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On Tuesday, President Clinton came to a Kosovo that is under the protection of thousands of well-armed NATO troops and U.N. police, and urged the Kosovar Albanians -- almost all of whom have returned from refugee camps in Macedonia and Albania -- to resist the impulse for revenge against the province's dwindling Serbian and non-Albanian population.

"You can never forget the injustice that was done to you," Clinton told a crowd of cheering Kosovar Albanians gathered in an unheated school gymnasium in the central Kosovo town of Urosevac. "No one can force you to forgive what was done to you. But you must try."

The crowd stopped smiling when Clinton added: "You cheered for us when we came in, because when you were being oppressed we stood by you. We won the war, but listen: Only you can win the peace. The time for fighting is passed."

It's a message not everyone in Kosovo wants to hear.

In the five months since a NATO-led peacekeeping force for Kosovo -- known as "KFOR" -- moved into Kosovo and Serb forces withdrew, well over half the province's Serbian population has fled, often chased out of their homes by ethnic Albanians threatening to kill them if they remained.

International aid agencies say they believe that only around 50,000 Serbs remain in the province, down from over 200,000 before the war. Romas (or Gypsies), Muslim Slavs and other non-Albanians have also been terrorized into leaving by ethnic Albanians who accuse them of collaborating with the Serbs.

Trying to protect Kosovo's ethnic minorities "is one of our most difficult tasks," said Paul Ghedini of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Pristina Tuesday. "I think ... the exodus of non-Albanians has stopped at this point."

"But incidents still occur, too frequently," Ghedini added. "We are still seeing a great deal of movement of the population, non-Albanians going to towns like Gjilane (in the American sector in the southeast of Kosovo) and Mitrovica, where they feel there is an already established community of Serbs and Romas."

Although the international community has committed some 45,000 troops, 1,700 international police and billions of dollars to Kosovo, it has so far been unable to halt almost daily acts of violence, arson and threats against the province's remaining ethnic minorities. Nor has it been able to stop a tide of petty crime, organized crime, and smuggling that seems to have increased since control of Kosovo's provincial borders was transferred to the United Nations and KFOR.

Some analysts point to the United Nations' excessively bureaucratic operating and hiring procedures as one reason the agency, charged with policing and administering the province, has been so slow to deploy and take control.

"Say someone gets beat up on the street," says Fron Nazi, an Albanian expert and the Pristina director of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting. "The only place you can find a police officer is at a pizzeria. No one is sure where to go. The U.N. has spent more time setting up mini-U.N. stations rather than actually taking advantage of the goodwill of people -- to provide them secure lives."

"Here we are, it's practically winter," Nazi continued, "and [the United Nations] has still failed to set up the structure to implement their program for development of society and failed to provide a structure where Albanians can turn if they have a problem."

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