We live round the corner from UCK HQ, formerly the town's psychiatric centre. From there the lads under Rrahman Rahma have so far managed to control most events. A dozen cooled over 3,000 wild teens when the power went off at a pop concert in a dangerous venue, and a mere six stopped a riverbank rampage in minutes.

But all that's dependent on popular respect, and now we are in a time when the commanders wrangle. It depends, too, on the new corps, and the K-For peacekeeping troops, taking great care in handling the agitation now growing among Serbs demanding a force of their own.

Mitrovice's UCK boyos turned out for the demilitarisation parade in Pristina but said a real goodbye to their combat kit when they reburied their dead here. Somedrove from HQ in Rrahman Rahma's new BMW and some in a knackered lorry, but more walked through the rustic lanes, swinging their arms with the gaudy insignia badge.

Ask these thin young foot soldiers what they will do now, and they are unsure of any future. The brightest have applied to the police academy, but that leaves the town with several hundred who were strong men in their clans.

--The Observer News Service