French peacekeepers put the Devic monastery under guard after they said Kosovo Liberation Army fighters terrorized a priest and several nuns for four days, from Sunday to Wednesday.

The KFOR troops said KLA rebels vandalized centuries-old murals and paintings in the chapel and stole two cars and all the monastery's food.

In addition, a French soldier said, the KLA stripped the clothes from a young nun and took her into a back room. The soldier said she was hysterical and appeared to be traumatized when she was found.

When asked if the woman had been raped, the French soldier responded to CNN, "What do you think?"

The 15th-century monastery is one of the shrines from which the Serbian nation draws its cultural identity. Part of the agreement that ended NATO's 11-week bombing campaign provides for a handful of Yugoslav troops to return to the province later to protect sites like Devic.