a job as a waitress or in domestic service, including at the insistence of their own families – but were diverted into human trafficking. They were trafficked to different locations, forcibly stripped and sold to individuals who beat and raped them in brothels in Bosnia.

Bolkovac's story was adapted into the film ''"The Whistleblower"''. A UN audit, released by the US government in 2008, into Klein's actions in both Bosnia and Liberia accused him of a significant role in a number of scandals, though specifically clearing him of corruption. In 2010, a UN review into the audit stated the investigation was inadequate and allegations lacked merit, including a complete failure to notify Klein of the allegations and allow him a chance to respond to them.

During Klein's tenure as Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) from 1999 through early 2003 there were no “cover ups” as a result of a zero tolerance policy regarding any serious misconduct. The mission investigates all allegations of misconduct in a fair, thorough, and timely manner. 24 international police officers, among them eight Americans, including the Deputy Police Commissioner were sanctioned by repatriating them home to face disciplinary or court action in their home countries in accordance with the prevailing agreements between the UN and the Countries providing police officers which define clearly that member states are expected to assume the responsibility for initiating appropriate disciplinary or legal (civil or penal) action and not the local courts of the host country.

References

External links

Information at the United Nations website
*Human Rights Watch
Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls To Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution
November 26, 2002

{{DEFAULTSORT:United Nations Mission In Bosnia And Herzegovina
United Nations operations in the former Yugoslavia
Political history of Bosnia and Herzegovina