UN employee indicted on sexual harassment, human trafficking charges

AFP, 26 mai 2005 19:48

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, May 26 (AFP)

An employee of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in Kosovo has been indicted on charges of sexual harassment of minors and human trafficking, the UN announced Thursday.

UN Mission (UNMIK) spokesman Neeraj Singh told AFP that the "international public prosecutor today filed an indictment with two charges against UNHCR official Rashidun Kan."

"The indictment is related to charges of sexual exploitation of minors under 16 years of age and human trafficking," Singh said.

"He used sexual services of two minor girls with the knowledge that they were victims of trafficking," he added.

Singh would not reveal Kan's nationality, but local media in Kosovo said he was from Pakistan.

Kan was arrested in January and has since been in pre-trial detention. The incidents occurred between September and December last year.

Together with Kan, a Kosovo woman was also charged with human trafficking.

A date for the trial in Kosovo before an international panel of judges has yet to be set.

Kosovo is technically part of Serbia but has been a UN protectorate since NATO intervened militarily in 1999 to end a war between Serbian forces and separatist guerrillas from the province's ethnic Albanian majority seeking independence.