Some relief, a little joy, but mostly just scepticism from Kosovo's displaced greeted the signing of the international peace agreement yesterday by Yugoslavia. They have suffered too much and seen too many promises broken to start hoping for an immediate return home.
"Of course I wish to be back soon, but I don't believe it," said Ms Fatmire Kamberi from Pantina, one of almost 100,000 Kosovar refugees still housed in the northern Albanian town of Kukes.
Sheltering from the baking sun in a crowded camp tent next to a transistor radio broadcasting the latest news, she glanced momentarily outside at the white jet trails of NATO bombers criss-crossing an otherwise cloudless sky and declared: "I will only go back behind NATO troops, nothing else. We cannot have any Serb police in Kosovo. They burned our village and they might do it again.
"I can learn to forgive the Serbs," she added, "but only with words, not with my heart."
Distrust of President Slobodan Milosevic was universal among the refugees. "He signed many agreements over Bosnia and broke all of them," said Mr Ridvan Elezi (38), a civil engineer, who fled with his family from Prizren. "However, I think this time he may keep his word. If he wants to save his people, he must do so. If he doesn't, he will lie again."
Ms Sebiha Pllana (24), who was forced from her home in Mitrovica by Serb paramilitaries seven weeks ago, says: "Hopefully it is the beginning of the end. But first the army must withdraw from Kosovo. We cannot talk about peace while they are still there."
Her pain at being separated by the Serbs from her two brothers, who have not yet been found, was still raw. "We can never live together with the Serbs and we cannot stay part of Yugoslavia anymore. If we don't have independence, this will happen again after 10 years.
"I cannot be happy until I see my brothers, although I am only one. There are others who are suffering and I will be glad if this peace brings them back to their families."
There was also a cautious response from international humanitarian agencies.
"If this becomes a genuine peace agreement, which all parties are committed to implementing, it will still take months before the refugees can return home," said Mr Daniel Endres, the UNHCR's emergency team leader in Kukes.
The transport of refugees back to Kosovo alone is a mammoth task. Yesterday's figures showed 782,000 Kosovars were currently displaced in Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Albania, with more than half in the latter. A further 75,231 refugees have been airlifted to 28 other countries, including 603 to Ireland.
