NATO troops have surrounded a Serb enclave in a town in Kosovo, waiting to arrest a group of Serb war crimes suspects hidden within it. In what has become a stand-off between NATO and the Serbs, Dutch and German tanks, armoured cars and troops are blocking all entrances to a group of houses surrounding the Orthodox church at Orahovac, in central Kosovo.
The Serbs fled here from other parts of Orahovac, and from outlying villages, fearful of attack by ethnic Albanians when Serbian forces pulled out late last month.
But NATO says that among them are between 10 and 20 Serbs wanted for war crimes committed in the town and surrounding countryside, where some of the worst of the war's atrocities have been carried out.
The Serb civilians say they are waiting for NATO to give them an escort out of the town to Serbia proper. "We just want to leave," said one woman standing at the unmarked border that separates this tiny ghetto from the rest of the town. "NATO will not give us an escort."
NATO says they will give armed escorts to the civilians - but will seize the suspects.
"We are standing by to give safe passage to the Serbs, we will escort them east and will hand them over to the British who will ensure safe passage," said Capt Mike Bos of the Dutch army. "There are between 10 and 20 people in there who are suspected of war crimes. We have blocked all roads leading out of there. We are not going to go in there, but if they try to get out, they will be arrested."
In a show of force, Dutch army self-propelled guns have been deployed in the town centre, with more armour on checkpoints leading to Orahovac manned by German troops.
Orahovac, a mostly ethnic Albanian town in the central Drenica region was the scene of numerous atrocities, some committed in the final days before the Serbian forces pulled out of the town.
NATO is refusing to give details of the suspects, but they are believed to include Serb paramilitary soldiers and police who stabbed one man to death.
Orahovac was for many months the scene of battles between guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army and Serb forces. In March and April, Serbs in the area took grim reprisals against the ethnic Albanian population during the ethnic cleansing of the region.
In one house, nicknamed the "sex dungeon", in the town centre there is graphic evidence of detention, torture and rape. In the mud floor of the basement, wooden stakes have been driven into the ground with ropes, apparently used to bind suspects, still attached.
NATO sources say the Serb civilians are being forced to stay in the enclave by the suspects, who include commanders of police and paramilitary units, and are using them as "shields".
For the suspects, the only alternative to passing NATO checkpoints is to try and escape through the woods and hills of Drenica, a stronghold for KLA units.
Orahovac has been a flashpoint since last summer, when the KLA seized the town and the Serb population fled. Serb army units then re-took the town in bloody fighting, but skirmishing continued around several villages south of the town for many months.
The town is 10 km north-east of a string of mass graves around the village of Velika Krusa, the scene of an extensive slaughter of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces in the spring.
For NATO, the decision to make arrests, even before formal war crimes indictments are issued, marks a new stage in co-operation with the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
After the Bosnian war ended, Hague prosecutors watched in frustration as the NATO-led force that arrived to garrison the country studiously avoided arresting the 78 suspects indicted, fearing retributions.
This time, say sources from The Hague, NATO has acted quickly. Keen not to let suspects get away, troops in Kosovo are now instructed to arrest people merely on suspicion of their being war criminals - and hold them for investigation.
The Hague has issued no formal indictments for the Serbs in Orahovac, with war crimes investigators still bogged down at other atrocity sites across the province.
As for Orahovac, the Serbs appear to be dug in for the long haul. They have asked for food deliveries, a request NATO is considering.