2004 unrest in Kosovo

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.