Last month, in the middle of the afternoon, arsonists set two of the Serbs' houses on fire in Matarova. The peacekeepers sent a firetruck, which put out the flames, but the ambulance that came with it was unnecessary, Kujovic said. He and other Serbs interviewed in the buffer zone say tougher measures by foreign peacekeepers have improved security in recent weeks. Our houses are the first ones to be exposed now. But she still doesn't feel safe, and she won't till any of her land that is exposed to the Kosovo side for fear of being shot.
Land mines make the winding dirt tracks that twist along the border even more hazardous.
Their tractor tire just missed a mine laid in the dirt track, but the wheel of their trailer triggered it. We don't dare to venture on those roads anymore. The candidate, Milivoje Kankaras, and his wife were kidnapped from their home in Serbia, near the Kosovo border, and forced onto a tractor. The guerrillas insist that they've been forced to fight against Serbian repression of the fewer than 70,000 ethnic Albanians still living in southern Serbia proper. In recent weeks, peacekeepers in Kosovo have increased measures to stop cross-border infiltrators.