The death of two Gurkhas and two civilians yesterday from a landmine or booby-trap as they were clearing ammunition from a school south-west of the Kosovan capital Pristina, highlights the danger facing the refugees who are rushing to get home.
Hundreds of thousands of mines and booby-traps litter Kosovo, according to estimates by Kfor, the NATO-led peacekeeping force. Four refugees were killed by landmines in the first three days of the return, and five or six injuries are being reported every day, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
The Yugoslav army was required to give Kfor maps of the mines it laid in border areas before it pulled out of Kosovo. Although Kfor officials report some compliance with this, the Serb police have not co-operated.
Most mines are thought to have been left by the police and paramilitaries and hidden in farmhouses and schools as booby-traps, or put in fields. Staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found a booby-trap in their offices in Pec when they reopened it last week.
The Gurkhas were not demining the school when they died yesterday - they were removing ammunition. NATO's policy is only to mark and clear mines if they impede Kfor's security. Indeed, NATO shocked aid workers and UN humanitarian officials by announcing a few days ago that it would only help to remove mines if they were found on major roads.
With huge numbers of refugees starting to stream home, both NATO and UN officials acknowledge that mine clearance is a top priority. But a row is going on over who is to lift them, and who is to pay.
Brig John Hoskinson, the head of Kfor's demining unit, initially told reporters that Kfor could not remove every mine, but "we will ensure that the towns and villages to which the refugees return will have a higher priority in mine clearance than perhaps the fields that adjoin them". His broad approach was later countermanded at the top.
Mr Pieter Feith, NATO's director of crisis management, stunned the heads of various UN agencies at a meeting in Geneva last week by saying NATO would only mark landmines and unexploded ordinance "in so far as military security is concerned".