soldato USA in Kossovo accusato di stupro e omicidio (Jan 16, 2000)

[Alessandro Marescotti <kfqma at tin.it>]

Cfr.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000116/aponline142436_000.htm



>Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 13:15:56 +0100
>X-Sender: mail.inet.it/paola.lucchesi at pop.inet.it (Unverified)
>To: macsunfl at freemail.org.mk
>From: Paola Lucchesi <paola.lucchesi at mail.inet.it>
>Subject: AP/BBC/Reuters: U.S. Soldier Charged With Raping and Killing
> Kosovo Girl (Jan 16, 2000)
>
>
>>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000116/aponline142436_000.
htm
>>
>>US Soldier Charged in Kosovo Death
>>
>>By Melissa Eddy
>>Associated Press Writer
>>Sunday, Jan. 16, 2000; 2:24 p.m. EST
>>
>>VITINA, Yugoslavia -- An American soldier serving with the international
>>peacekeeping force in Kosovo was charged Sunday with sexually assaulting
>>and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, the U.S. military
>>announced.
>>     Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi is accused of murder and indecent acts
>>with a child, Col. Ellis Golson told reporters. It is the first time a
>>peacekeeper from any country has been accused of such serious crimes
>>since the 50,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force entered the province
>>on June 12.
>>     The incident threatens relations between the Americans and Kosovo
>>civilians whom the peacekeepers were sent to protect. The peacekeepers
>>were sent in after the 78-day NATO bombing campaign forced Yugoslav
>>President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his bloody crackdown against
>>Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
>>     "We don't want them here to give us security if they are going to
>>do this," said Muharram Samakova, a neighbor of the girl's family.
>>     Ronghi, 35, is a weapons squad leader assigned to A Company, 3rd
>>Battalion, 405th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, N.C.,
>>Golson said. His hometown was not immediately available. He was being
>>held in detention at nearby Camp Bondsteel pending transfer to the U.S.
>>Army's confinement facility in Mannheim, Germany.
>>     The girl's body was found late Thursday in the countryside near the
>>city of Vitina, 45 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Pristina,
>>the army said. A senior U.N. official who asked not to be named said
>>Saturday that the girl appeared to have been raped before she was
>>killed.
>>     In Vitina, the slain girl's father, Hamdi Shabiu, showed reporters
>>a photo of his daughter's corpse that he said a U.S. officer brought him
>>late Thursday, when he was informed of her death. The girl's face
>>appeared battered and bruised, with a small cut on her forehead.
>>     Shabiu said he last saw his daughter early Thursday when she left
>>to go to the market. She did not return. Neighbors in an apartment
>>complex across the street told him she had been killed in the basement
>>of the building.
>>     "They killed her 20 meters (yards) away from the house," he said.
>>"They took her - she was only 11 1-2 years old."
>>     Serbian state-run television, which regularly criticizes the NATO
>>peacekeeping mission, said Sunday evening that the case "exposed an
>>unprecedented disgrace."
>>     It was too early to tell how the incident would affect relations
>>between the Americans and ethnic Albanians. Other similar cases - like
>>the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by three U.S. servicemen in
>>1995, for example - have sparked rallies against the U.S. military
>>presence.
>>     The U.S. peacekeepers are widely seen as heroes by Kosovo Albanians
>>because of Washington's role in the NATO bombing campaign. On Sunday,
>>groups of ethnic Albanian children could be seen milling around U.S.
>>military vehicles, laughing, chatting and playing with the soldiers.
>>     However, neighbors of the Shabiu family were outraged.
>>     Hxsen Islami said local residents had filed complaints with the
>>U.S. command in Vitina about male soldiers searching young girls for
>>weapons. He said the complaints had gotten no response.
>>     "I'm sorry, but they are touching the girls," Islami said.
>>     U.S. military officials at the main headquarters at Camp Bondsteel
>>said they knew nothing about such complaints. Brig. Gen. Ricardo
>>Sanchez, the head of Kosovo's American forces, met Saturday night with
>>community leaders in Vitina and offered his condolences to the family.
>>     The army said Sunday it will appoint an officer to conduct a
>>pretrial investigation. The investigator eventually will recommend
>>whether the charges should be referred to a court martial. Ronghi could
>>be tried before a military judge or a panel of officers.
>>
>>© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
>>_______________________________________________________________________
>>http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_605000/605903.stm
>>
>>Sunday, 16 January, 2000, 16:41 GMT
>>
>>US soldier charged with Kosovo killing
>>
>>A US soldier serving with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo
>>(K-For) has been charged with the sexual assault and murder of an
>>11-year old ethnic Albanian girl.
>>     Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi, 35, was arrested last Thursday in the
>>south-eastern town of Vitina after the girl's body was discovered by a
>>US patrol.
>>     She apparently had been killed the same day, said Colonel Ellis
>>Golson, in charge of the mainly US-run south-east sector of K-For.
>>     Her father, Hamdi Shabiu, said he last saw his daughter early on
>>Thursday when she left to go to the market. She did not return.
>>     A US officer showed him photos later that day of her corpse, in
>>which her face appeared battered and bruised, and with a small cut on
>>her forehead.
>>     Sergeant Ronghi, of the 504th parachute infantry regiment based in
>>Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was charged with "murder and indecent acts
>>with a child" according to the chief of staff of US forces in south-east
>>Kosovo.
>>
>>Outrage
>>
>>The incident has outraged Albanian families in Vitina.
>>     "We don't want them here to give us security if they are going to
>>do this" a neighbour of the girl's family said.
>>     The commander of the regional forces, Brigadier General Ricardo
>>Sanchez, met local leaders of the town to express the military's
>>"heartfelt and deepest condolences", a US army spokeswoman said.
>>     He stressed however that the tragic killing was "an individual
>>criminal act that will be dealt with appropriately".
>>     K-For's commander German General Klaus Reinhardt said he was
>>"deeply shocked" by the murder.
>>     "I am also deeply saddened that the reputation of the whole of
>>K-For has been affected by the criminal act of one individual," he said.
>>     The army has said it will appoint an officer to conduct an
>>investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the killing and
>>cause of death.
>>     Sergeant Ronghi is being held in detention and will soon be
>>transferred to the US Army's Mannheim military prison in Germany.
>>_______________________________________________________________________
>>http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a0602LBY351reulb-20000116&qt=Kosovo&sv=
IS&lk
>>=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
>>
>>U.S. Soldier Charged With Killing Kosovo Girl
>>
>>01:11 p.m Jan 16, 2000 Eastern
>>By Andrew Gray
>>
>>VITINA, Serbia (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier in Kosovo was charged Sunday
>>with murdering a local 12-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, U.S. forces
>>said.
>>     The soldier, 35-year-old Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi was also
>>charged with committing indecent acts with a child, the chief of staff
>>for Kosovo's U.S.-led military sector said.
>>     ``I'd like to express our heartfelt and deepest condolences to the
>>family of the victim,'' a somber Colonel Ellis Golson told reporters at
>>Camp Bondsteel, the main U.S. base in Kosovo.
>>     Outside the girl's home in the town of Vitina, about 15 km (nine
>>miles) from the giant military camp in eastern Kosovo, neighbors
>>gathered to offer sympathy and support to her family.
>>     Some complained at the general behavior of U.S. troops. But the
>>victim's distraught father, clutching a photograph from military
>>authorities of his daughter on a mortuary slab, said he felt no anger
>>toward American soldiers in general.
>>     ``You can't blame the whole army. You can't blame the commander,''
>>said Hamdi Shabiu, sobbing as he talked to reporters outside his home.
>>``We want to know who this soldier was... Why did they allow such a
>>soldier to come here?''
>>     The picture he held showed the head of his daughter Merite, her
>>skin pale and apparently bruised, resting on a white pillow with her
>>light brown hair swept back.
>>     Ronghi, from the Third Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry
>>Regiment based at Fort Bragg North Carolina but currently stationed in
>>Vitina, was detained immediately after the discovery of the girl's body
>>Thursday, U.S. forces spokeswoman Major Debbie Allen said.
>>     The killing provoked shock across Kosovo, which is home to more
>>than 40,000 troops from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force. They were
>>deployed in the region last June after alliance bombing drove Serb
>>forces out of the southern Yugoslav province.
>>
>>FAMILY SURVIVED SERB TERROR
>>
>>Inside the family's simple house, women gathered to console the girl's
>>mother in a bare-walled room with few furnishings. The women wailed as
>>Remzie Shabiu recounted how the family had survived Serb terror only to
>>face tragedy now.
>>     ``She walked barefoot for 30 km (19 miles) when we escaped from the
>>Serbs,'' she said. ``But now...'' Her voice trailed off.
>>     Although no longer met with the euphoria which marked their
>>arrival, KFOR troops are generally given a warm reception by Kosovo's
>>majority ethnic Albanians who see them as guarantors against the return
>>of repressive Serb forces.
>>     KFOR commander General Klaus Reinhardt said he was filled with
>>horror and anger.
>>     Vitina residents were shocked that someone from a nation they
>>idolized had committed such a crime. ``We thought they were the most
>>civilized people in the world,'' one man remarked.
>>     U.S. troops found the girl's body three km (two miles) outside
>>Vitina Thursday evening, Major Allen said.
>>     The killer had attacked the girl, she said, adding the exact cause
>>of death was being investigated.
>>     Allen said the indecency charge specified that ``an act occurred
>>with a child under 16 years of age that was for the sexual gratification
>>or stimulation of the person who did it.''
>>     Brigadier General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. forces in
>>Kosovo, met Vitina leaders Saturday evening.
>>     ``They discussed how important it is to continue relations,'' Allen
>>said.
>>     ``The unit has a good relationship with this community. They have
>>been there a few months, they have established a position there that has
>>been welcomed by the people,'' she told reporters at Bondsteel. ``This
>>is an isolated situation.''
>>     Ronghi was understood to have been in the army for more than 12
>>years, U.S. forces said, and was likely to be transferred to a U.S.
>>detention center in Mannheim, Germany, later in the week.
>>
>>Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.
>
>
>


---------------------------------------------------------------
Alessandro Marescotti
c/o PeaceLink, c.p.2009, 74100 Taranto (Italy)
http://www.peacelink.it
---------------------------------------------------------------

Ipertesto per una cultura della pace:
http://www.peacelink.it/pace2000

PeaceLink Database (file in formato DBIII con le schede di 580 associazioni)
http://www.peacelink.it/database/