"Everybody knows that Milosevic does not keep his agreements." Mr Skender Halili (28) speaks for many of the Kosovan refugees in Ireland when he says he and his family have no desire to return to Kosovo yet.
"It would no way be safe," he said at the Magee Army Barracks, Kildare, where he is staying with his wife, Edisa, and his brother and his wife.
He was "still sceptical" about the peace agreement and about how long it would last if President Milosevic remained in power.
"He has signed something like 70 agreements and kept maybe one. We could not believe him again, but we'll wait and see what happens after the NATO goes in. I think NATO will need to stay for at least 10 years."
Ms Adriana Berisha (24) arrived in Ireland with her husband two months ago. They came from the town of Preshevo by themselves and are not programme refugees, though like most of the 886 Kosovan refugees who are here, she is watching events at home closely. She says she can't see herself returning "for a few years".
"My husband is a policeman in Preshevo and it wouldn't be safe to go back," she says.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has no plans to make arrangements to return Kosovans to the areas they have left. According to a spokesman for the Department, Ireland is ready to receive more refugees if the UNHCR so requests, and about 140 more are expected to arrive within a fortnight.
Mr Lyndall Sachs, at the UNHCR in London, said a convoy of assistants would be sent into Kosovo to assess and stabilise the situation within 48 hours of NATO troops entering.
"Our plan is for an organised repatriation of the Kosovans, and we would hope to dissuade a massive premature repatriation, but we are not a police force and we cannot stop people moving back, if that's what they decide to do," she said.
"We have no idea what we are going to find in Kosovo. It's impossible to predict the extent of the damage, though one thing that we know we will have to contend with is mass anti-personnel mining."
She said there have been similar experiences of mass repatriation - in Liberia, Rwanda, Mozambique and Cambodia - and that every situation is different.
"Success and the speed of progress depends on the level of financial support the problem gets."
Mr Halili says the Pristina he left as an electronic engineer was all but destroyed. He is looking forward to going home eventually but isn't sure whether he would like to see his former Serb neighbours there upon his return.
"I suppose I would like to see them there, the ones who have done nothing wrong. I would like to - if they have the face, the courage to remain."
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees hopes tomorrow to send the first of what will be daily food, water, blanket and medical supplies-convoys into Kosovo, spokesman Kris Janowski said yesterday.
