Kathryn Bolkovac

Having just expressed my conviction that the bio-pic is an evil thing, I come to an example that seems to work. May I say that cautiously.

I have not yet read the book, but from what I can see from looking at Bolkovac's site, very little has been changed to create a movie which provides a non-sensationalist look at the UN Peace Keepers' activities in Bosnia.

I have to say, the thing that struck me as most horrific was not even to watch the tale unfold of the despicable actions of these men who have such a position of trust. They trick girls into coming to Bosnia from other countries, and keep them in chains, let them out to perform sexually now and then. They are also bought and sold within this group. The horrific thing is that the US government, that's the one that Obama is in charge of at the moment, still does business with the contracting company that the book exposes. The company itself, if you look at their site, now has a mission statement that makes it look like it cares. Yeah, right. This is so repugnant to me that words fail, that the people involved in these appalling activities got off without any punishment whatsoever and their employers are still buddies with the US government. SHAME ON YOU, Obama. Not for the first time since Obama has taken the reins in the US, I can't help wondering what would have happened if Hilary Clinton had been the chosen one instead.

I have to say, I really didn't want to go to see this movie. I've seen enough 'shit happening to women movies' in my life, I could well imagine what it was going to be like. If you are a girl it will put you off sex. But still, read the book or see the movie, just so people like Obama do get that we care.

The UN actually put out a 2 hour press conference dealing with this book and said that everybody was being made to watch the film. I guess, since UN Peace Keepers, we find out from this movie are often almost completely uneducated, the UN couldn't tell them to read the book. You can see the press conference online here: http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2011/10/panel-discussion-sexual-exploitat...

You can see more about the story at Bolkovac's site here: http://www.bolkovac.com/


… (más)

I loved this book but I was totally outraged upon reading it. I knew some horrors were committed in Bosnia during the siege that lasted from 1992 to 1996. In all approximately 100 000 innocent civilians, including thousands of children were killed.
The signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in December 1995 ended the 3 1/2 year war in the Republic of Yugoslavia, the region was renamed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But little did I know that there was a lot of clandestine women trafficking going on.
Kathy Bolkovac relates to us this awful story the way she lived it to the perils of her life.

As part of the Dayton Agreement, The UN Security Council mandated the creation of a mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide an International Police Task Force (IPTF) and a UN Civilian Affairs Office. This was to aid the de-mining, monitoring human rights issues, rebuilding infrastructures, rebuilding the economy, train and monitor what was left of the diminishes local police force....
The first contract of this sort called LOGCAP was won by Houston-based Brown and Root Services for 3 years. But in 1995 the contract was put back up for competitive bidding and DynCorp with headquarters in Virginia, snagged it's first global LOGCAP contract by underbidding. The US State Department cut the checks for DynCorp and DynCorp would be in charge of everything.

Kathy became involved with DynCorp's first rent-a-cop by answering an ad in the Fall of 1998.
As Kathy started in her new job within DynCorp, she was working within the human rights section. Then she was demoted to another section under the pretense that she was taking a certain file too much at heart. But then she met with a certain lady that spoke to her about the abused women department and so she spoke with her overhead commander and he gave her the papers to go on ahead, and that is how she became involved with trafficked victims. She worked on many trafficked victim cases and tried to help as many as she could, only to find out later that these same victims never made it out of the country but later fell again in the hands fo kidnappers to again fall prey to savage beatings and rape. These harsh people could be the policia or even from DynCorp them self.

As Kathy would go further in her investigations, she would discover that people from DynCorp would go to the brothels and pay to use these girls, and some would buy these girls and resell them among DynCorp people.
These people were never brought to justice and when they went back home their files were never tarnished by what they had done.
They began to make her files disappear, but luckily she was making doubles of everything. Imagine the horror of these poor girls. When DynCorp were suppose be protecting them instead of abusing them. But that's not all DynCorp was doing, they were also trafficking weapons.
Kathy blew the whistle on them to the risk of her own life, and she never gave up and to the cost of her own career.
This is the story of one woman's fight for justice. You'll love this book.
By the way DynCorp is still contracting today and are paid by US citizens taxes, they are sending unqualified, racist, cruel people of ill repute and questionable motives in places such as: Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, Serbia, East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the list goes on.
Some things happen such as killings here and there, drug and weapon smugglings, rapes caught on video tapes and major accounting blunders, but none of this seems to get in the way of DynCorp operations.
Definitely worth the purchase.… (más)