DEVASTATED Kosovar refugees have re-lived the full horror of the crisis in their homeland - as the people of East Lancashire put a comforting arm of friendship around them.

Men, women and children gathered in the peaceful gardens of Calderstones - their home for the foreseeable future - to tell their own stories of their journey from Kosovo to safety in the Ribble Valley.

Engineer Nuhi Rodari said: "I don't have to watch TV or read newspapers about what has happened in Kosovo because what I have seen with my own eyes is enough."

Nuhi, his wife Sherife and 10-year-old son Korob were forced to flee their homes by Serbian police who told them "Just leave your homes and run to Nato, Clinton and Tony Blair - they will look after you."

After spending more than a month in the cramped Stankovac Two refugee camp in Macedonia, Nuhi and his family were told they were coming to Britain, and left the same day. He said: "I had lived in the same house since I was born, so has my father and grandfather and great-grandfathers before me. It is terrible. I have family in France, but some of my friends and family are still in Kosovo and I am worried for them because it is so dangerous.

"But the welcome we have had here is unbelievable and one day I hope to repay the kindness of the local people here. We want to go back to Kosovo, but while I am here I hope to be able to work and do something to repay the British people."

Local volunteer groups are helping to care for the refugees and their stay is being co-ordinated by Lancashire County Council.

Coal mine technician Burim Namini, his wife Elfete and son Rinor, three, spoke of a massacre in the village of Nakarada which claimed the lives of his two friends who he believes are buried in a mass grave with 100 others.

He said: "The police came into our homes and surrounded the village. They told us all to leave and took all our belongings, everything we owned. Three days later we learned that our homes had been burned.

"But my friends in the next village were killed and buried in a mass grave. My parents are in Macedonia, but I haven't spoken to them and I don't know how they are."

Burim, 26, and his young family fled to the Stankovac two camp in Macedonia, but even feared for their lives there.

He said: "At first Albanians in Macedonia took us into their homes, but they were so poor themselves we had to go back to the camp. "Conditions were terrible in the camp with 17,000 people living there. All I can say to the Macedonians is thank you for not killing us - they were very brutal.

"I am very depressed. It is hard for me to even think about what has happened to my home and my community. I am glad to be safe here in England and I want to thank the English people, but I want to go back to my homeland. I don't know what we will find, I think it will be worse than Bosnia."

Xhafer Mustafa, his wife and three children had to live in the mountains above their village for three weeks, constantly in fear of their lives as they were chased by Serb police.

He said: "We just had to survive how we could from day to day. We finally got to the train station and made our way to the camp in Macedonia. We were there for 27 days before we came to England.

"It is unbelievable what has happened to our country and what has happened to all Albanians in the middle of Europe.

"We are glad to be safe in England, but we want to go home as soon as possible, but that is not down to us."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.