INTERNATIONAL peacekeepers in Kosovo, flush with money and with little to spend it on, are seen as prime clients for young women and underage girls who are forced to work as prostitutes by international people-trafficking rings, Amnesty International reported yesterday.

Pristina, the dilapidated capital of Kosovo, has more than 200 cafés, bars and brothels where sex is easily bought — up from 18 in 1999. Women are smuggled across borders and sold at prices ranging from €50 (£34) to €3,500.

Most are from deprived regions of Eastern Europe. Many are locked in dark rooms, their passports are taken away, they are traumatised, undernourished and lack any medical attention.

In its report Does That Mean I Have Rights? the London-based human rights watchdog said that the international community running Kosovo was doing little to prosecute the men responsible. “It is outrageous that the very same people who are there to protect these women and girls are using their position and exploiting them instead — and they are getting away with it,” Amnesty said.

The report is deeply embarrassing for Nato and the UN which, for the past few years, have faced accusations that their personnel are involved in trafficking women as well as fuelling their exploitation.

It calls into question the accountability of occupying forces after conflicts when the rule of law often breaks down.

Kosovo, which legally remains part of Serbia, has been under de facto UN rule since the deployment of Nato peacekeepers in the summer of 1999. Its porous borders with the main region of Serbia, Albania and Macedonia facilitate smuggling and the organised crime that dominates much of the Balkan economy.

British, French, Romanian, Russian, US and Pakistani peacekeepers and Unmik (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) police have all been accused of exploiting trafficked women. At least three British soldiers have been sent home.

British and US soldiers are confined to base in the evenings.

There are more than 20,000 Nato peacekeepers, UN police and other international officials in Kosovo, where prostitution in all forms is illegal.

The report said that although they now constituted no more than about 20 per cent of those patronising women forced into prostitution, “they generate a significant part of the industry’s income”. A senior UN official told The Times: “Let’s not be naive, of course some UN soldiers do use prostitutes, just as they would at home . . . but there is a lot of money in Kosovo, and a large black market.

“We have carried out thousands of raids over the past few years. Our experience is that the vast majority of men using these women are local residents.”

Kfor and Unmik personnel are immune from prosecution in Kosovo. The immunity can be waived by a special order, but this has happened in only two cases since 2002.

Ten Unmik police officers have been sacked or repatriated in connection with trafficking; between 22 and 27 Kfor troops were suspected of similar offences. None has since been prosecuted in the home country.

Lieutenant-Colonel James Moran, a Kfor spokesman, said: “It is up to the individual nations that compose Kfor to ensure that their soldiers behave in a legal and professional manner and to carry out disciplinary measures where necessary.”

Lietenant-Colonel Jim Moran, for Nato, 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.”

The report, which covers the four years from 1999 to 2003, said: “With clients including international police and troops, the girls and women are often too afraid to escape and the authorities are failing to help them.”

Trafficked women were often treated as criminals — prosecuted for being illegally in Kosovo or charged with prostitution after police raids. When arrested, they were not allowed access to a lawyer.

Amnesty demanded that the women be given the right to redress and reparation.

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