Violent unrest in
Kosovo broke out on 17 March 2004, when clashes erupted between the
Kosovo Albanian majority and the
Kosovo Serb minority following a series of ethnically motivated incidents. It was the largest violent incident in the region since the
Kosovo War of 1998-99. According to reports by news sources in
Serbia, during the unrest, 19 civilians were killed (11 Kosovo Albanians and 8 Kosovo Serbs), thousands of Serbs were forced to leave their homes, 935 Serb houses, 10 public facilities (schools, health care centers and post offices) and 35
Serbian Orthodox church buildings were
desecrated, damaged or destroyed, and six towns and nine villages were ethnically cleansed. Yet, those figures are extracted from Serbian media, while the number of damaged property has not been independently verified. Hundreds of Kosovo Albanians, in return, were forced to flee northern Kosovo dominated by Kosovo Serbs.