With NATO warning of a major build-up of Serb forces in the wartorn province of Kosovo, ordinary people reacted with dismay yesterday to the news of the failure of peace talks at Rambouillet in France.
A senior NATO official feared a "final military push" by Serb forces against ethnic Albanian guerrillas, following a "very substantial build-up of Serb forces including heavy armour, artillery, infantry, special forces".
Hours after the announcement late on Wednesday that the Rambouillet talks had failed and would be reconvened in three weeks, Serb armour was on the move, with tanks blocking the main road from Kosovo to Albania. More Serb units sealed the other principal border crossing, south to Macedonia, mining a bridge at a village on the main highway from Pristina .
Officially, the Serbs say the tanks, artillery and infantry pouring into the south-western corner of Kosovo are on "exercise", but already hundreds of ethnic Albanians have fled in cars, tractors and horse-drawn carts. Meanwhile, armoured reinforcements reached the northern town of Mitrovica, where battles have raged for several days as Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels try to cut two strategic highways which link the capital, Pristina, to Belgrade.
The international powers are in disarray after the failure of intensive US, British and French efforts to persuade Serbs and ethnic Albanians to sign a peace deal in 2 1/2 weeks of talks. Originally, the West had promised air strikes against the Serbs and disruption to supply lines for the guerrillas, but in the event has taken no action beyond announcing a new round of talks in three weeks' time.
The NATO official who briefed journalists in The Hague said intelligence fears the Serbs will use the next three weeks "to eradicate opposition in Kosovo, either in conjunction with the failure of the talks or as a prelude to a resumption of the talks".
The moves follow the declaration by the US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, that air strikes by NATO cannot be threatened against the Serbs unless the ethnic Albanians agree to sign the Rambouillet peace plan.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians fear the worst: "In these three weeks there will be lots of fighting. This is a really bad situation," said a doctor, Irma (30). Dija, a 28-year-old accountant from Pristina, agreed. "I don't trust any of the guys who were at Rambouillet. I am not sure what they are doing. I' m just hoping that at the new talks we can win at least a small piece of what we want."
There was further harassment also yesterday of the 1,000-strong monitoring force of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Youths in the Serb village of Chaglavica hurled rocks through the windscreen of a jeep with four monitors inside. In recent days Serb police have beaten two monitors and stopped others at gunpoint.
This mission is beset by problems. Five months after it was set up, it has only half its assigned staff, and there are bitter rows between its US head, Mr William Walker, and his French deputy.