[A-List] Private security watch: DynCorp

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

We've covered this outfit before on the A-list:

See http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2001/msg05478.htm
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2001/msg03814.htm; for
further excerpts from this article see below the latest instalment in
this saga from Private Eye.

-----

Private Eye

No. 1062, 6-19 September 2002

Letter from The Balkans
from Our Own Correspondent

No sooner has the foreign affairs committee of MPs recommended that
Britain should license mercenaries for use on "humanitarian missions"
than an employment tribunal condemns one such private military firm,
DynCorp, for unfairly sacking a UN police officer who reported a
prostitution racket among her colleagues in Bosnia.

The MPs' report, published last month, followed the lead of Jack Straw's
recent green paper in accepting that private military firms are here to
stay and should be licensed for use in UN operations. Straw's paper
mentioned DynCorp no fewer than eight times as one of the companies
which "maintain a reputation as respectable organisations".

DynCorp was hired by the US government to supply police officers for the
international force in Bosnia. It in turn hired Kathryn Bolkovac, an
ex-cop from Nebraska, to join the team. On reaching the Balkans she
discovered that some DynCorp staff were turning a blind eye to
prostitution, including forced sex-trafficking -- and others were even
actively engaged in the sex-slave trade. When she presented the evidence
to her bosses and other UN officials, Bolkovac was sacked.

Although DynCorp is an American firm, it runs its military operations in
Bosnia from an office in Aldershot, so Bolkovac sued for unfair
dismissal under British employment law. At the hearing in Southampton,
the company claimed she was fired for fiddling timesheets -- a story
that the tribunal was "completely unbelievable. There is no doubt
whatever that the reason for her dismissal was that she made a protected
disclosure".

Bolkovac's whistleblowing was justified by her concern about "the extent
of trafficking in women and girls by organised criminal groups for
purposes of prostitution and particularly the involvement of UN
personnel [including DynCorp staff] in such trafficking and
prostitution".

The strength of her allegations was reinforced by a separate and
simultaneous case, this time in Texas, where helicopter mechanic Ben
Johnston alleged that he too was sacked by DynCorp in Bosnia after
revealing that staff were buying under-age girls and selling guns.
DynCorp eventually agreed to settle the case last month, only a few
hours after Bolkovac's victory in Southampton.

Evidence gathered for the Johnston case included an admission from one
DynCorp officer that he had illegally "bought" a Romanian woman and a
machine gun. It also showed that at least 13 DynCorp employees have been
sent home from Bosnia for buying women or "participating in other
prostitution-related activities". Not all of them have been fired,
however, and none has been prosecuted; apparently sex-trafficking is not
such a serious offence as blowing the whistle on it.

In his evidence to the select committee, foreign office minister Denis
MacShane persuaded MPs that these new-style military companies could be
regulated because their business interests kept them on the straight and
narrow. "Of course any firm of any sort that was accused of committing
human rights violations, if those allegations were shown to be true,
would never receive any future contract of any sort. So it would be
signing its own death warrant."

Really? Despite the growing evidence that some DynCorp employees have
engaged in gun-running and sex-trafficking, the firm continues to win
contracts. The idea that "business interests" alone will keep firms on
the straight and narrow is particularly risible in the case of DynCorp.
One of its directors, Herbert S. "Pug" Winokur, was also the chairman of
Enron's financial committee.

-----

For more on Winokur, see
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2001/msg04905.htm

-----

>From Fort Worth Weekly, December 6 2001
(see http://www.fwweekly.com/issues/2001-12-06/feature.html/page1.html)

<snip>

 The behavior of his co-workers began to bother Johnston during his
first year with DynCorp. Some talked incessantly about visiting brothels
and purchasing illegal weapons. A few bragged about buying the passports
of smuggled women and keeping them as housekeepers and sex slaves.
Former DynCorp airplane mechanic Tom Oliver supports Johnston's
accusations. Oliver, who worked for DynCorp in Bosnia from October 1998
to April 2000, resigned from DynCorp and returned to the United States
several months before Johnston was placed in protective custody. "It was
leading up to a point that a lot of bad things were going on," Oliver
said. "You had guys that were buying women's passports from local mafia
and pimps - relatively young girls."

Denisa's father is holding her hand.
Of the approximately 45 male DynCorp employees on the Army base where
Oliver and Johnston worked, Oliver estimated that about 30 were
soliciting prostitutes, and about a half-dozen "owned" girls by buying
their passports. In 1999, DynCorp fired five airplane mechanics for
soliciting prostitutes and purchasing women while working in Bosnia.
Oliver thought the firings would solve the problem, but said the
corruption actually became worse after that. "When the five left, that
left openings, and they were filled by good ol' boys, longtime DynCorp
employees," he said. "Their little group was really into that sort of
thing."
One of the worst offenders was a new supervisor who frequently visited
brothels and encouraged his crew to do the same, Oliver said in a recent
phone conversation from his home. "That's when, basically, the whole
site went to shit.... The conduct from the guy in charge at the time
prompted my decision to leave and come back to the U.S. At the time I
was probably the best mechanic they had on site." The supervisor could
not be located for comment.
Before he left, Oliver agreed to go with Johnston to provide information
to the U.S. Army's criminal investigation unit. Afterward, Oliver left
Bosnia as soon as he could. "I knew if word leaked out, there would be a
bounty on our heads by the local mafia," he said.

Denisa Johnston's Bosnian relatives enjoy folk-dancing and drinking
hand-ground coffee after dinner.
In his deposition, Johnston revealed that Oliver had once bought a
smuggled woman's passport, although he called the transaction atypical.
Oliver refused to discuss the incident with the Weekly.
Most of the men were much older than the women they purchased, and the
men usually treated the women with disdain, even locking them in closets
at times, Johnston said. Having heard co-workers talking about a young
new prostitute, Oliver bought her passport, returned it to her, and sent
her home to Romania, Johnston said. At the time, Oliver was in his
mid-20s, and the girl was 17. After she got back to Romania, they began
writing letters. They fell in love, and he traveled to Romania to marry
her. "I'm not condoning what he did, but Tom's was a different
scenario," Johnston said. "It's the only case I know where a man
actually married the woman and brought her home." The couple is still
together.
A favorite bar of DynCorp employees was run by a pimp and alleged
Bosnian Mafia member called "The Belly," because of his girth. Johnston
said he and Oliver went to the bar for a couple of after-work parties,
but stopped going when they realized the bar was a brothel.
The bar owner "was friendly because Americans were his life force for
his livelihood," Oliver said. "Basically, he had some pretty strong ties
to influential people in that region."
The public cavorting by Americans incensed Bosnians, Oliver said. "You
don't sleep with a girl in that country without marrying her," he said.
"They're conservative. They don't want their children exposed to that
behavior. They don't want women of ill repute going to their stores. We
were diplomatically immune. They had no control over what the Americans
did there."
Johnston blew the whistle. "I believe DynCorp should stop DynCorp
employees from having sex with children," Johnston said in a deposition
he gave in March after filing the lawsuit against DynCorp. He didn't
expect a medal for blowing the whistle, but he didn't expect to be fired
and treated as a pariah.
Neither did Kathryn Bolkovac.
The U.N. International Police Task Force (IPTF) set out in 1996 to
instill respect for human rights, investigate and document Bosnian
police abuses, and identify and remove police officers guilty of war
crimes. The task force was comprised of about 1,700 police officers from
40 countries. The United States provided the largest contingency in the
early stages, sending 200 officers.
DynCorp made some poor choices when recruiting, screening, and providing
American officers, said Stefo Lehmann, a U.N. spokesman based in
Sarajevo for the past three years. "There is evidence that DynCorp has
recruited some unsuitable officers," he said. "The former United States
ambassador [to Bosnia, Thomas Miller] has pointed out that DynCorp has
recruited unsuitable officers. But, as far as I know, that was being
addressed by the United States government."
Kathryn Bolkovac, the former international police officer monitor, said
DynCorp hasn't done enough to thwart illegal behavior by its own police
officers. Her lawsuit, filed in Britain because the DynCorp subsidiary
that hired her is based there, alleges gender bias, wrongful
termination, and violation of Britain's whistle-blowing laws. DynCorp
officials counter that she was fired for filing false expense reports
and for taking a leave of absence without permission. Bolkovac said
DynCorp officials had no prior complaints about her work performance,
and they trumped up bogus charges to smear her credibility. A
preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 10 in Southampton, England, to
determine jurisdiction in the sexual discrimination case. The wrongful
dismissal and whistle-blowers act allegations are slated to move forward
next year in England.
Twenty-four U.N. police officers, including eight Americans, have been
sent home for misbehavior during the past two years, Lehmann said. "Not
all of them were sent home because of visiting brothels," he said.
Since mid-1999, international police have instigated numerous raids on
brothels and repatriated 380 women who had been forced into
prostitution. "These are women trafficked against their will and sold
into the sex trade," Lehmann said. "We've identified about 260
nightclubs in Bosnia suspected of involvement in prostitution. In the
past year, local police have raided about 200 nightclubs under the
supervision of the IPTF."
About 25 percent of women found in these nightclubs claim to have been
victims of trafficking, Lehmann said. About 80 percent hailed from
Romania and its neighbor, Moldova.
Not all raids have been made solely in the interest of human rights. One
brothel owner claimed that police raided him because he refused to pay
$10,000 in protection money. Lehmann disputed his claim. "The owner was
ticked off that the IPTF was bothering him," Lehmann said. "He came up
with the accusation that the IPTF was asking for money. Are you going to
believe what a brothel owner says over the international police?"
Some lean toward believing the brothel owner. Madeleine Rees, who heads
the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bosnia,
said a more thorough investigation is warranted. In a recent phone
conversation from Sarajevo, Rees told Fort Worth Weekly that the U.N.'s
self-investigation overlooked the fact that one of the officers involved
in the brothel's raid had purchased a trafficked woman's passport three
months earlier. "Everyone in Bosnia believes the U.N. was complicit,"
she said. "It is not clean, it is very far from clean. This will now sit
there like a festering sore. The truth we will now never know because it
was not investigated properly."
Rees estimated there are as many as 900 brothels in Bosnia, with four to
25 trafficked women in each.
Repeatedly, those interviewed for this story said most international
police officers behaved professionally. A small number misbehaved by
abusing drugs and alcohol, soliciting prostitutes, and buying the
illegal passports of young girls. "We had some glaring examples of
people who went over there and disgraced themselves and went home as a
result," said Mark Kroeker, who resigned in 1997 as Los Angeles Police
Department deputy chief to become International Police Task Force deputy
commissioner in Bosnia for a year. "We're there to set the example of
what good police officers should be. When our own people exploited the
system, violated a trust, and broke faith with expectations, it became
the return of the ugly American. To me that is a great sadness."
Bosnian brothels like these were often given American names and catered
to foreigners.

Getting rid of corrupt police officers from other countries can be
difficult. "You often would have an adversarial role with the country,
and the country would fight with the U.N. over it and say, 'No, we want
our guy to stay there,' " Kroeker said. "A month later, the guy is still
there sitting on his bunk and the U.N. is trying to figure out what to
do about it."
DynCorp moved quickly to fire bad employees when government officials
complained, he said. "It is not a perfect corporation, but they
conducted their investigations and gave people their pink slips with or
without U.N. approval," Kroeker said. "They are employees of DynCorp. If
you are going to disgrace your country or your company, you're going
home. I respected DynCorp for that."
Not everyone respects DynCorp for whisking employees back home. "DynCorp
does not have an open policy or procedure on anything," Rees said. "It's
a very bizarre setup. To stop people from behaving in this manner you
have to have open and transparent investigations of those doing it, and
you have to have appropriate sanctions. One of the things to do would be
to lift immunity so you can prosecute here. The local community would be
able to see we are not above the law."
DynCorp employees in Bosnia are nearly jail-proof. The U.N.'s
international police officers have total diplomatic immunity. DynCorp's
civilian employees, such as those who worked on airplanes in Tuzla, have
functional immunity, which protects them while at work, but not during
off hours. Still, they are not prosecuted when they run into trouble
after work.
Even if DynCorp employees weren't to be charged or tried under Bosnian
law, their continued presence could help police investigate crimes
committed by locals, said Vandenberg, the Human Rights Watch researcher.
"DynCorp has a reputation for whisking personnel out of the country
before they can serve as witnesses or as defendants," she said. "Local
police complained that in some cases they wanted the testimony of
individuals, but those individuals were out of the country before the
Bosnian authorities could even arrange for a hearing."
Few brothel owners are punished, she said. "My research in Bosnia shows
only a handful of brothel owners ever face prosecution," she said. "When
they did, the penalties meted out did not reflect the crime. They were
too low."
Vandenberg doubts that DynCorp, the U.N., or the U.S. government will
alter the immunity protection. "If they waived immunity, no one would
serve in their missions," she said.

DynCorp has had difficulty getting people to move overseas and to live
and work in Bosnia, despite the high salaries offered, observers said.
Johnston recalls a DynCorp official's son filling a mechanic's job at
the Army base despite no knowledge of airplanes or tools. "He didn't
know the difference between a socket and a wrench," Johnston said.
Bolkovac called DynCorp's recruitment policies "a joke." DynCorp claimed
to recruit only applicants with police experience, but Bolkovac met
police monitors in Bosnia who didn't pass muster. "When I was recruited,
the minimum was eight years law enforcement experience," she wrote in a
recent email. "That was already being overlooked as some of the monitors
had come from security companies. The physical assessments were a joke."
Corruption was easy, detection difficult, and criminal prosecution
nonexistent. "This is a private company, they can do whatever they want,
and then purport to represent the American government and our military,"
Bolkovac wrote.
Johnston told his supervisor in the spring of 2000 that DynCorp
employees' participation in the sex trade needed to end immediately. His
supervisor told him employees could do what they wanted on their own
time, Johnston said. The response was expected. The supervisor, a
frequent visitor to brothels, was later fired after U.S. Army
investigators raided a DynCorp employee's house and found a videotape
that showed the supervisor having sex with two women, one of whom was
heard on tape saying "no, no, no." The employee later said he bought a
copy of the video, which had been stolen from the supervisor's house, to
use as blackmail, should the supervisor try to fire him.
A room to which prostitutes took their customers.

A DynCorp employee told Army investigators that the supervisor cleared
personnel decisions with "The Belly," the bar owner, because the
supervisor didn't want to transfer or send home employees who owed the
alleged kingpin money.
After complaining about the corruption, Johnston felt cold shoulders
from co-workers. Some told him that people got hurt sticking their noses
in other people's business.
Johnston complained in May to a more senior DynCorp supervisor, Joe
Becker, who wasn't stationed in Bosnia but made infrequent visits.
During a Feb. 21, 2001, deposition, Becker said that Johnston "ratted
out" co-workers because he thought he was being laid off from his job.
He said a poor work record, not whistle-blowing, led to Johnston's
termination. "The decision on Mr. Johnston was in no way punitive," he
said. "We looked at who were performers and who were not the
performers."
In Lubbock a few weeks ago, Johnston rolled his eyes when told of
Becker's statements. Johnston's work record and evaluations were
excellent. He was fired only after he cooperated with an Army
investigation. "I was a thorn in their side," he said.
In his deposition, Becker said Johnston was fired on the recommendation
of the supervisor. Yet Becker also recommended that the supervisor be
replaced because "my assessment of him was that he was an irresponsible
supervisor."
Johnston began showing Army investigators where DynCorp employees lived,
and he pointed out the brothels they frequented. Later, at work, a
co-worker told Johnston that anyone who squealed on The Belly would be
shot. Johnston didn't want to smear DynCorp's reputation, he said. "I
didn't want DynCorp to lose a contract, because I wanted to be there,"
he said. "I just wanted them to clean up their act."
On June 2, Army investigators showed up at the Mujcinovic household
early in the morning and told Johnston and Denisa to pack small bags and
prepare to go into protective custody. "It was the first time I ever saw
my dad cry," Denisa said. She didn't know if she would ever see her
family again. That same day, investigators raided the Army base and
searched the homes of DynCorp employees.
Johnston and Denisa stayed in a small room at a U.S. Army base in
Dubrave, in Bosnia, for 10 days, then flew to DFW International Airport
and made their way to Lubbock. Johnston said he sought reimbursement for
travel expenses, but DynCorp refused to pay, and a company official told
Johnston he would have ended up dead in a ditch if he had stayed in
Bosnia.
After the Army investigation, DynCorp fired Johnston's supervisor and
another employee, who was found with an illegal Uzi weapon and ownership
of a Moldavian prostitute. The investigation deemed other employees to
be clean. Johnston said a DynCorp employee told him that most people at
the base were tipped off prior to the raid and given time to cover up
evidence.

The return to Lubbock was a sad one for Johnston and his new wife. He
felt like a failure, not a hero. He was jobless. Johnston's relatives
were mostly proud of the stand he made in Bosnia, although his father
questioned whether Johnston should have risked the lives of his in-laws
and himself. "I'd rather he would have just closed up shop and come
home," said his father, Van White.
Johnston found no jobs that came close to matching the salary he had
been earning. He took a $35,000-a-year mechanic's job. In the back of
his mind, he wondered constantly if he were being watched or stalked by
disgruntled co-workers or Bosnian Mafia members. For safety, he and
Denisa moved into a high-security apartment. Denisa was depressed and
missing her relatives. "There was no coffee in the morning, no talking,"
she said. "It was just me."
One day, Johnston was assessing his financial situation and his wife's
loneliness, and came up with an idea. He and Denisa would start their
own business, and work together cleaning offices and houses. They would
build clientele, and then bring Denisa's relatives to the United States
on work visas. Johnston went from working on airplane engines to
scrubbing toilets, but he saw Denisa's spirits rise.
Bosro Services thrived. So far, Denisa's father, brother, and three
cousins have moved from Bosnia to Lubbock to work for the fledgling
company. They live in an apartment in the same complex as the Johnstons.
At night, they eat dinner and drink the traditional, hand-ground Bosnian
coffee that is brewed without a filter. Afterward, they line up, hold
hands, and dance to traditional Bosnian folk songs.
Denisa and her relatives have forged few new friendships in Lubbock, but
they are beginning to adapt. They attend religious services at a mosque,
and sometimes accompany Ben to a Christian church. Denisa's father,
Camil Mujcinovic, 53, at first was shocked by America's fast pace.
Bosnian life is slow, he said. He had never eaten in a moving vehicle
before. Now, he frequently eats burgers in a van while traveling between
cleaning jobs.
One recent afternoon, Denisa needed to run an errand. A stranger might
have mistaken her for a native west Texas gal as she climbed into a
towering sports utility vehicle, tuned in a country-and-western radio
station, and headed down a flat west Texas highway. "I always wanted to
see America, but I never would have dreamed I would be here," she said.
She likes Texas, and she'll stay here forever if necessary, but now she
dreams of one day going home. "I miss Bosnia," she said.