The Djakove they came home to has been turned largely to rubble, the alleyways and cobblestone streets of its old quarter incinerated in a night and day of frenzied revenge by Serbian paramilitaries following the first NATO bombs. Djakove's streets are dangerous. The tanks and armored personnel carriers of the Italian KFOR battalion patrol the streets. Five Italian soldiers have been killed, four by land mines. It is known but not openly discussed that the weapons they do hand over will be replaced, or already have been.
Automatic gunfire rings out at night throughout town.
Now and then one hears return fire. This town and the mass graves surrounding it are quickly becoming a focal point for The Hague's war crimes tribunal investigations. Officials, bound to silence by the rules of legal conduct in the case against the Serbian leadership, won't say why. Its spokesman in Pristina, James Lansdale, will only hint at the need to prove how the chains of command among local Serbs lead to Belgrade. They must go to every grave so they can have a record of the Serbs' crimes in Kosovo.