The IPTF case: Extortion, prostitution & espionage?

AIM Banjaluka, November 25, 2000

Over the past few days one, until recently, completely unknown small business owner from Prijedor managed to do a host of things: to organize a street protest, to accuse SFOR of armed raiding and kidnapping and the IPTF of extortion, and both of them of sexual abuse of nightclub dancers, to challenge the international community's high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina to a TV debate and to become a media star. Even the recent, very mysterious visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a SFOR base in Ramici, near Banjaluka, is linked to the scandal caused by public appearances of Milorad Milakovic, the chairman of the Association of Small Business Owners of Republika Srpska and the owner of several new nightclubs in Prijedor.

Press conference on a highway: It all started on Nov. 20, when Milakovic scheduled a press conference at the International Press Center in Banjaluka, at which, according to announcements, his wife, Milka, the formal owner of the Prijedor nightclubs Masquerade, Crazy Horse 1 and Crazy Horse 2, and two dancers working in them would address the public. Since the police, as they said, prevented them from entering town, they invited journalists to join them on the outskirts of Banjaluka where they were stopped.

At the Banjaluka junction a grand show was organized for reporters. Several tough-looking young men in black T-shirts displaying the slogans "Resist the Terror" and "IPTF Go Home," tried to block traffic. Signs were put up along the road, of which one saying "David Is Not a Peacekeeper but a Pervert" drew the most attention. In the midst of all that Milorad and Milka Milakovic, their son, Sasa, and "dancers" Kristina and Lujza, were giving sensational statements.

The Milakovics claimed that a certain David, whom they said was an IPTF commander in Prijedor, had asked them to pay 20,000 German marks per month for "protection," in addition to free access to new female personnel "for the purpose of taking sexual advantage of them." When his demands were rejected, a raid followed, which the Milakovics described as armed assault and kidnapping. Namely, on Nov. 13, IPTF policemen and armed members of SFOR, acting independently of the RS police, entered the Masquerade nightclub, searched it, wrecked the place and took 34 girls, all of whom had valid passports and other documents, in an unknown direction. Kristina and Lujza testified as to how they had later fled from Sarajevo, escaping the claws of the IPTF and SFOR to again find refuge with their bosses. Milakovic said that he had proof for all his claims: photographs, tape recordings and live witnesses.

Comments: Although the story bordered on the incredible, the events of the next several days, or more precisely the events that failed to follow, showed that the story was all but naive.

First of all, no one denied Milakovic's allegations, although after a brief silence all relevant factors, in one way or another, commented on the Prijedor scandal. Thus at least two major problems, which no one wished to mention before, surfaced in an unusual and almost spectacular manner: the issue of the sex slave trade and prostitution and the issue of corrupt and arrogant international policemen and troops stationed in Republika Srpska and Bosnia.

RS Interior Minister Sredoje Novic confirmed a day after the scandal that local police did not take part in the raid on the Masquerade although, according to regulations, they were supposed to participate in such actions, whereas the IPTF should have only assisted in and supervised it. Novic added that the IPTF and SFOR "shouldn't have done" what they did. True, he expressed doubt that the two dancers had actually escaped from Sarajevo, and later one of his closest associates said there was suspicion that the passports of some of the arrested girls were forged.

Alun Roberts, IPTF spokesman for the region of Bihac and Banjaluka, avoided all contact with reporters for two days, and at a later press conference responded to all questions with "No comment." Roberts even declined to say anything about certain information reporters had no trouble in obtaining: for example, that David indeed exists and that the IPTF was investigating him.

Extortion: No one, however, has either denied or looked into the gravest charge Milakovic made: the extortion attempt. This is why Milakovic announced that he will sue the blackmailer although he does not know his exact name or simply does not wish to reveal it to the public. True, the police also pressed criminal charges, but against Milka Milakovic on suspicion of inducing other persons to prostitution. When asked whether he would request that that David from the IPTF be prosecuted, RS Prosecutor Vojislav Dimitrijevic responded that he was legally obliged to do so if there was relevant proof to substantiate the charges. Are international police and troops in this country above the law? They enjoy immunity, similar to that given to diplomats, which means that state bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not even have records of their entering the country. Still, if they break the law they will be held responsible. This, however, will be done not by the courts in Bosnia, but by the courts in their respective countries, where the RS Justice Ministry is obliged to send all its evidence. It appears, however, that no one in Republika Srpska is willing to even begin gathering such evidence.

The cloak and dagger story: Milorad Milakovic, however, keeps obstinately claiming that he can prove everything he said. He had, allegedly, been secretly listening in on IPTF communications, the tapes are stored at three different locations, and he says he has witnesses who can confirm that all the material is authentic. He even amused journalists by telling them that the IPTF and SFOR must be rotten organizations throughout if they can allow themselves to be spied on by "an ordinary private business owner." No one reacted to his statements, nor to his self-confidant challenging of Wolfgang Petritsch to a TV debate.

Milakovic, who likes to call himself an ordinary businessman, is a man with an impressive biography. He was a railway official, a policeman, a manager of an artistic and dancing company which toured the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia's top HAM radio operator... For a while he was also active in politics: he was one of the founders and the first president of the Serb Democratic Party in Prijedor. He knows Radovan Karadzic well. Some even claim he worked with the now late paramilitary leader, Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic, but he denies that. Today he is not a member of any party.

The SFOR mystery: Those acquainted with night life and procedures for raiding nightclubs cannot stop marveling at the fact that armed SFOR soldiers participated in the raid on the Masquerade. Namely, hunting down illegal prostitutes and victims of the sex slave trade is not part of their job description. A thorough search of the club, the absence of local police, their unannounced and unauthorized arrival, all that has raised many eyebrows. Was this action revenge against a disobedient businessman who would not pay for "protection," or were the IPTF and SFOR searching for someone or something else, instead of for alluring dancers from Europe's East? Maybe they were looking for weapons or persons from the Hague Tribunal's list?

Who is David?: The journalists, of course, were interested the most in the true identity of David the Racketeer, and his current whereabouts. Allegedly, his surname is Prater, he was never a commander, but is an IPTF police officer. He is Irish, has American or British citizenship, and loves brawls, alcohol and pretty women. If he truly attempted to blackmail Milakovic, he did that pretty clumsily. Namely, Milakovic said that he would have paid him had he asked for less! After the scandal, David disappeared from Prijedor. Another IPTF officer in Prijedor, Calvin Neuerad, claims that his colleague is under internal investigation. Some even claim that the investigation has ended and that David has been sent home.

Corruption and prostitution: Stories of the IPTF's involvement in "illegal activities," even in prostitution, are not new. The Prijedor scandal has only revived them. A British journalist several months ago tried to investigate sex slave trade channels in Bosnia. She gave up, telling her colleagues that international forces were so deeply involved in this that serious research was almost impossible.

Officially, one of the roles of the IPTF in this country is to fight such illegal activities and protect runaway, abused or sold prostitutes. According to Alun Roberts, from March 1999 to April this year, the IPTF discovered 185 such cases.

The proverbially cautious Roberts, however, shortly before Milakovic's public address said at a press conference that it had been noticed that a growing number of IPTF members were "patronizing nightclubs." This "patronizing" has been their well-known habit since the beginning of their mission, but it is strange that although unprovoked, Roberts decided to mention that right then.

That trafficking in women destined for prostitution exists as well as prostitution itself is no longer a secret in this country. Several such cases were even discovered and resolved by the Brcko District police. Particularly well-known is the case that occurred in the Arizona Market, when a "businessman" traded a truck for three women. As opposed to trade in illegal emigrants, which is carried out via Sarajevo airport, the prostitution routes lead through Yugoslavia, and the towns of Bijeljina, Zvornik and Brcko.

According to data gathered by Milakovic's Association, there are 56 night clubs in Republika Srpska. Although everybody pretends not to know, prostitution in them is commonplace. The prostitutes are either procured through the above channels, or legally, which is more complicated and more expensive. In this year alone, the RS Ministry of Labor issued a total of 740 work permits to foreign nationals for the jobs of stripper, dancer or entertainer. Since some of them have re-applied, once or even twice because they can stay in the country up to three months at a time, it is assumed that some 450 of them work in Republika Srpska legally. Still, to meet the needs of 56 clubs, some 700 are needed. The difference is more than obvious.

Trafficking in persons for the purpose of organized prostitution according to the new RS Penal Code, is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Still, there is the question of how such crimes can be proved: it should first be established that prostitution does exist, and then, through owners of the clubs, which are only the last link in the chain of crime, reach the real bosses. The latter are the central question. Who are they and who in this country is ready to declare war on them?

Tijana Tadiæ (AIM)