Kosovo UN troops 'fuel sex trade'

BBC ^

[konijn]

Kosovo UN troops 'fuel sex trade'

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.

The UN and Nato forces said they had not yet seen the report to comment.

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.

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 Kfor 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".

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 KFOR 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.

[Skywalk]

I understand the difference, but I wonder--can there really be THOUSANDS of ABDUCTED women from these countries in the span of a few years? It just...seems a bit off.

I think it's a bit sensationalistic--what likely happens in most cases is that the women are already prostitutes or are not averse to being in that "game" but are misled about the nature of their employment when they are brought over.

Not to say that there aren't any sex slaves, but I don't buy that thousands of people are all being kidnapped. Some? yes.

[Seselj]

A new report, co-written by the UN and the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has estimated that 120,000 women and children are trafficked into the EU each year, most of them through the Balkans.

Basically what happens is the trafickers put adds all over eastern Europe advertising jobs in western Europe. The girls apply for the jobs thinking they will be waitresses or something like that. Then once they are out of their country they find out the truth, but they can't do anything.

[Arthalion]

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

There is the crux of the problem. Very few nations are willing to prosecute their own soldiers for crimes they commit under the UN banner because it's seen as a UN problem. The UN itself operates in Kosovo under a treaty making its soldiers immune to any sort of local law enforcement or prosecution, and the UN has even written itself a dandy law making it a "war crime" to harm or kill a UN soldier in a "UN occupied area" (there isn't even a self-defense clause).

Put this all together and you have a situation where the UN soldiers can effectively play god with the local population with impunity...and when you give people that kind of power, they WILL abuse it.

[GeraldP]

>>>Am I right?

'Fraid not. Without taking away from the magnitude of the problem and its despicable nature, there is no religious face to either criminals or victims. Also keep in mind that as a result of the communist rule and influence of Italian TV culture, the correlation between names and religion has all but vaned. Thus a seemingly Christian name such as Loretta, Diana, Anita etc. does not necessarily mean that person comes from a Muslim family.

[My Favorite Headache]

The first thing Bush needs to do after being re-elected is get us the hell out of the UN and show the millions of reasons why. Then form a new organization with Canada,Mexico,Spain,UK,Poland,andItaly...and anyone with balls enough to be part of something that is legit.

[fishtank]

You've gotta get the equations right here:

Torture and murder BY Muslims = Yawn

Frat party hazing TO Muslims = Outrage

[Arthalion]

Not to say that there aren't any sex slaves, but I don't buy that thousands of people are all being kidnapped. Some? yes.

Not quite as far fetched as you might think. In the big European cities with millions of people, it's easy enough to conceal hundreds of these slaves in each city. There are a lot of big cities in Europe, so it's easy to believe that there are thousands of abducted women across the continent.

One of the British newspapers recently did an undercover expose on this issue and infiltrated several Balkan brothels. Even the tiniest villages usually had brothels with up to a dozen enslaved women working to service the criminal underground and the UN troops. The whole situation really shows the depravity of the UN and why they shouldn't be trusted in ANY country as occupiers.

[GeraldP]

>>>Nearly every Muslim male I have encountered (from US college educated to the worst piece of sh*ts) view all non-muslim females as whores and prostitutes.

That is not my experience at all. I have come across many, many males from the M.E. who are dating American, German, Italian women.

>>>Muslims women are not that better off in their lives, but a muslim male would never put a muslim female in a "position" to have sex with infidels.

First and foremost, religion plays no role in Albanian politics; Albanian society is very secular as well, and the religious are moderate (with very few exceptions). Fact is, some of my good Albanian friends, I have no idea what religion they are.I also have several Muslim Albanian friends, you are doing them a great injustice by lumping them with the Islamic fanaticism of the Middle East.

[wtc911]

You hang out with sex-traders?

[GeraldP]

Correction:
Thus a seemingly Christian name such as Loretta, Diana, Anita etc. does not necessarily mean that person comes from a Christian family.

[GeraldP]

No.

[2banana]

That is not my experience at all. I have come across many, many males from the M.E. who are dating American, German, Italian women.

It is interesting wording you have. How many muslim females do you know that are dating non-muslim males in a muslim country? I bet it is nearly zero. Why? Because their family would disown them for either:

1. Dating and thus maybe marrying a non-muslim.
2. Maybe having sex with an infidel.
3. For males it is OK because - having sex with an infidel female does "not really count" and if they get married the female will be expected to convert to islam.

First and foremost, religion plays no role in Albanian politics; Albanian society is very secular as well, and the religious are moderate (with very few exceptions). Fact is, some of my good Albanian friends, I have no idea what religion they are.I also have several Muslim Albanian friends, you are doing them a great injustice by lumping them with the Islamic fanaticism of the Middle East.

They said the same thing in Sarajevo before the war (and I was there). I am not lumping all muslims together. It is just interesting how muslims gangs traffic in Christian females and the reverse is not true. If you can find evidence to the contrary, please let me know.

[2banana]

See this very new post:

Thank Allah for Little Girls
by Jonathan Tuttle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1130760/posts

Conclusion

Imagine for a moment the life of a young Christian girl in an Islamic country, such as Sudan.

She is abducted from her parents in a slave raid at the age of four. She is given a new Islamic name and, under gunpoint, forced to pray as a Moslem. At age five, she is forced to undergo the torture of mutilation. At age six, she is engaged to a man ten times her age. At age nine, she is married and repeatedly forcibly raped. For the next year, she is beaten daily. At age ten, she is forcibly raped by another Moslem man, and is sentenced to death because of a charge of fornication. The night before her death, she is raped by a prison guard and assured that she will spend eternity in hell. The next day, she is whipped with lashes until she dies.

During her life, none of her perpetrators have once violated Islamic law. Everything she was subjected to was sanctioned by the "most merciful Allah."

This is not an overdramatization. This is real life. This is the biography of millions of girls. The fact that this is so horrific does not mean that it is not happening in numerous countries to thousands of girls as you read this right now.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Not to say that there aren't any sex slaves, but I don't buy that thousands of people are all being kidnapped. Some? yes.

I think you have a point and I understand why you balk at the word "kidnap".

From the stories I have heard, what usually happens lies in a gray area between a kidnapping, a con game, a seduction... Just as example, some slimy guy has an office downtown that nevertheless looks like a semi-legitimate business promising/advertising "work" in some foreign country. Young girls from poor families who need the money desperately show up to "apply" for the "job". (Which is, supposedly, being a maid in some rich household, or something.) Everything seems on the up-and-up (at least to a naive 17 year old girl from the country) but the guy says "of course, we'll need your passport..." Transportation is arranged for the girl to go somewhere (whatever foreign country), but upon arrival her passport is strangely withheld, or just taken, from her.

Now she can't leave, has no money, and has no options but to go to work as a prostitute for whoever has her. (This all is more the type of story I hear coming out of Russia, but I suspect something similar goes on in these cases...)

Now, maybe this all isn't exactly the type of "kidnapping" we're familiar with (which calls to mind a girl disappearing without warning, guys jumping her and grabbing her and pushing her into some van, blindfolded, etc.) but the effect is the same. I understand your suspicion at the large numbers but I think it's because you're misinterpreting what people mean by saying these girls are kidnapped. Substitute "tricked" or "coerced" if you like. In a court of law it would all probably still be considered kidnapping. And so in the main I don't really doubt this story.

[Dr. Frank fan]

I should have read more than the title of the article before posting

No worries. I do that all the time myself :) best,

[GeraldP]

You're not going to see me defending this instance of horror. Quite frankly I am a bit disappointed you felt you had to address a post like this to me.

[GeraldP]

>>>Because their family would disown them for either.

I cannot speak for Sudanese, Lebanese, Saudis, or Syrians. I only speak for Albanians, and 99% of your generalizations with regards to dating, marrying etc. are just simply alien to Albanian culture.

[FormerLib]

Gee, the BBC could have just re-run their story from 2003 on this one.

Or the 2002 story...

Or the story from 2001...

Or that story from 2000...

These criminal abuses will come to an end when the Serb Army retores law and order to their province.

Of course, the organized criminals responsible for doing this have a lot of cash to spread around, buying American PR companies to cover their tracks for them and all.

[2banana]

I cannot speak for Sudanese, Lebanese, Saudis, or Syrians. I only speak for Albanians, and 99% of your generalizations with regards to dating, marrying etc. are just simply alien to Albanian culture.

I do not disagree with you as I have never been to Albania. However, please answer my question. Did you see muslim females dating non-muslim males or was it just the muslim males dating non-muslim females?

[Centurion2000]

Not to say that there aren't any sex slaves, but I don't buy that thousands of people are all being kidnapped. Some? yes.

It's quite real Skywalk.