UNMIK/FR/0039/01
FEATURE RELEASE - May 25, 2001

Special Police

Ukrainian Special Canine Unit: Dogs with Bark and Bite

By Alexandra George

As the Albanian Airlines flight from Tirana landed at Pristina International Airport last week, three dogs and their handlers prepared to search the passenger luggage before delivery to the terminal. 
This was routine for the Ukrainian Special Canine Unit since it began working at the airport in February. Every day several dogs inspect the passenger luggage of all outgoing and incoming flights for drugs, weapons and explosives.

But the dogs' tasks at the airport is a mundane affair compared to their other responsibilities and nothing has so far been found. Mostly they work at Kosovo's main ground border and boundary crossing points. They also carry out searches at car checkpoints. But the canine unit's most challenging work by far is their participation in special operations all over Kosovo with other Special Police Units (SPUs), KFOR, UNMIK Police and the KPS. 
The Ukrainian Canine Unit,  part of the Ukrainian Special Police Unit, is the only SPU with a  Kosovo-wide brief. It comes under the jurisdiction of UNMIK's Office of the Special Adviser to the Police Commissioner, a post held by Thomas Sexton, from Tennessee, U.S.  Sexton, who attended the FBI dog training school, coordinates the unit's work at the central level determining how many dogs are needed for each operation.

The unit comprises 35 men, including 25 handlers and their dogs -Alsatians (German Shepherds), Spaniels and a Doberman. Five dogs work with explosives; ten with drugs, and ten are patrol and tracking dogs.  They live in kennels in the SPU compound in Gjilane.
The canine unit's most frequent discoveries are weapons, found at car checkpoints or during UNMIK Police and KFOR special operations. In one major operation against organized crime, the unit joined UNMIK Police and Special KFOR troops in busting eight men selling arms to both Kosovo Serbs and Albanians.
In another special operation, the unit's dogs accompanied Polish KFOR to a village in Kacanik where extremists were hiding. "Our dogs found automatic weapons, a pistol and a lot of ammunition," recalls  Urkainian Canine Unit Deputy Commander, Sergei Dotsenko. 
Although the dogs have been trained to find marijuana, hashish and heroin, no large volumes of drugs have been found. Among the small amounts of heroin uncovered were 50 grams found in a nightclub and 70 grams in a Pristina apartment.  "Only a dog could have found it. It was very well hidden on the remote underside of a cupboard," recalls Sexton. In another case, an empty container to transport heroin was found in a car during a checkpoint inspection.
Such a "paucity " of findings is itself a clarion message, according to Sexton: "In canine work it's not what you find, but also what you don't find. If for 6 months a dog is working in a particular place and nothing surfaces -- it means you've got to look elsewhere."  Dotsenko agrees: "We don't find many drugs because it's easy to carry a 1-kg bag of heroin across the mountains. On an organized-crime level, narcotics are brought in by mule or donkey across Kosovo's many mountain bridle-paths. To fight such activities you need operational  information."
The unit also helps in the search and arrest of criminals. On 14 May dogs were called in to follow the scent of Florin Ejupi, one of the Nis bus bombing murder suspects after he escaped from Bondsteel between 2.30 and 4.30 a.m. However, according Sexton's  recently arrived successor, Special Dog Trainer,  Joakim Berlin, the dogs traced the escapee to a village and then lost the scent.
Another canine duty is that of prison guard: from 8 April dogs began working with two SPUs -- from Pakistan and Jordan -- to help guard the Dubrava prison.

The Ukrainian Canine Unit's police work has not gone unrecognized.  Recently, during the UNMIK Police and SPU quarterly Medal Parade, Police Commissioner Christopher Albiston personally awarded each dog in the Ukrainian Canine Unit the United Nations Medal for Service. 
According to Albiston: "Having seen what the dogs and their handlers can achieve in demonstrations and exercises, it is no surprise to me that they have achieved a number of notable operational successes.  Their presence in the Mission increases the range of tasks which UNMIK Police are capable of discharging, and gives added confidence to the SPU' s, Internationals and KPS officers who are responsible for delivering civil law and order in Kosovo."

Note for editors
The full document may be consulted online in English at http://www.unmik.org/. Albanian and Serbian versions can be provided.

For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467

Contact: Peter Ellwood
(038) 504 604 Ext. 5471
E-mail: ellwood@un.org