Walker was born in
Kearny, New Jersey. He received an
M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA in 1969. As a Foreign Service officer, he has served mostly in
Latin America, notably in
Bolivia,
Brazil,
El Salvador,
Honduras,
Peru, Domestically, he has served on the
Argentina desk at the
US State Department, and with the
Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. He was the Vice President of the
National Defense University in
Washington, D.C. between 1994 and 1997. Walker was subsequently appointed to head the
Kosovo Verification Mission, leading some 1400 international and 1500 local staff between October 1998 and June 1999 along with British Major General
John Drewienkiewicz, Walker's military adviser. This was a peacekeeping mission mounted by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in an attempt to halt the ongoing violence in
Kosovo by verifying compliance on the part of Yugoslav forces with U.N. resolutions. Following the alleged
Račak massacre of 45 Kosovar Albanians in January 1999, Walker visited the site and called it an "unspeakable atrocity" and "crime very much against humanity." On January 18, 1999, the FR Yugoslavia government accused him of "going far beyond his mandate", and of "waging a campaign of disinformation against Serbia", declaring him
persona non grata and ordering him to leave the country. A week later, on the intervention by
European Council and Russian Federation,
Prime Minister of FR Yugoslavia Momir Bulatović froze the decision. The Račak massacre was a pivotal incident in pushing
NATO into launching its
bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The OSCE mission was discontinued following the end of the
Kosovo War in June 1999. In a 2008 interview, Helena Ranta, the Finnish pathologist who was tasked with examining the Račak massacre, accused Walker of pressuring her into proclaiming that Serbian security forces were responsible for the massacre in her report, despite it not being a part of her job. On November 24, 2008, he became honorary citizen of Republic of
Albania, the title given by President
Bamir Topi. On January 15, 2009, on the 10th anniversary of the Reçak massacre, he was awarded the
Golden Medal of Freedom by the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of
Kosovo. In January 2017 a statue of Walker was erected in the village of Reçak. During the
2010 Kosovo elections Walker supported and campaigned for then Albanian nationalist and radical
Albin Kurti. Walker has repeatedly criticized former Kosovo President
Hashim Thaçi and accused him of corruption. In 2020 Walker was hired as a consultant for Thaci. The five month agreement was signed by Thaci and the Walker Foundation, an association set up by Walker. Walker was awarded with
Doctor Honoris Causa price, in
Universiteti Haxhi Zeka in Pejë. ==Personal life==