UN Radio in Kosovo

The Peacekeepers and the Women

By Andrea Saula

Hello and Welcome - from the studios of UN Radio in Kosovo...

According to the International Migration Organization (IOM) data, every year some 200.000 women from Eastern Europe and Russia are being trafficked and forced into prostitution.

This kind of trafficking, or sex trafficking, has flourished in the former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo. Local NGOs, like Pristina’s Centre for Protection of Women and Children assess, that the number of victims has dramatically increased since international military and civil missions took root here in Kosovo.

Over the last five years, the testimonies from victims, detailed explanations on how traffickers function, such accounts are more regularly found on the front pages of mainstream newspapers.

Still, there are those who want to go further behind the scenes to gain more of a perspective on what is not being said. German documentary filmmaker, Karin Jurschick, is one of those people. She spoke to UN Radio in early December during the weeklong Human Rights film festival called One World.

Jurschick

“I wanted to look behind that story. What is behind and what kind of impact does the international community really has on a society without just focusing on bad guys or good guys. That was not my problem but just to see how is the structure behind and system working.”

Jurschick’s film, called “The Peacekeepers and The Women,” was filmed in Moldavia, Bosnia and Kosovo in 2002. As she explains trafficking women is one negative consequence associated with political transition.

Jurschick

“We wanted on the one hand to follow the line of women from the market place. It starts at the market place Arizona (in Bosnia) through several stations and back to the starting point. On the other hand we wanted to integrate this economic background, like a fabric, in Moldova, that we showed. Many corporations go abroad to find cheap labor, and we wanted to have this border security problem. I guess that’s the interest of internationals – to close the border – not let the whole problem come to Western European countries.”

In a very explicit way, Karin Jurschick’s film tackles the more macroeconomic aspects of human trafficking. Her conclusion – it is just like any other market-driven industry – where there is a demand, there is a supply. But, Jurschick says that her intention was to avoid the usual victim-perpetrator perspectives.

Still, she interviewed prominent politicians and UN officials, like Jacques Klein, former head of the UN administration in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Madeleine Reese, former head of the UN Human Rights Office in Bosnia, as well as international criminal prosecutors in Kosovo.

Jurschick

“There was little resistance against this issue because, I can understand that…because here - many people work hard and also are doing good things around this issue. They fear a bit of a negative issue coming out of this issue. On the other hand we personally found it good, working together, to get excess to people and to get interviews.”

“The Peacekeepers and the Women,” has received much critical acclaim. Produced in part by German TV, the film won the 2003 Arte-documentary award as well as the Adolf Grimme award.

And before coming to Pristina for the One World film festival in December, it had screened in cities throughout Germany, Bombay, India – Oslo, Prag, Zagreb, Warsaw and Madrid.

Filmmaker Jurschick says the film also served to dispel any myths around the international community’s efforts in these areas – particularly the United Nations.

Jurschick

“I think people started to think a bit about it because, especially in Germany, we think that if the UN is coming in, everything is going to be okay. We see them more as a helping organizations and what I wanted to show is that we all have to think more about what’s happening after so-called humanitarian interventions, and we cannot just give this problem away. It is not only the problem of the United Nations, let’s say. In no way, is this film specifically against the UN, it’s just to be more aware of the complexity of the whole human trafficking problem.”

According to Jurschick, some UN agencies, like the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees [UNHCR], asked for the film in order to use it for staff trainings, although no official comment about such activities appeared in the film.

The film is more than just saying you are the one to be blamed. That’s not the point. I would like to get into the discussion about how I think we need something like the United Nations very deeply. But…an organization like this has to be criticized.

At the film screening in Pristina, there were no clear reactions from the audience. Nonetheless, subject matter as sensitive as human trafficking will continue to be on the public radar as long as there is an international presence in Kosovo.

So ends today’s programme. Tune in the first week of January as UN Radio in Kosovo features interviews with 4 filmmakers who took part in this years Pristina Human Rights film festival.