It was based on her interviews with women refugees and health providers in camps around Tirana and Kukes in the first week of May 1999. The women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Serrano of rape, abductions, detentions and torture in a number of different sites. The women reported being individually raped by many men, during a few hours but sometimes even for days. Women who were released had lacerations on their chests, evidence of beating on their arms and legs, and they had been burned. The soldiers take groups of 5 to 30 women to unknown places in trucks or they are locked up in houses where the soldiers live.
Any resistance is met with threats of being burned alive.
Serrano was also told that at control points soldiers would demand money, then jewelry, then tell the women to undress in order to verify that they were not hiding anything. Often they were between the ages of 15 and 25. In general, one to five men committed the rapes and the women were immediately released after the violation. Serrano found that contrary to previous reports, many women did want to talk about what had happened to them but needed appropriate circumstances to do so. I was surprised at their willingness to speak, as so many people had told me that they would be unwilling to talk about experiences which their communities regard as shameful.