IT was in Manchester that Kosovan refugee Saranda Bogujevci learned to trust human beings again.

She arrived here, aged only 13, having suffered horrific injuries in a bloody massacre which claimed the lives of her mother, two brothers and 11 others from the village where she was raised.

Seven years on, the confident 21-year-old has overcome terrible injuries to make a new life and is now a student at Manchester University.

So it's fitting that Saranda is now working to recreate a some of the love and kindness she has experienced in Britain in her home village of Podujeve, a short distance from the Serbian border in north east Kosovo.

When work is complete, the almost four-acre Manchester Peace Park will include play areas, sports facilities, woodland walks and remembrance areas.

It has been designed with help from Cornwall's Eden Project and will be completed with proceeds from the Cohesion Live concert in Manchester's Platt Fields park, featuring Badly Drawn Boy and Elbow.

"Many people lost a lot of members of their families during the war, and homes and lives were destroyed," Saranda says today in strongly-accented yet word-perfect English.

Community

"The peace park is much more than somewhere to play. It is a place to bring the community together and to show that there are other people in the world who care about them. It will demonstrate that connection with the community in Manchester.

"It is also a place where we can remember those who died. We mustn't forget those who died." As brave as she is, Saranda is still too fragile to talk about the terrible events of March, 1999.

Pam Dawes, a leading light with the Manchester Aid To Kosovo charity, which is staging Cohesion Live, has played a massive role in Saranda's recuperation and is keen to protect her.

Even so, both accept it is a story which much be re-told.

Along with a group of 19 others, Saranda was forced into a secluded garden by troops from the infamous Serbian Scorpions paramilitary group.

Once there, the attackers unleashed a deadly rain of bullets from their Kalashnikov machine guns, killing 14.

It was only by huddling among the bodies of fallen loved ones that Saranda and four young cousins survived the carnage.

All five - Saranda, Fatos, Jahona, Lirie and Genc - have since made new homes here.

But their journey has not been easy. Saranda was hit 16 times, suffering injuries to her back, legs and arm, and was taken to Pendlebury Children's Hospital for treatment along with her cousins when she arrived here in September, 1999.

"It was weird to go into a different country when you lose so many members of your family. And not knowing the language as well," explains Saranda. "But the way they treated us it just made a difference.

"To have people looking after you who cared about you made it so much easier. I'd started to forget that there are people who care."

Upheaval

Saranda's childhood coincided with the political upheaval which ultimately led to a terrible wave of ethnic cleansing across the Balkans.

More than 8,000 men and boys died in Srebrenica alone. Simmering tensions between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians came to a head in 1999. A campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovo Albanians - who had themselves campaigned to restore autonomy in the region - was initiated by Serbian forces.

Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was forced to withdraw his forces after 11 weeks of Nato bombing.

Investigations by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe subsequently found that Serbs had carried out human rights abuses on a massive scale, but had also suffered appalling revenge attacks.

Saranda still remembers having fun with her late mother and her father, who also escaped to Manchester.

"We couldn't really have a normal life because people were thrown out of work and food was taken away," she recalls.

She now regularly visits Podujeve and things have started to improve. But it is still a place of sadness.

"People are still missing since the war," Saranda explains. "There are those who still live in tents and sometimes don't have enough food to feed their family."

Saranda's seven years in Manchester have at least gone some way towards healing the mental and physical scars. "I try to be normal, try to be just another student, but what happened to me is part of my life," she concedes.

And her ultimate aim to one day return home and to right the wrongs of the past.

She took the lead when the five surviving cousins gave evidence against one of the paramilitaries in Belgrade, the first time children had given evidence at any war crimes trial.

Domestic war

The trial itself was the first major domestic war crimes trial held in Serbia.

The five children - now aged 12 to 21 - received the first International Anne Frank Award for Moral Courage in 2004.

Saranda now speaks to schoolchildren about her experiences. "I can't change what happened so I have to look to the future and, hopefully, get back to a normal life," she says.

"I want to change the way people feel and to try to stop the hatred between others," she says. "Giving a voice to someone and letting them speak about their experiences and feelings is important. I was given that opportunity.

"I'd like to do that, not just for the people of Kosovo but for other children who have been through what I have been through.

"I didn't do anything. My family didn't do anything. And for someone to kill your whole family just because of who you are, that's not right."

Cohesion Live will take place at Platt Fields Park, Manchester, on September 23. Tickets are é19.50 plus booking fee. For further details visit www.cohesionlive.com , call the box office on 0870 225 6677 or click on the links below. Tweet