[ALBSA-Info] [Kcc-News] Kosovo UN troops 'fuel sex trade'

[Kosova Crisis Center News and Information]

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Kosovo UN troops 'fuel sex trade'

Thursday, 6 May, 2004, 15:56 GMT 16:56 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3686173.stm

The presence of peacekeepers in Kosovo is fuelling the sexual exploitation
of women and encouraging trafficking, according to Amnesty International.
It claims UN and Nato troops in the region are using the trafficked women
and girls for sex and some have been involved in trafficking itself.

Amnesty says girls as young as 11 from eastern European countries are being
sold into the sex slavery.

A Nato spokesman said some details of the report seemed out of date.

Lieutenant Colonel Jim Moran said some policies had changed. Peacekeepers
were "not allowed" off base in civilian clothing or to go to bars and
nightclubs, he said.

"Each nation is responsible for the conduct of their soldiers, and if they
find a soldier that is breaking the law, it is up to them to bring them to
justice," he added.

There has been no comment from the UN.

Trading houses

Amnesty's report, entitled "So does that mean I have rights? Protecting the
human rights of women and girls trafficked for forced prostitution in
Kosovo," was published on Thursday.

 "I was forced by the boss to serve international soldiers and police
 officers" -- Trafficked woman who spoke to Amnesty

It is based on interviews with women and girls who have been trafficked
from countries such as Moldova, Bulgaria and the Ukraine to service
Kosovo's sex industry.

They are said to have been moved illegally across borders and sold in
"trading houses," where they are sometimes drugged and "broken in" before
being sold from one trafficker to another for prices ranging from 50 to
3,500 euros ($60 - 4,200).

The report includes harrowing testimonies of abduction, deprivation of
liberty and denial of freedom of movement, torture and ill-treatment,
including psychological threats, beatings and rape.

Instead of getting a proper job the women and girls find themselves
trapped, enslaved, forced into prostitution.

The report condemns the role of the international peacekeepers.

Slavery

It says that after 40,000 K-For troops and hundreds of Unmik personnel were
sent to Kosovo in 1999, a "small-scale local market for prostitution was
transformed into a large-scale industry based on trafficking run by
organised criminal networks".


 "Peacekeepers must be held accountable for their role in this trade in
  human misery" --
  Kate Allen, Amnesty International

The number of places in Kosovo where trafficked women and girls may be
exploited, such as nightclubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and cafes, has
increased from 18 in 1999 to more than 200 in 2003.

The report claims international personnel make up about 20% of the people
using trafficked women and girls even though its members comprise only 2%
of Kosovo's population.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

"Women and girls as young as 11 are being sold into sexual slavery in
Kosovo and international peacekeepers are not only failing to stop it they
are actively fuelling this despicable trade by themselves paying for sex
from trafficked women.

"It is time for countries to stop treating trafficking as a form of
'illegal migration' and see it as a particularly vicious form of human
rights abuse."

One woman told Amnesty International: "I was forced by the boss to serve
international soldiers and police officers... I never had a chance of
running away and leaving that miserable life, because I was observed every
moment by a woman."

Criminals

Another told how German soldiers were instructed by their superiors not to
go with prostitutes, but went anyway.

"They told the pimp, that if someone would be coming, he should alert
them," she said. "After a while the pimp employed a guardian."

Amnesty says that despite some positive measures by the authorities to
combat trafficking, the women and girls are often still treated as
criminals - prosecuted for being unlawfully in Kosovo, or charged with
prostitution.

Amnesty International is calling on the Kosovo authorities, including
Unmik, to: implement measures to end the trafficking of women and girls to,
from and within Kosovo for forced prostitution ensure that measures are
taken to protect the victims of trafficking ensure that those trafficked
have a right to redress and reparation for the human rights abuses they
have suffered

Amnesty says Unmik's own figures show that by the end of 2003, 10 of their
police officers had been dismissed or repatriated in connection with
allegations related to trafficking.

In the year and half to July 2003 some 22-27 K-For troops were suspected of
offences relating to trafficking, the report says.

However, Kfor troops and UN personnel are immune from prosecution in Kosovo
and those who have been dismissed relating to such offences have escaped
any criminal proceedings in their home countries.

Ms Allen added: "The international community in Kosovo is now adding insult
to injury by securing immunity from prosecution for its personnel and
apparently hushing up their shameful part in the abuse of trafficked women
and girls."

The organisation called on the UN and Nato to implement measures to ensure
that any personnel suspected of criminal offences associated with
trafficking are brought to justice.
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