ABSTRACT
In two days of riots throughout Kosovo’s municipalities in March 2004, 19 people were killed, 954 wounded, and 4,100 displaced. On top of that, 730 houses were damaged and 36 Orthodox Churches, monasteries and other religious sites were burned, looted or damaged. More than 50,000 Albanians took part in these disturbances. Neither the lightly armed UN International Police nor the lightly armed Kosovo Police Service had the capacity to stem the tide of violence. The heavily armed Kosovo Force (KFOR) did not offer much of a deterrent to the rioters. This disorder took place just two days after the UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping had concluded a visit to Kosovo by remarking on the UN’s visible progress in providing security.1 It may well be that effective and democratic local government would have provided mechanisms to reduce or eliminate the scope and consequences of this violence.
