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Despite the war's end, many in Kosovo continue to feel its effects   VIDEO CNN's Patricia Kelly looks at the psychological effects of the Kosovo war Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Matthew Chance reports city officials say their city's reconstruction has become a pawn in President Milosevic's political game. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO: Milosevic charges U.S. is conniving with 'murderers'  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

August 26, 1999
Web posted at: 10:17 p.m. EDT (0217 GMT)

From Correspondent Patricia Kelly

PRIZREN, Kosovo (CNN) -- On the surface, Kosovar Albanians seem to be doing their best to return to a normal life. The streets of Kosovo's cities are teeming with activity, shops have reopened for business and many are working on rebuilding their destroyed homes.

But the queues of patients in hospital corridors tell a different story, revealing the deep wounds of last spring's campaign of murder, torture and forced evacuation of ethnic Albanians at the hands of Serb forces.

Most of the patients in Prizren's hospital are suffering from post-traumatic stress from the war.

"They have anxiety, fear, flashbacks of all the events they experienced, nightmares, isolation from their environment," said psychiatric neurologist Dr. Zylfie Hundozi.

There aren't enough experts to cope with the huge numbers of people who need counseling. So volunteers from other countries are offering crash courses in psychotherapy to general practice doctors, nurses and even social workers.

"We are training professionals and the concept of community mental health and psychological counseling may be new to them, but interacting with people is not," said Carol Etherington, a mental health nurse for Doctors without Borders.

Mental health care professionals say there isn't a man, woman or child in Kosovo who hasn't been touched by the war in one way or another. The counselors' primary task is to teach the population that it's normal to suffer from stress. But first, the counselors must recognize they may be victims of post-traumatic stress themselves.

"The first task is to heal ourselves," said general practitioner Dr. Sulejman Krasniqi. "We were so terrified. For example, I was during the whole bombing time in Prizren and I passed so many terrible moments."

A community-wide information campaign is planned to persuade people to seek help. Experts hope that getting people to talk about the past and release their stress will give them new hope for the future.

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