House after house has been destroyed - empty reminders of the ethnic cleansing conducted by Serb forces. Across shattered storefronts and tumbling walls, the Serb symbol of unity showing four crescent moons has been sprayed, claiming everything that once belonged to the ethnic Albanians who lived here. Some of the most vulnerable residents of Stimlje never left. Driving slowly up the road to the gates of the town's psychiatric hospital, you can see them through the metal bars that mark the boundary of this sprawling property.
Several patients stand, arms outstretched, begging for cigarettes and attention.
A strange wailing fills the air. At the entrance, patients swarm around the car, faces and eyes and voices of the abandoned and the disturbed. A woman wearing tattered red pants and a stained vest stares and points in my direction. Her mouth opens, revealing gums coated with dirt and a single yellow tooth. Her puffy blue eyes stare wildly.