The spectre of civil war among Kosovo's Albanians is looming in the aftermath of this week's failed peace talks, with splits opening over whether to accept a compromise peace deal offered by the West.
NATO, already apprehensive about sending troops into the province to reinforce any peace deal, may now be faced with an additional problem, in-fighting among the guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
A furious battle, so far only verbal, has begun between hardline and moderate Albanian leaders over whether to accept the Rambouillet peace deal, which gives Kosovo's Albanians self-government, but not independence.
The West wants a decision when a second round of peace talks is convened at France's Evreux air base, close to the site of the second World War Normandy landings, on March 15th.
"I don't believe there will be a war between them, but assassinations are possible," said one Kosovo journalist, who would not be named.
While key Albanian politicians and guerrilla commanders were at the French peace conference, hardline leaders in Kosovo orchestrated what one journalist called a "putsch", attempting to seize control of the guerrilla movement.
This was led by Mr Adem Demaci, a maverick politician who spent 28 years as a political prisoner in Serbia, and who is a spokesman, but not a high official, of the KLA. He is resolutely opposed to the Rambouillet deal because it falls short of full independence for the Serbian province.
On Monday Mr Demaci flexed his political muscles, demanding that the KLA representative at the talks in France, Mr Hasim Thaci, abstain from the US-planned Rambouillet deal.
The same day, hardline allies announced that the KLA, riven by months of indecision, had at last appointed a commander-in-chief, Mr Suleyman Selimi (29), nicknamed "The Sultan", from the Drenica region.
But it remains to be seen how many of the KLA will follow the Sultan into battle, and Mr Demaci away from the peace table. "Dem aci is not that important. He is not a member of the KLA ruling council," said one senior KLA official.
In the past, KLA communiques have threatened unspecified "punishments" against those signing compromise peace deals.
In fact, the West has succeeded in wrenching the Kosovo Albanians into a new set of alliances: the bulk of the political leadership has sided with the more moderate wing of the KLA, whose leaders are based among Kosovo's large diaspora in Germany and Switzerland.
Ranged against them, in uncertain strength, are politicians and guerrillas who insist there must be no compromise on independence.
"Demaci organised a putsch during the time in Rambouillet. Now both sides have begun a struggle," said one journalist on the main newspaper, Koha.
Koha's editor-in-chief, Veton Surroi, a delegate in France, is advocating acceptance when the peace talks reconvene. "We have two choices: we go for it and get some part of a strategy of security within the West, or we go against it and we are left like the Kurds."
But away from the bright lights of Pristina, rebel soldiers are worried that they will be "sold out" by deals made in faraway countries of which they know little.
"I don't care what is happening in these talks. I just want there to be independence here," said one commander near a rebel headquarters at Dragobila.
International monitors in the province have other worries, with large Serb armoured formations arriving in Kosovo's southern town of Prizren and rebel forces in the Suva Reka region threatening to attack army convoys.
"We have been seeing a lot of convoys. Yesterday 18 artillery pieces and some tanks were moved out of Prizren." said Brig Gen Michel Maisonneuve of Canada, a senior monitor. "We are patrolling 24 hours a day and last night we started our first patrol at night. It's extremely tense."
Reuters adds:
"The interim agreement is aimed at stopping the bloodshed in Kosovo and making its institutions function . . . as well as opening up prospects for Kosovo and its people," according to Mr Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo who was elected "president" by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian community. Mr Rugova, a popular figure in the West for his advocacy of non-violent protests, said the deal was the only way to ensure the international community would help protect the people.