International and domestic courts in Pristina have prosecuted people who have taken part in the violence, including those who attacked several Serbian Orthodox churches, handing down prison sentences ranging from 21 months to 16 years.

[14][15][16] Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to the Yugoslav army retaliating with a crackdown in the region resulting in violence and population displacements.

[14][17][18] 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.

[21] Within post-conflict Kosovo Albanian society, calls for retaliation for previous violence done by Serb forces during the war circulated through public culture.

[23][24] 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.

[29] On 17 and 18 March 2004, a wave of violent riots swept through Kosovo, triggered by two incidents perceived as ethnically motivated acts.

Peacekeepers from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) blockaded the bridge, using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to keep the crowds apart.

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.

[34] 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.

[36] 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.

[30] It took KFOR (mainly Irish Soldiers) and UNMIK police over 6 hours to evacuate the Serbs who were under constant fire from armed Albanians.

When they were ordered to evacuate, the Italian KFOR troops did not approach the church, leaving the evacuees vulnerable to attacks; 11 required first aid treatment for their injuries.

[30] Every Serb home and institution in Kosovo Polje was burned, including the main post office, school, hospital and church.

[30] Serb homes and the Serbian Orthodox church in Gjakova were destroyed by Albanian rioters after the residents were evacuated and Italian KFOR withdrew.

[30] On 17 March, ethnic Albanians started attacking the Serb settlement in Prizren, including the Seminary, and reportedly there was no UNMIK, Kosovo Police and KFOR present there at the time.

Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica strongly criticized the failure of NATO and the UN to prevent the violence, and called for a state of emergency to be imposed on Kosovo.

Nebojsa Čović, the Serbian government's chief negotiator on matters relating to Kosovo, was sent to Mitrovica on 18 March in a bid to calm the situation there.

Serbian security forces also guarded the border between Serbia and Kosovo in a bid to prevent demonstrators and paramilitaries from entering the province to foment further unrest.

[56] The Serbs, represented by the "Union of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija", described the ordeal as "genocide" in a letter sent to the Serbian and Russian patriarchs, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Serbian government, where, besides that, they quote the burning of seven villages during the World War II-German occupation to the "several hundreds" burnt "under the rule of the troops of Christian Europe and America" and according to which the "occupation of Kosovo surpasses all we had to sustain under fascism."

[57] In 2011, seven years after the incident, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić spoke at the Wheaton College in Chicago, US:[2] "In less than 72 hours, 35 churches and monasteries were set on fire, many of which date back to the 14th century or even further away in history, which represents an irretrievable loss for the mankind.

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.

[64][65] Human Rights Watch pointed specifically to the example of French peacekeepers in the village of Svinjare, accusing them of not helping besieged Serbs even though their main base was a few hundred metres away.

[65] 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.