• US soldiers lured the Albanian girl into a trap offering her food
• US Army sergeant accused of raping and murdering Albanian girl, 11
• Kosovo murder case referred to court-martial
• U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty to Murder of Kosovo Girl
• US soldier jailed for Kosovo killing - Merita Shabiu's grandmother and brother are devastated
• Army Private Charged in Kosovo Death

                   January 19, 2000

                   Brussels, January 18th -  The murder of an
               eleven-year-old Albanian girl in Vitina met with
                   great publicity in Brussels media, which today,
                   quoting the "Kovo Sot" Albanian daily, reported on a severe accusation
                   of the US soldiers' behaviour in Kosovo.

                   "The US soldiers tricked the girl. They gave  her food.
                   That is why she consented to go down to
                   the basement", father of the murdered girl,
                   Hamdija Sabiju, told the Albanian daily.

                   His words were conveyed by Brussels media, reporting
                   on the crime in Vitina committed by a US KFOR soldier.

                   Father's statement represents a serious accusation,
                   because it reveals the background of the entire
                   "incident" and points to the fact that there was
                   a number of other US soldiers, who cooperated with Ronghi, the
                   US soldier accused of raping and murdering the girl.

                   At the same time, this confirms that it was not an
                   isolated incident involving a sick person, as  KFOR and
                   US command are trying to explain it, as well as
                   the fact  that this girl Merita was not the only one, who,
                   persuaded with food and other "presents", went down
                   into basements.

                   The US soldier Ronghi, accused of raping and
                   murdering of the eleven-year-old Albanian girl, was
                   moved to the military prison in Manheim on Sunday.
                   Actually, he was taken away from the scene of  the crime
                   only a few hours after he was accused of committing a
                   crime, reported the media in Brussels.

   VILSECK, Germany, April 12 (AFP) - A US soldier accused of rape
and murder sat impassively doodling on a writing pad Wednesday as a
pathologist testified how an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl was
beaten, strangled, raped and sodomized in Kosovo last January.
   "Her right jaw was fractured, practically bisected," said
Lieutenant Colonel Kathleen Ingwersen, US Army pathologist for
Europe.
   "We found evidence of sperm and semen in her vagina, mouth and
rectum," she testified to a hushed hearing into fresh charges
against Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi, 35, attached to the NATO-led
peacekeeping force KFOR in southern Kosovo.
   But she said DNA and other tests that could positively link
those specimens to Ronghi would not be concluded for about two
weeks.
   "There was trauma to the neck muscles, the trachea and the
carotid artery," she said, adding she had found evidence of "blunt
trauma" as the child was apparently beaten, choked and forced to
kneel, face to the ground, as she was sodomized.
   The cause of Merit Shabui's death, said the pathologist, was
"asphyxia," lack of blood and oxygen to the brain.
   Ronghi, his hair cut short army-style, was clad in battle
fatigues as were his two military lawyers, the military prosecutor
and military investigation officer Major Paul Kantwill, who presided
at the hearing to determine whether sufficient evidence existed to
court martial the accused.
   If convicted, Ronghi could face the death sentence.
   Ingwersen, a serious and matronly woman looking oddly out of
place in battle fatigues, described how she had been in Kosovo on
January 14, the day after the alleged murder, but returned to her
base at Landstuhl US Regional Medical Center in Germany only to be
immediately summoned back to examine the body.
   She said she and an assistant did a preliminary physical
examination, unwrapping the body from the plastic and burlap bags in
which it was found in the woods outside Vitina, southern Kosovo. She
then took vaginal, anal and oral swabs and photographs.
   Then, because of the "politically volatile situation" at the
time, her assistant washed the body and made it "look as sensitive
as possible.
   "He washed away the blood, washed and blow-dried the hair,
applied some makeup and laid out the body, partially covered in a
white sheet, so the family could have something decent to look at,"
she said.
   That done, the pathologist testified, she went to work on the
actual autopsy, working late into the night and the next morning.
She slit the small corpse from top to bottom, sawed through the
skull and examined the brain, removing and cleaning the windpipe,
determining the cause of death and, what likely transpired
immediately beforehand.
   One of Ronghi's young army lawyers asked if the bruising could
not have been the result of blood settling by gravity after death.
   "No, it could not have," she answered. "These were vital
reactive injuries that could only have occurred when the victim was
alive."
   She shot a quick glance at Ronghi, who was shaking his head side
to side, pressing fingers into his temples and smiling slightly as
he stared at his writing pad.
   At a military hearing February 18 at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo,
Ronghi was formally charged with indecent acts with a child and
premeditated murder on January 16, and has been held at a central US
military jail in Mannheim, Germany.
   The added charges of rape, sodomy and felony murder were being
considered on Wednesday at Rose Barracks, a military base in this
tiny town in southeastern Germany.
   Later Wednesday, Thomas Kotowski, a forensic biologist at the US
Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory in Fort Gilliam, George,
testified to the hearing by telephone.
   He said he had found evidence of sperm, blood and semen on some
or all of the vaginal, oral, and anal swabs taken from the victim,
as well as on her clothing and that of Ronghi, including his
bullet-proof vest and battle fatigues, and those of a private who
allegedly helped hide the body.
   Kotowski, a civilian employee testifying haltingly in a heavy
German accent, said he had all the specimens in his lab, but that
the critical DNA tests had not yet been started. He gave no reason,
other than to say, "That's a decision for my director."
   The hearing concluded with a statement from Ronghi lawyer Major
Meg Foreman, who suggested to the presiding officer that he consider
the fact Ronghi "believed the child was considerably older" than she
was, and that the alleged sexual activity was consentual.
   "We ask the charge of rape be dismissed for lack of evidence,"
she said.
   If committed to trial, Ronghi could face a court martial in
Kosovo, in Germany or in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where his 504th
parachute regiment is based.
   According to transcripts of testimony at the February 18
hearing, a private in Ronghi's unit in Kosovo confessed to his squad
leader on the day of the alleged killing, and later to army
investigators, that he helped Ronghi move the wrapped body from a
yellow apartment block in Vitina, where the alleged attack
occurred.
   The private, who like the other witnesses were not identified in
the transcript, helped Ronghi load the body into an army vehicle
known as a humvee and transport it to a location in the woods
outside of town.
   Another witness told the hearing, according to the transcript,
that the private said he feared for his life if he did not follow
Ronghi's orders.
   Ronghi told the private, said the witness, to "keep his mouth
shut, because this is easy to get away with in a third world
country, because he had done it in the desert."
   Ronghi served in Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia during the 1990-91 Gulf War.

WUERZBURG, Germany (Army News Service, June 7, 2000) -- On June 5 the
commander, 1st Infantry Division, referred the case of United States v.
Ronghi to a general court-martial.
Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi has been charged in connection with the death
of a civilian female who was killed Jan. 13 in the vicinity of the city
of Vitina in Kosovo.
Ronghi was a weapons squad leader assigned to A Company, 3rd Battalion,
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, deployed to Kosovo from Fort Bragg,
N.C.
The charges referred to court-martial are:
One specification of Article 118, premeditated murder;
One specification of Article 134, indecent acts with a child;
One specification of Article 120, rape;
One specification of Article 125, forcible sodomy;
One specification of Article 118, felony murder.
The maximum authorized punishment for these charges in this forum,
officials said, is a dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures of pay
and allowances, reduction to private E-1 and confinement for life
without possibility of parole.
The case will be tried at the 1st Infantry Division courtroom on
Leighton Barracks in Wuerzburg, Germany.
No arraignment date has been set.
As always, the accused is presumed innocent unless and until proven
guilty, officials said.
(Editor's note: This article taken from a U.S. Army Europe news
release.)

 FRANKFURT (Reuters) - U.S. Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi pleaded guilty
 late on Friday to the forcible sodomy and premeditated murder of an
 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo.

 Sentencing is due to start on Monday at 1100 GMT, when a panel of officers
 will hear testimony and deliberate on whether to give the soldier a chance for
 parole.

 A Weapons Squad leader in the 3rd battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry
 Regiment, Ronghi also pleaded guilty to indecent acts with a child.

 The 36-year-old native of Niles, Ohio, faces a maximum penalty of life
 imprisonment without chance of parole.

 Ronghi was arrested in the Yugoslav province after the bruised and lacerated
 body of Merite Shabiu was found in a woodland outside the town of Vitina
 on January 13.

 Shabiu's parents were present at the plea session, said Erik Gunhus,
 spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.

 ``They were very strong people. The interpreter sat between them and you
 could see what was said affected them. The mother wept very quietly,''
 Gunhus told Reuters after witnessing the plea.

 The U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division said court proceedings in Wuerzburg,
 Germany, had been brought forward to Friday evening from next Monday
 following an unexpected request to the military judge by the defense.

 Ronghi, a well-built man with short dark hair, remained calm at the hearing,
 Gunhus said.

 ``He was composed throughout the hearing, his voice was strong and his
 answers were sure. He didn't appear nervous,'' he said.

 At a pre-trial hearing in February, a sergeant told of how a young private
 under his command alleged that Ronghi had taken him in a Humvee military
 vehicle to an apartment block, loaded up the vehicle out of his sight and then
 driven out of town, where the two of them had dumped the girl's body.

 Ronghi, sent to Kosovo from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has been held in
 confinement by the U.S. Army in Mannheim, Germany.

 The Army said last month that if found guilty, Ronghi would serve his term at
 a federal prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

 The trial would have had to be held in the United States if the army had
 decided to push for the death penalty to punish the first serious crime
 implicating one of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers charged with
 keeping order in the Yugoslav province.

An American soldier has been sentenced to life
imprisonment for killing an 11-year old ethnic Albanian
girl in Kosovo.

Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi admitted sexually
assaulting and killing Merita Shabiu while on
peacekeeping duty in the town of Vitina in Kosovo last
January.

Ronghi, 36, was sentenced to life without the possibility
of parole, having earlier made a public apology for his
actions.

"I apologise from the
bottom of my heart to the
family...I ask them for my
forgiveness," he told the
court, in his first public
statement since being
arrested six months ago.

In a statement to the court,
sitting in Wurzburg, Germany, Ronghi apologised to the
army, his unit and his family "for all the hurt I have
caused".

Ronghi, from Niles, Ohio did not try to excuse his
actions, but told the court he had always tried to be a
decent person.

"I never did anything wrong before," he said. "I know
what I did was very wrong. That's why I pleaded guilty."

Guilty verdict

A six-officer panel deliberated for less than an hour
before returning the verdict. Ronghi sat impassively as
the decision was announced.

The court decided that Ronghi had sexually assaulted
and murdered Merita after entering her family's
apartment in search of a 23-year-old girl with whom he
had been flirting.

Unable to find the older
woman, Ronghi encountered
Merita as he was leaving
and lured her into the
basement where he sexually
assaulted and killed her.

Ronghi was arrested after
absconding from a patrol
and making a crude attempt
to dispose of the child's
body.

Merita Shabiu's parents and two of her siblings, Kirnete
and Sami, travelled from Kosovo to give evidence in the
case.

Misplaced trust

During the trial, her parents told the court about how
they fled from Serb persecution in Kosovo - and how
relieved they later felt at being able to return home
under the protection of Nato forces.

None of the family's six children felt more reassured by
the international presence than 11-year-old Merita, said
her father, Hamdi Shabiu.

"She was very happy because she thought they had
come to protect us," he said.

Ronghi was also stripped of his pay, rank and given a
dishonourable discharge from the army.

He has been taken to a US army prison at Wurzburg,
96km (60 miles) east of Frankfurt, but is expected to
be transferred to a high-security prison in the United
States in about a week.

          WASHINGTON (AP) _ A U.S. Army soldier on peacekeeping duty in
Kosovo has been charged with negligent homicide and dereliction of
duty in the killing last month of a 6-year-old Albanian boy, U.S.
officials said Friday.
          The charges were against Pfc. Nicholas E. Young, whose M249
squad automatic weapon discharged outside the Gornja Slatina
School, striking Gentrit Rexhepi in his upper chest and left arm.
The boy died of his injuries.
          Young is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery
Regiment of the 1st Armored Division.
          The maximum sentence that the charges against Young carry is 3{
years in confinement, dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to
private and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.
          The incident occurred July 10 as Young and other soldiers
assigned to the NATO-led Kosovo Force were helping to prepare the
Gornja Slatina School's outer grounds for the coming academic year,
officials said.
          Details of the investigation of the incident will not be
released until after the legal proceedings against Young are
completed, U.S. Army Europe officials said in a brief written
statement made available at the Pentagon.