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PRISTINA, Sept 6 (AFP) - Some 200 elderly Serbs living alone in Pristina -- easy prey for ethnic Albanian bandits -- will open their doors only for British peacekeepers on "granny patrol".
"Old Serbs are the main targets of violence that are as horrendous as they are cowardly," said Brian Johnston, a sergeant major in the Royal Irish Regiment of the Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR).
"Every day we are horrified by the way they are treated and the despair in which they are," added Johnston, who makes regular rounds at the homes of ageing Serbs as part of the KFOR granny patrol.
Johnston was en route to visit 71-year-old Miroslava, the last Serb left in her building in the high-risk Ulpjana district of Pristina.
Peeking through a cracked door, the elderly woman smiled when she recognized the peacekeeper she knows as Brian.
"I haven't seen anyone in two days," Miroslava said.
Indeed, ever since ethnic Albanian thugs broke into her house, beat and left her for dead, then made off with her furniture two weeks ago, this grandmother has been pacing her four emptied rooms.
She pushes a heavy armoire -- one of her last remaining furnishings -- against the front door to keep intruders out.
She trembles at every sound, sleeps on the floor, and cooks on a makeshift burner.
Unable to slip out and restock her shelves, she depends totally on the food supplies the peacekeepers bring her.
"Some old people really suffer from hunger," Johnston said. "Yesterday, we found one of them who was living on sugar and water."
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has set up food distribution points, but that does not help ageing Serbs like Miroslava who cannot leave home, he added.
The Royal Irish regiment also escorts doctors to visit the sickest.
"The international community has come with the idea of rescuing (Kosovar) Albanians and is only just starting to realize that Serbs are now the victims," Johnston said.
He added that most remaining Serbs want to leave Pristina but are unable to do so because their families have abandoned them.
One of Miroslava's sons, for example, was kidnapped last June in Pristina. Her other son calls her from Belgrade but has no plans to bring her there.
"I would so like to see my grandchildren," Miroslava said, holding back tears.
Later that day, a 73-year-old woman in Miroslava's neighborhood was beaten and raped by two 17-year-old ethnic Albanians.