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 19 people died — 11 Albanians and eight 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
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
2004 unrest in Kosovo