If NATO troops are dragged into a ground war in Kosovo, which is what some believe is the ultimate goal of Serbia's stop-start negotiation tactics, they will have to face defences built by Kosovars such as Hylki Rexhepi.
A maths teacher from Prizren, he is one of thousands of ethnic Albanians who have been forced to work for the Serbian army in recent weeks, digging trenches and making bunkers in preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Arrested early last month, he was taken with 130 other young men from his home town to the village of Rrenc, about six kilometres from the Macedonian border, where he spent four weeks in forced labour.
"There was no fighting with the UCK [Kosovo Liberation Army] in the area," he said. "The trenches we built were to prevent NATO attacking. The soldiers told us so. They said they were worried about the build-up of ground forces in Macedonia."
The village had already been "cleansed" of its citizens when he arrived. Floorboards and carpets from those houses left standing after the village had been burned were used as materials for the construction of bunkers.
"With five members working together, we built between two and three bunkers a day, each one 2.5 metres deep, five metres in length and three metres in width. Doors were taken from the houses to use as entrances and wood was used for the walls and roofs. Each bunker was covered with earth, with green camouflage on top. Each was also surrounded by six small bunkers, only one metre deep, for a single gunman.
"Conditions for the workmen were similar to those for prisoners held in Serbian interrogation centres. Meals were inadequate, sleeping quarters were cramped and intimidation and violence were rampant," he said.
"There was one worker who needed to go to the toilet one night because he was sick. When he came back, a soldier confronted him with a knife. He said he was going to cut his throat in revenge for the NATO attacks on his country. He was stopped only by another officer, who took the worker away and locked him in a room by himself."
Mr Hylki was released once the fortification of the village had been completed. Having met up with his family, he fled Kosovo and made the crossing into Albania last weekend. Sceptical of Serbia's agreement to withdraw all troops from Kosovo, he suggested it was merely to give it time to improve its defences against a NATO ground attack. "One cannot say how many people are still working on the trenches, but many of those who were with me were taken to other villages near the border," he said.
Another labourer, who would give only the initials of his name, GS, said he was forced to build more than 80 bunkers in the village of Vranishte, also on the road into Kosovo from Macedonia. He estimated a further 700 were built in the area by other prisoners.
"We worked all day, every day, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., or midnight sometimes. We got just a small piece of bread and water every 24 hours. There were 20 of us in a room four metres by four metres.
"The soldiers used to hit us and insult us. They got us to bless ourselves and said we had to be Christians because Muslims were animals. On one day, they beat us all while we were working. They went through us one by one, punching and kicking and insulting us. I was the oldest of the group and the last to be beaten. They said they had saved their strength for me."
Released after 43 days at the work camp, he fled across the border last week into the northern Albanian town of Kukes, where his family had gone.
He, too, suspects the peace agreement is merely a ploy by the Serbian government to delay the start of a NATO ground attack and that it has no intention of implementing the deal. "The soldiers kept saying we must work faster because NATO will be coming soon," he said.