The Whistleblower Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice

by Bolkovac, Kathryn; Lynn, Cari

• ISBN13: 9780230108028
• ISBN10: 0230108024
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-04
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

When newly divorced Nebraska cop Kathryn Bolkovac saw a recruiting announcement for a private military contractor called DynCorp International, she jumped at the opportunity. Good money, world travel, and the chance to help a war-torn country rebuild sounded like the perfect job. After minimal training, Kathy was shipped out to Bosnia, where DynCorp had been contracted by the US to support the UN peacekeeping mission. The lack of training sounded the first alarm bell, but once she arrived in Sarajevo, Kathy soon found out that there was a lot worse. Employees of DynCorp were involved in a massive human trafficking operation, buying and selling women as sex slaves. Worse, that the UN was helping them cover it up. Against all odds and at great risk to her personal safety, Kathy began to collect testimonies and documents showing what was really happening in Sarajevo. During the course of her research, she was demoted, received death-threats, and ultimately was forced to flee the country under cover of darkness - bringing the incriminating documents with her. Out of harm's way, Kathy filed a lawsuit against DynCorp for wrongful termination, blowing the whistle on her former colleagues. She won the suit and many of the men involved were forced to resign, finally bringing justice to their victims. This is her story.

Author Biography

Kathryn Bolkovac is a former police investigator from Nebraska who served as an International Police Task Force human rights investigator in Bosnia. 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 international organizations. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 

Cari Lynn is the author of three books of narrative nonfiction, including Leg the Spread: A Woman’s Adventures Inside the Trillion-Dollar Boys Club of Commodities Trading. Lynn has written for numerous magazines and newspapers including O, Health, Good Housekeeping, and the Chicago Tribune. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Table of Contents

Excerpt from The Whistleblower:

I was a police investigator certified in forensic science and contracted to work on human rights abuses. But my superiors continuously tried to bury my cases.  When I was promoted to UN Headquarters to oversee all cases of domestic abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking throughout Bosnia, my case files started disappearing on a routine basis from the Internal Affairs office.  Files upon files of evidence we human rights officers, and even local Bosnian police, had collected never saw the light of day: victim statements, license plate numbers, identifying badges, names, tattoos, and even instant photographs.  All of it gone. Except, of course, for the copies I had in my Eddie Bauer duffle bag.                                                         —from the Prologue

 

Excerpts

Excerpt fromThe Whistleblower:

I was a police investigator certified in forensic science and contracted to work on human rights abuses. But my superiors continuously tried to bury my cases.  When I was promoted to UN Headquarters to oversee all cases of domestic abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking throughout Bosnia, my case files started disappearing on a routine basis from the Internal Affairs office.  Files upon files of evidence we human rights officers, and even local Bosnian police, had collected never saw the light of day: victim statements, license plate numbers, identifying badges, names, tattoos, and even instant photographs.  All of it gone. Except, of course, for the copies I had in my Eddie Bauer duffle bag.                                                         —from the Prologue