2004 unrest in Kosovo

Ethnic violence in Kosovo

On 17–18 March 2004, violence erupted in the partitioned town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, leaving hundreds wounded and at least 14 people dead. The unrest was precipitated by reports in the Kosovo Albanian media which falsely claimed that three Kosovo Albanian boys had drowned after being chased into the Ibar River by a group of Kosovo Serbs. UN peacekeepers and NATO troops scrambled to contain a gun battle between Serbs and Albanians. Serbs call the event the March Pogrom , while the Albanians call it the March Unrest
International courts in Pristina have prosecuted people who attacked several Serbian Orthodox churches, handing down prison sentences ranging from 21 months to 16 years. Some of the destroyed churches have since been rebuilt by the Government of Kosovo in cooperation with the Serbian Orthodox Church and the UN mission in Kosovo.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was an ethnic Albanian organisation which had as its founding goal unification of Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation. Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to the Yugoslav army retaliating with a crackdown in the region resulting in violence and population displacements. The bloodshed, ethnic cleansing of thousands of Albanians driving them into neighbouring countries and the potential of it to destabilize the region provoked intervention by international organizations and agencies, such as the United Nations, NATO and INGOs. Post conflict Kosovo was placed under an international United Nations framework with the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) overseeing administrative affairs and the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) dealing with defence. Within post conflict Kosovo Albanian society, calls for retaliation for previous violence done by Serb forces during the war circulated through public culture. In 2004, prolonged negotiations over Kosovo's future status, sociopolitical problems and nationalist sentiments resulted in the Kosovo unrest.

On 15 March 2004 an 18 year old Serb, Jovica Ivić, was shot and wounded in a drive by shooting in the village of Čaglavica in the central region of Kosovo.

On 16 March, three KLA war veterans associations organized widespread demonstrations in ethnic Albanian cities and towns, protesting the arrests of former KLA leaders on war crime charges, including the February arrests of four commanders. The pro KLA, anti UNMIK protests, with 18,000 protesters, lay the basis for the following demonstrations sparked by the sensational reports of drowning of three Albanian children.

On 16 March, three Albanian children drowned in the Ibar River in the village of Çabër, near the Serb community of Zubin Potok. A fourth boy survived. It was speculated that he and his friends had been chased into the river by Serbs in revenge for the shooting of Ivić the previous day, but this claim has not been proven. UN police spokesman Neeraj Singh said the surviving boy had been under intense pressure from ethnic Albanian journalists who had suggested what he should say. His version of events differed from that of two other children who had also been in the river, Singh told a news conference in Pristina. The spokesperson said there were "very significant" inconsistencies in the accounts given by the child during two separate interviews, and a lack of corroboration of his story. "In fact, it is logically at odds in several respects with other evidence," Mr. Singh said. The UN found no evidence that Serbs were responsible for drowning the three Albanian children. By one estimate, more than 50,000 people participated in the riots. The Legal System Monitoring Section of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (“the OSCE”) has closely monitored the investigations and trials from March 2004 until present. With its monitoring of 73 cases (Municipal, District and Minor Offences Courts) pending between December 2005 and March 2008, the OSCE now follows up on a first report of December 2005.

In Čaglavica, 12,000 Kosovo Albanian rioters tried to storm the Serb populated areas. KFOR peacekeepers from Sweden, Norway and Finland led by Swedish Lieutenant Colonel Hans Håkansson created a blockade by using tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades, in order to keep the two groups apart. A truck was driven by a Kosovo Albanian at full speed towards the barricade in an attempt to penetrate the line. After firing warning shots at the truck, the peacekeepers had to use deadly force to avoid friendly casualties, and shot the driver. 16 peacekeepers were injured, and 13 had to be evacuated. Another KFOR unit consisting of mostly Swedish soldiers also participated in defending Čaglavica that day, supported by people from the barracks who normally worked with non military tasks. Lieutenant Colonel Hans Håkansson, who commanded 700 people during the unrest, reported that the fighting went on for 11 hours, and that many collapsed due to dehydration and injuries while struggling to fend off waves of rioters. In total, 35 people were injured while defending the town.

Following the attacks in Čaglavica, the mob of Albanians turned their attention on the few remaining Serbs living in Pristina in the YU Program apartments. The apartments came under attack after the mob of Albanians blocked all of the entrances and set fire to the ground floors. Serbs who tried to flee the apartments were shot at by firearms or stabbed by members of the crowd. The mob began to loot apartments and were chanting pro Kosovo Liberation Army chants and calling for the killing of Serbs. It took KFOR (mainly Irish Soldiers) and UNMIK police over 6 hours to evacuate the Serbs who were under constant fire from armed Albanians. Following the evacuation the crowd began to converge on the Church of the Christ Savour burning and damaging the facade and inside.

Albanians rioted in the city of Peja, attacking UN offices. One Albanian was killed by UN police. Serb returnees were attacked at Belo Polje.

Albanians and KFOR were engaged in gunfights in the town of Lipjan. Four Serbs were murdered, while Serbs taking refuge in the local Orthodox church were attacked.

KFOR troops closed Kosovo's borders with the remainder of Serbia and Montenegro and the UN suspended flights in and out of the province. NATO announced on 18 March that it would send another 1,000 troops, 750 of them from the United Kingdom, to reinforce the 18,500 troops already there. The UN and European Union both appealed for calm, calling on local leaders to restrain their supporters. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged both sides to cooperate with the peacekeeping forces but pointedly reminded the Kosovo Albanians that they had a responsibility "to protect and promote the rights of all people within Kosovo, particularly its minorities". An Austrian OSCE official called the events an orchestrated plan to drive out the remaining Serbs, while one anonymous UNMIK official reportedly referred to the event as Kosovo's Kristallnacht. The commander of NATO's South Flank, Admiral Gregory G. Johnson, said on 19 March that the violence verged on ethnic cleansing of Serbs by Albanians. On 20 March, Kosovo's UN administrator, Harri Holkeri, told journalists that "Maybe the very beginning was spontaneous but after the beginning certain extremist groups had an opportunity to orchestrate the situation and that is why we urgently are working to get those perpetrators into justice." According to Amnesty International, at least 27 people died—11 Albanians and 16 Serbs—and over 1,000 were injured while some 730 houses belonging to minorities, mostly Kosovo Serbs, as well as 36 Orthodox churches, monasteries and other religious and cultural sites were damaged or destroyed. In less than 48 hours, 4,100 minority community members were newly displaced (more than the total of 3,664 that had returned throughout 2003), of whom 82% were Serbs and the remaining 18% included Romani (and Ashkali) as well as an estimated 350 Albanians from the Serb majority areas of Kosovska Mitrovica and Leposavić. Denmark pledged to send an additional 100 peacekeepers to the region after the violence began. Germany's Defence Minister Peter Struck said on 19 March that a further 600 peacekeepers were being sent to join German forces in Kosovo, with deployment to the region beginning on 20 March. The U. S. State Department also repeated its call to stop the violence, stating: "The escalating violence threatens the process of democratization and reconciliation in Kosovo and must end."