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Children's tales of horror

Children caught up in the conflict in Kosovo have been telling of their experiences in paintings and drawings.

An exhibition of their work, collected by a Kosovo Albanian teacher, has opened in the Macedonian town of Tetovo.

One 12-year-old boy recorded the final moments of his father's life.

Alone in a tent in a refugee camp, Arseme Deder is putting a nightmare down on paper. It is a story of his life from 17 April, when Serb forces killed his father.

He tells us he wants the world to know what the Serbs did in Kosovo. He draws things no child should see.

"Here I'll draw dead soldiers and here dead people. And a tank approaching the houses," he said.

Ozman is a Kosovo Albanian teacher forced to flee for his life. He persuaded Arseme and 130 other children to record their suffering.

Their simple drawings tell the story of shattered lives. Arseme's are among the most vivid.

One picture, entitled "massacre of my father" shows how Serbs surrounded his family, making them sit with their hands in the air.

It was then, Arseme said, they took his father away. In the distance, he heard him being shot. Later, relatives found his mutilated body.

"I went to the field where they killed my father. If I had lifted my head a little, I would have seen him," Arseme said.

"I am glad I didn't. If I had seen him, I would have died, too."

Every picture in the exhibition is full of the horror of war.

Some are the work of young refugees, just nine years old. They have left not only their homeland, but also their childhood behind.

For many of the young victims of the war, words are still too difficult. Only in paintings and drawings can they reveal the horror of what has happened to them and their families.

The exhibition is their silent testimony.

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Internet Links

Latest Kosovo news - UNHCR
Red Cross: Kosovo Family News Network
Nato
Serbian Ministry of Information
Kosovo Crisis Centre
Oxfam in Kosovo

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