Ahmeti (left) is comforted by a friend as she shares her story RELATED VIDEO CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports on support for rape victims Windows Media 28K 80K

July 1, 1999
Web posted at: 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT)

From Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- On any given day prior to the start of NATO airstrikes, 50 women would come to see Sevdjie Ahmeti, a human rights activist who ran a center for abused women and children in Kosovo.

When war came, many people ran away. But not Ahmeti, who decided, "I wanted to see with my own eyes what was happening."

It didn't take long before Ahmeti became a target. First, her office was broken into. Then she was attacked by three masked men, one of whom sexually assaulted her with a weapon.

Even though it is still painful for Ahmeti to talk about what she refers to as "gun rape," her training as a human rights worker helped. What she worries about are the women from traditional families who have been raped, many of whom suffer in silence and never get help.

So Ahmeti has decided to make supporting other Kosovo rape victims her crusade, giving them "real support, something that is touchable."

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