Eyewitness: Kosovo Serbs living in fear

Seven Serbs were killed in a bus bomb on Friday

The BBC's Paul Anderson in northern Kosovo examines the attempt to keep a peace which is under severe strain

The call to protest sounds out across the small Serbian enclave of Gracanica, not far from Pristina.

Several thousand frightened and angry people respond and gather in the square by the village hall.

Their leaders speak for all of them when they condemn the violence - blaming both the Albanians and the international community that has befriended them.

Belgrade flags were at half mast after the bomb

In recent days, three Serbian policemen were killed in a land mine attack on their vehicle, and seven Serb civilians died and many more were injured in a bomb attack on a bus convoy near the town of Podujevo.

Peacekeepers criticised

In their impotence and frustration, the Serbs have turned on the peacekeepers for failing to protect them.

"We've been having regular meetings with K-For since their deployment," said one man, "but we get the same answers and no results".

In the small pockets where the Serbs live near the capital, Pristina, they are in mourning. The increasingly sophisticated attacks by Albanian extremists have stoked terror.

According to Mira Stozic, it is the start of something much worse.

Relatives grieve at the funeral of one of the three Serb policemen

"The bus is not the only one and the first one, it's just one among a lot of bad things that happened to us, and I believe that many similar things will happen in the future," she said.

"Spring is coming and every single terrorist action is much better to do in the spring than during the winter. So, that's what we expect now."

Driven out

At the restaurants and cafes in Gracanica, the talk is of whether to stay and risk death, or leave and bend to the wishes of people widely believed to have entered a new, ruthless and determined phase of their campaign.

Alexander - he was too scared to give his full name - has decided to stay for now, because he doesn't want to give up a good job.

"They are trying to scare all civilian people, to force them to move, to force them to go to Serbia," he said.

"They are trying to carve their own country with no minorities or anyone else living here. They are doing a good job, because a lot of people are scared - they are scared and thinking about moving."

Ethnic Albanian rebels on patrol in Kosovo

K-For - which still accompanies Serbs in and out of Kosovo - has promised to increase security in the region. But according to Brigadier General Rob Fry who commands the British troops, the Serbs need patience.

Delicate negotiations

"What we must all understand is the magnitude of the challenge inside Kosovo," said General Fry.

"This is to take something that was an utterly failed state, and to try and establish it as a pluralistic, liberal democracy in the 21st Century. It doesn't happen in 18 months."

But from the other side there is much defiance and hatred.

The Albanians throw their insults and abuse from behind a line of K-For defence protecting the Serb community.

Eighteen months after they moved in, the peacekeepers must be wondering what peace there is to keep in Kosovo.