For nine months Kosovska Mitrovica has been experiencing a permanent crisis and daily tensions. Since the arrival of the international peacekeeping forces conditions in the town have deteriorated substantially. Some 7,000 refugees came to the northern part of the town and still remain there. The population of the town is 12,000. Albanian extremists have been attempting to cleanse Serbs from this part of the province as well.

Over the past nine months 23 Serbs have been murdered, and 28 Serbs, one Muslim and two Roma have been kidnapped. Over 70 inhabitants of Mitrovica were injured in terrorist attacks. Serbs have been exiled from 34 villages of Vucitrn municipality. In the southern part of town there are only two Christian Orthodox priests with their families left. They live in a church, protected by French armored personnel carriers.

In the northern part of the town, however, in addition to the Serbs, there are also 2,000 Albanians.

The chief problem faced by the town is basic security, which KFOR and the international police failed to provide. The northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica is relatively safe, though there are constant threats from terrorist attacks and diversions. The Serbs in the villages of Gojbulja, Slatina, Banjska, Grace, Miroce, Priluzje, Banje and Suvo Grlo, however, live in a reservation. They can go from one village to another only if they are escorted by KFOR. They cannot work their fields, it is hard to deliver food and medicine to them, they have no power, no water, no telephone lines, and only elementary education is accessible to them. They live in constant fear and lack any perspective. The villagers of Slatina are under such pressure by Albanians that they are on the verge of giving up.

After the withdrawal of all state institutions of Serbia from the region, the Serbs in northern Kosovo were left on their own. The international peacekeeping forces have failed in demonstrating any willingness or capability of protecting them. The only thing they could do was organize themselves so as to protect their families and property. Only well-organized Serbs could force KFOR and UNMIK to protect them. This is exactly what has happened in Kosovska Mitrovica so far.

It is not easy to organize in such conditions where Albanian extremists have changed their uniforms but not their strength and goals, when Serbs are demonized and bashed on a daily basis by the news media and politicians alike, when one is without any economic assistance and lives in constant fear. The resistance of the Serbs is a desperate reaction to physical threats to their very survival. Well-aware that fleeing to economically destroyed and politically disunited Serbia would not solve their problems, they decided to stay and defend themselves, armed solely with their courage and intelligence.

The methods used to pressurize Serbs in this part of Kosovo have become more complex and devious. Constant threats by terrorists which maintain the insecurity of citizens at a constantly high level are coupled with political pressure by the international community. There are attempts to artificially equalize the guilt for each incident by even-handedly blaming both sides. The presence of Serb para-military forces is being invented, and it is being alleged that people working on behalf of the Serbian regime are causing all the trouble. These are only cheap attempts to disqualify an entire people, its leaders and its essential demands.

The international community does not want to face up to the fact that only Serbs are endangered in Kosovo, that only Serbs are the victims, that Serb property is being looted and that a process aimed at eradicating the Serb presence in the province, their home of long standing, is under way. The blame is thus being laid on the victims.

Such an attitude on the part of the international peacekeeping forces is aptly taken advantage of by Albanian extremists who are doing their best to present the international community with a fait accomplu -- a Kosovo without Serbs and the creation of an Albanian state on Serb soil. They are trying to apply the so-called Croatian scenario -- to exile all Serbs and to then initiate the process of their symbolic return, once they are incapacitated of organizing themselves. The only serious obstacle to such an outcome is Kosovska Mitrovica, and this is why the town is a slap in the face to Albanian terrorists and extremists.

The Serb community in Kosovska Mitrovica and northern Kosovo has demonstrated much good will for cooperation with the international peacekeeping forces and a high degree of tolerance. We are not provoking any incidents, we are not increasing tensions. But, the Serbs should not be expected to accept a devastating scenario demanding that they leave their homes and head towards even greater uncertainty. Our policy is a policy of survival, and this is the only program within which we are seeking solutions. Our survival poses no threat to anyone. The most important issue is to ensure safety and not deprive the Serbs of their rights. In a safe environment perspectives will be found easily and civilized communication would be established between different ethnic communities. Of course, we should not nurture the illusion that antagonisms will disappear overnight, that crimes will be forgotten, and that a great harmony will immediately begin. No one wields a magic wand of that kind, least of all the international community which acts in Kosovo in a biased manner and is subtly backing Albanian separatism and turning a deaf ear to the basic demands of the Serbs.

As a first step, conditions should be established to make possible the return of Serbs who fled in the face of Albanian terror. Once it does that, the international community can finally say it has begun to resolve the Kosovo crisis. To resolve the problem, the international community has to make a true diagnosis, and only then apply the proper cure.

1. The international community should establish what has indeed happened in Kosovo since the arrival of KFOR, and who and in what way endangers human rights in the province. Who and in what ways has committed crimes against the Serbs? Those who carried out and issued orders for crimes to be committed against Serbs should be discovered and brought to justice. This is the first step in ending the terror.

2. The international community should publicly say which ethnic community is threatened and make proposals as to how this community should be protected.

3. The best way to prevent further pressure and to resolve outstanding questions is to secure the return of exiled Serbs. It is our conviction that, after nine months, it is high time to prepare a comprehensive plan for the return of exiles. This plan should specify a timetable, responsibilities of organizations and individuals, physical protection of the designated areas and full supervision of the entire plan.

Once this plan is started, the Serbs will be convinced that the intentions of the international community are good and their integration into a new society in Kosovo -- a region enjoying broad autonomy within Serbia and Yugoslavia -- will be enhanced.

In a bid to earn a good mark for an obviously failed mission, international community representatives keep making rash and wrong moves. Their latest mistake is their plan to conduct a census prior to elections and insistence on the Serbs' participation in the Interim Administrative Council of Kosovo. In this way the Serb question would be eliminated from the agenda, because the current conditions, the continuation of ethnic cleansing and a purely Albanian Kosovo, would be made legitimate. This is why we will not enter the Interim Administrative Council of Kosovo, or accept the holding of a census or elections as long as the exiled Serbs are not safely back in their homes.

(The author is President of the executive board of the Serb National Counsil in Kosovska Mitrovica)