Their respective nations may be struggling to make peace, but relations between Serb and Albanian criminals are flourishing - nowhere more so than in the prostitution business. In the last year or so, the two have combined to traffic hundreds of girls into Kosovo to work in brothels set up for the legions of international peacekeeping troops based in the province. The problem has its roots in the aftermath of the conflict.
Criminals moved quickly to exploit both the shambolic judicial and police service and the arrival of some 60, peacekeepers and civilian staff.
Women, mainly from Ukraine, Hungary and Romania were smuggled via Belgrade to or so Kosovo "clubs" - bars and nightclubs doubling up as brothels. The girls are usually tricked into the racket with promises of jobs as waitresses and dancers. The prostitutes are often locked up in filthy rooms and forced to serve 10 clients a night. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise as the girls are pressured into having unprotected sex.
Gordon Moon, the man brought in to spearhead the campaign against the traffickers, believes Serb and ethnic Albanian mobsters are largely behind the lucrative trade. It's big business, and it's completely unaffected by the political situation. Around half are smuggled into Kosovo. Bernard Kouchner, the first UN Kosovo administrator, brought in legislation banning the trafficking of women late last year. He also introduced newer and stiffer sentencing for those involved in the trade.
UN legislation rules that anyone implicated in the business could be imprisoned for between 2 to 12 years in prison, the prostitutes' clients face prison terms of up to five years. Since the legislation was brought in, some forty men have been arrested for trafficking and one club in Pec in western Kosovo closed down. In one of the biggest operations against the racketeers, hundreds of NATO soldiers and UN police raided brothels, controlled by both Serbs and Albanians, in the town of Kosovo Polje, close to Pristina.
