The multinational force sent to Kosovo after the civil war has failed to meet its targets for rehousing and preparing former refugees for the worst of the winter weather, it has been conceded.
The winterisation programme for Kosovo's tens of thousands of returning refugees was intended to provide at least one warm room in damaged houses and to have no refugees remaining in tented accommodation.
On Sunday night the second serious snowfall of the winter began, covering the province in 6["] of snow, which began to freeze yesterday evening.
While the main towns and the capital, Pristina, have generally good standards of accommodation, many isolated villages which suffered devastation during the Serbian military occupation last year still lack proper facilities and accommodation.
Despite the presence of the 47,000-strong NATO force, revenge attacks on Serbian Kosovars by returned Albanians is continuing. It is estimated that more than 150,000 have been intimidated from their homes since Albanians began returning in large numbers.
UN sources say there are nightly attacks on Serbian homes across Kosovo and retaliatory violence by Serbs in areas where they still live in sufficient numbers.
At the weekend there were serious disturbances in a suburb of Pristina when a rocket was fired into a house and NATO troops and UN police had to intervene.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, became the third minister to visit Kosovo since the war when he arrived on Sunday evening. Yesterday he presented medals to the 99-strong Irish Transport Company serving with NATO.
He went to the village of Oklap, about 30km south of Pristina where 82 of the 120 homes owned by Albanian Kosovars were burned by Serbian soldiers, police and civilians last April. Irish troops distributed blankets and clothing as the Minister visited.
Mr Smith also met Albanian Kosovar families living near the Irish camp, outside the town of Lipljan. Two families, those of brothers Florim and Argin Salihu, returned to their homes after three months in a refugee camp in Canada. They have eight children between them. Two other brothers and their wives and 13 children remain in refugee camps in Britain and Canada.
Since the Irish troops set up camp at Lipljan, they have raised funds and helped to rebuild the homes of Florim and Argin.
After the visits, Mr Smith described the damage he had witnessed as a form of desecration. He said he was making a grant of £10,000 available for humanitarian assistance for the families affected.
He praised the work of the Irish Transport Company which, since it began operating five months ago, has already lifted more than 100,000 tons of equipment, food, supplies and humanitarian aid. It has carried out 34 major convoys from the Greek port of Thessalonika.
There are also daily resupply missions, and yesterday the company delivered engineering supplies for the British brigade which has charge of the southern region of Kosovo.
The Irish company is based close to one of the posts staffed by RUC officers serving with the UN police force here. The RUC officers have been invited to the Irish camp for this year's St Patrick's Day celebrations.
At yesterday's medal parade Mr Smith promised continuing support for the Irish mission in Kosovo which, he said, presented "extremely complex" problems for both peacekeeping and humanitarian agencies.
The forthcoming White Paper on Defence, he said, which might lead to a further reduction in the Defence Forces, would ensure that sufficient resources and facilities were available to allow participation in new missions such as those in Kosovo and East Timor.
A senior Army officer serving with the UN observer mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said yesterday there were serious deficiencies in providing security. Lieut Col John Ryan, military liaison officer with UNMIK, said there were nightly reports of attacks on both Serbian and Albanian homes. He said the recently reported figure of 150,000 Serbians forced from their homes was possibly an underestimate of the scale of intimidation.
Recently the UN special representative in Kosovo, Mr Bernard Kouchner, said the mission was failing to stop the mass intimidation of remaining Serbs. Those who were being forced from their homes faced an uncertain future, as few were welcome in Serbia.
"We know there is no such thing as 100 per cent security," Lieut Col Ryan said. "Every family can't have a soldier in their house. That being said, without Kfor (the NATO-led military force), there would be chaos."
He said the object of the UN and NATO missions, - to re-establish a multi-ethnic community with an elected government, was probably years away but there was no proper alternative if peace was to return.
The presence of Kfor and the UN was still generally welcome, he said, but shots had been fired at Russion Kfor troops in the strongly Albanian area around Pec in the north.