By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Saklat, south-east Turkey

Some say the compensation payments do not go far enough

Saklat was once a prosperous place, famous for its cattle-breeders.

The village nestled in the improbably green fields of south-east Turkey. The windows of its stone cottages opened onto glorious vistas of snow-capped mountains.

But 13 years ago, the villagers of Saklat were forced into internal exile, like thousands more throughout the region.

They were caught up in a conflict that pitched the Turkish military against separatist Kurdish rebels.

As the families fled their houses, accused of collaborating with the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the village was torched by soldiers.

Today, much of Saklat still lies shattered. But the village is rising again slowly from the ruins.

Payments

Ahmet has finally returned to his village after more than a decade away.

Preparing a patch of land to plant aubergines, the elderly man explains how he spent the long years of enforced exile chasing seasonal work to feed his 10 children.

"Earning money was tough. I picked cotton or sugar cane - and collected nuts. I couldn't afford to send all my children to school," Ahmet says, leaning on his pitchfork.

"But the land where you are born is sweet to you. I had to come back."

Ahmet is one of a growing number of villagers helped to return home by a new law on compensation.

The law was passed by the Turkish parliament two years ago, but the residents of Saklat are among the first to receive payouts.

The legislation was enacted after the European Court of Human Rights was flooded with claims from Kurds in the south-east who lost their homes and their livelihoods in the fighting.

The moral damage we suffered is so much more than our physical losses Cuma Yalcin

Those applications have now been shelved, while the court watches to see how Turkey's own law is implemented.

Anxious to leave city life behind, Cuma Yalcin borrowed money to rebuild his house in Saklat a couple of years ago.

He could not afford to replace the same rustic stones, so the new house is concrete, painted salmon pink. Builders are currently putting the finishing touches to a large barn for his cattle beside it.

"Without the compensation money I would never have been able to build this barn," Mr Yalcin says. "The money really helped. It felt like dressing on a wound."

There are grumblings of discontent even here.

Mr Yalcin says his cattle alone was worth three times the compensation he received for his property. Another neighbour is so furious at the low value placed on his home by the state assessment team that he has refused the cash.

But the villagers are worried about more than bricks and mortar.

Moral damage

Almost every man here has a tale to tell of repeat arrests, interrogation and torture during the conflict. They were accused of supporting the PKK - though no charges were ever brought.

Piles of rocks mark where families plan to build houses

Then torn from their land and their livestock, they were crammed into slums in nearby Diyarbakir. Everyday survival became a struggle.

The European Court paid compensation for moral and psychological losses. The Turkish law does not.

"We will fight for damages for all the losses we suffered," Mr Yalcin says, sipping tea on the floor of his pink house.

"After everything we went through in the village, our children started sniffing glue in the city; people became prostitutes out of poverty. The moral damage we suffered is so much more than our physical losses."

There are dozens of piles of rocks dotted around Saklat, marking the spots where families plan to rebuild their homes once their payments come through.

They could have a long wait. Thirty-two thousand people have filed claims in Diyarbakir region alone: only 10% have been processed; other regions are far slower still.

"We expect to have finished processing all applications by the end of May and complete all payments by August," explains the governor of Diyarbakir, Efkan Ala. He hopes the compensation will be seen as a positive gesture by the state.

"We've only been slow so far because we've been working very carefully to avoid mistakes."

Neutrality

Local lawyers call his estimate too optimistic.

They say the law has improved greatly on paper - removing the need for claimants to provide detailed proof of damage, for example. But they still have serious concerns about its implementation.

"The commission dealing with the claims is not neutral," argues Mahsuni Karaman of Diyarbakir Bar Association.