A week before the NATO bombing campaign began in Kosovo, fighting broke out between the UCK and Serb para-militaries in western Kosovo. As in the rest of Kosovo, most of the fighting took place in the villages where UCK fighters could recruit locals and shelter from the Serbs.

The main town of the region, Istok, was cleared of its Albanian population, who fled to Studenica and three other outlying villages nestled at the foot of the Montenegro mountains. As the fighting intensified around the villages, 18,000 people moved deeper into the mountains, where they camped in freezing conditions for up to 3 weeks.

Eventually, the villages were overrun and destroyed by the greater military power of the Serbian army and Serb para-militaries. The Kosovan Albanians took flight from their camps and began an arduous three day trek in deep snow, through the mountains into Montenegro. Those with no family or friends to stay with, endured constant harassment while in Montenegro, from Serbian army units and so took flight yet again, this time to Skhoder in Albania.

A large, dilapidated tobacco factory was turned into a refugee camp that soon became home to over 6000 people. Conditions were appalling. The buildings were dark and damp and there was no power, sanitation or water. Refugees young and old, male and female slept together in vast makeshift dormitories with little or no privacy until, eventually, aid agencies moved in to assist in making the place inhabitable.

When the refugees returned to their village two months later the village lay in ruins. Homes had been looted and burned, livestock slaughtered or allowed to roam free and cars stolen or destroyed. The bodies of the murdered had been buried where they fell or dumped in the river.

During the first month of their return, the refugees ran the gamut of emotions from joy at being safely home and reunited with family and friends to grief and despair as more and more dead were discovered and reburied and the extent of the destruction around them became apparent.

As the trickle of food aid started to arrive the villagers began to recover them-selves. Over the last few years the people of the village, with a combination of international aid and money from family living and working abroad, have rebuilt their homes and are slowly readjusting their lives, although many problems still exist.