GI Is Charged With Sexual Assault, Killing of Kosovo Girl

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 June 12.

The incident threatens relations between the Americans and the Kosovo civilians they were sent to protect after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s bombing campaign forced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his bloody crackdown against Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority.

Ronghi, 35, is a weapons squad leader assigned to A Company, 3rd Battalion, 405th Parachute Infantry Regiment based at Fort Bragg, N.C., Golson said. His hometown was not immediately available.

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.

A neighbor of the family said residents had complained to the U.S. command about male soldiers searching young girls for weapons but had gotten no response.

“I’m sorry, but they are touching the girls,” Hxsen Islami said.