A grateful restaurant owner is back in touch with his lost war-zone sister - thanks to RAF airmen serving in war-torn Kosovo.

Kosovan chef, Sabri Veseli, 37, who owns the San Sicario Italian restaurant, High Street, Wallingford, lost contact with his sister when fighting broke out in the region.

Now, thanks to pilots from RAF Benson, he is looking forward to a family reunion,

Mr Veseli fled the Yugoslav province 12 years ago, leaving behind his sister, Elhame Shdiku, now aged 39. He managed to keep in touch and made occasional trips to visit her in the Kosovan capital, Pristina.

Following the outbreak of war, Mrs Shdiku, her husband and four children, were forced from their home in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, and disappeared. But now, following determination from Flt Lt Ian Howells, 36, and Flt Sgt Paul 'Spike' Abbot, the pair are set to be reunited once again.

Flt Lt Howells, an officer serving with the Support Helicopter Force Headquarters at RAF Benson, met Mr Veseli after dropping into his restaurant for a farewell meal with his wife, Karen, shortly before flying to the Balkans as part of the peacekeeping effort.

While at the restaurant, Mr Veseli, told the pair about his sister, who had become a refugee. Mr Veseli refused to accept any payment for the meal, but and gave Flt Lt Howells Mrs Shdiku's previous address, and appealed to him to help trace her. After arriving in Kosovo, Flt Lt Howells passed on Mr Veseli's sister's address to Flt Sgt Abbot, who was based in Pristina.

And with the help of an Albanian translator he eventually found her, squatting with her family in a Serbian flat, as her own home had been torched.

Flt Sgt Abbot said: "I had been in Pristina for two-weeks when I was asked to try and find Sabri's sister and family. Until then the realism of that crippled nation's population seemed totally detached from the military task that we were there to achieve. Suddenly, being asked to help in a very humanitarian way, gave our role a real purpose."

Story date: Wednesday 24 November

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