I'm sharing this from memory, so I wouldn't be surprised if I forget something.
In 2004, two Albanian children drowned and very quickly the story
spread through Kosovo that they had been chased into the river by
Serbian teenagers.
Shortly afterwards, a Serbian waitress at a cafe in Pec was brutally beaten, allegedly by two Albanian girls. She later died.
In both cases it was eventually proven the other ethnic group was not involved in any way, shape or form.
These events were abused by the media in Kosovo and Serbia and consequently riots erupted across Kosovo.
Public comments from officials both sides fueled the conflict and within a matter of days, Kosovo was completely shut down.
The Serbs, who were far outnumbered, quickly went into hiding while
protests grew into riots, and riots into targetted campaigns of
destruction.
In a series of events we have seen many times (the Mohammed cartoons,
race riots in Australia, religious riots in Northern Ireland, skinhead
riots in Russia, etc, etc, etc.) extremists took hold of people's
emotions and led them down a dark path.
On March 17, 2004, more than 35 Orthodox Churches in Kosovo were either
damaged or completely destroyed. The Serbian district of Prizren, one
of the only multiethnic cities that survived the Milosevic era, finally
fell. The Serbian quarter was razed and burned and thousands of Serbian
civilians were forced to flee for their lives.
The situation was not as dramatic, but was present, everywhere in Kosovo.
In Serbia, protests also turned into riots in cities across the
country. Violent attacks against non-Serbs escalated, especially in
Vojvodina and the Sandzak. Belgrade's only mosque was burned down, as
was another mosque in Nis.
Airports in Serbia and Kosovo were blocked with tourists and
international workers trying to flee. All signs indicated a full scale
war was well on its way.
Then, slowly, emotions began to calm and the situation began to improve.